Isle of Wight Pride: Organisers blown away by support (video and HD photos)

Congratulations to all those involved with last weekend’s first ever Isle of Wight Pride event.

It was incredibly heart-warming to see such huge support from the Island for the event, with the streets of Ryde lined with happy faces cheering on those taking part in the parade on Saturday morning.

Widespread support
There were people of all ages taking part, from young to older, with many coming from the mainland to show their support for the first event of its kind here on the Island.

The parade made its way down to the Esplanade where it arrived at free event taking place next to the Harbour on Ryde beach – the first Pride event in the country to take place on a beach – with live entertainment running throughout the day, as well as a number of inspirational speakers.

The event was the culmination of a lot of hard work from a very small circle of volunteers who deserve a very large pat on the back.

Teampride: “Blown away”
On behalf of the organisers, Matthew Bundy told OnTheWight,

“TeamPride were absolutely blown away by what happened on Saturday. None of us could have expected that level of reaction and response from the Island’s community.
“It was amazing to see people of all backgrounds, of all ages and of all sexualities coming together and celebrating Love.
“It was a lot of hard work, especially in the last three weeks in which many of the volunteer committee members worked around the clock to make sure that all the paperwork was submitted and the plans were in place to make this the event that the Island deserved.
“We want to thank the Islands community for the support they have shown and we are really excited about planning for 2018 already!”

HD photos
We grabbed some photos during the day, which you can see below. Our video gives you a flavour of the atmosphere and just how busy it was.