Pride in London
LS Events served as the lead event production and delivery agency for Pride in London 2024, the UK’s largest and most diverse Pride event.
Attracting an estimated 1.5 million visitors annually, this is the capital's largest single-day event in central London, demanding a huge amount of coordination across its expansive footprint.
Celebration of Unity
The event's impressive scale included the country's largest parade, a vibrant procession of over 35,000 participants from around 500 LGBTQ+ community groups and businesses, travelling from Park Lane to Whitehall. Beyond the parade, LS Events expertly managed six stages and spaces situated in some of London's most iconic landmarks. Our capability was showcased through the successful mobilisation of over 1,500 operational staff and volunteers, ensuring safe and inclusive delivery by leveraging our expertise in technical production, intricate site design, and comprehensive crowd management.
Dedicated Expertise
Successfully managing the diverse and complex sites for Pride in London across the heart of the capital necessitates extensive advance planning and seamless coordination with a multitude of external agencies.
LS Events meticulously designed, planned, and oversaw the build and de-rig of all temporary infrastructure – including stages, crowd barriers, power distribution, sanitation, and essential site facilities – throughout the vast event footprint, from the parade route to the satellite stages and spaces. This intricate site management was underpinned by robust and detailed advance communications with critical partners such as Westminster City Council, Transport for London, The Royal Parks, and the GLA. This involved a multitude of dedicated subgroup meetings conducted throughout the year to meticulously coordinate planning, site walks, and address specific operational requirements.
These extensive pre-event discussions were fundamental to securing necessary permissions, coordinating complex road closures and traffic management strategies, ensuring emergency access, and guaranteeing that the event's physical presence integrated smoothly with the city's ongoing operations and the demands on public space. This proactive agency liaison in the planning phase was crucial for enabling effective and safe site management during delivery.
The sheer scale and complexity of delivering Pride in London mandates unparalleled in-depth coordination with all essential agencies and stands as a true testament to the expertise and passion of our dedicated team.
Collaborative, Community-First Approach
Our approach to Pride in London is fundamentally collaborative and community-first, always keeping the importance of Pride and the sensitivities of the diverse communities involved at the forefront of our planning and delivery.
We implemented tailored safeguarding strategies designed to address specific community needs – andensured community-specific content was covered in briefings for all staff and contractors – guaranteeing awareness of client expectations. This included working with Prestige, an LGBTQ+ owned security company, leveraging their expertise to coordinate responses to sensitive issues within the event footprint. We also increased the female security presence at the LGBTQIA+ Women’s Stage to create a more comfortable and secure environment, and collaborated with MPS in coordinating responses to potential opposition groups, including the management of protest pens.
Real-Time Operational Command & Control
Ensuring the safety and security of millions is at the core of LS Events' delivery. We implemented a comprehensive safety framework, including a detailed Event Safety Management Plan and rigorous risk assessments, which underpinned the effective real-time management critical to navigating the ever-shifting environment of central London hosting 1.5 million people on event day.
LS Events established and managed the central ECR, serving as the primary hub for all operational communications and decision-making. We oversaw a multi-tiered command structure, including the ELT, to ensure clear reporting lines and swift escalation protocols.
Utilising extensive radio networks and communication systems, our experienced team monitored all aspects of the event, maintained situational awareness through channels like CCTV feeds, and coordinated the responses of thousands of operational staff, as well as external agencies, including direct coordination with external agency control rooms such as those operated by TfL and LAS, and maintaining direct communications with the BST Hyde Park control room to coordinate any incidents across the pan-London footprint.
This robust command and control system enabled proactive management of crowd dynamics, effective response to incidents, and the ability to implement contingency plans or changes in the operational alert status efficiently, ensuring the safety and smooth running of the event in real-time.