Basildon Pride Festival is on Saturday 5 September, and the day starts an hour before the festival does. The parade assembles at the old Toys R Us building on the retail park, and the organisers ask everyone walking to be there by 10:15 at the latest. It leaves at 11:00 and goes through the middle of town to the festival site.
The rule that catches people out
Once the parade has set off, joining it along the route is not allowed. That is a stewarding decision rather than a suggestion, so anyone who arrives after eleven walks to the site instead. There is an accessible meeting point near the fishing lake in Gloucester Park for people who cannot manage the full route, with volunteers on hand.
The festival
The festival itself runs from 12:00 to 18:30 at Basildon Sporting Village on Cranes Farm Road, SS14 3GR. Entry is free and there is no ticket to arrange. The organisers publish the line-up on their own festival guide, with a headline act, a family entertainment area, a marketplace of food and community stalls, and this year's tag, Together for Love. Stage times per act had not been published at the end of August.
Getting there
A free shuttle bus runs from Basildon Bus Station to the site, operated by First Bus Essex. As of 31 August the organisers had not yet published its timetable, so check the site before you set out. Parking at the Sporting Village is limited and driving is discouraged. The walk from the town centre takes about half an hour, which is also why the shuttle exists.
Basildon, London and the rest of the day
We list no venues in Basildon, which is ordinary for a town Pride and worth saying plainly rather than inventing a scene. The nearest bars and clubs we carry are in London, among them the Royal Vauxhall Tavern and Comptons of Soho, so the evening after the festival is a train journey rather than a walk.
Three other English Prides run on the same Saturday: Merton Pride in south west London, about 48 km away, Bedford Pride at 88 km and Leicester Pride at 161 km. A week later East Coast Pride takes place in Skegness. The United Kingdom scores 43.90 out of 100 on ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Index; the legal detail is on our United Kingdom country page.