Tickets

Delivering a safe, accessible and joyful event for tens of thousands of people in the heart of Cardiff takes significant resources.

Sponsorship plays a vital role in making Pride Cymru possible. It helps us deliver the event to a high standard, invest in accessibility, safety and infrastructure, and keep ticket prices and customer costs as low as we can. Without that support, many elements, like the parade, family area and community stalls, simply wouldn’t happen at the scale and quality people expect and deserve.

We’re thoughtful and rigorous about who we partner with. We don’t work with arms manufacturers, companies with poor human rights or environmental records, or organisations whose values don’t align with equality and inclusion. Every sponsor is carefully reviewed to ensure they demonstrate meaningful, ongoing support for LGBTQ+ communities, not just during Pride season, but throughout the year.

We recognise that there are strong views on corporate sponsorship, and we respect that members of our community may hold different perspectives. Our responsibility is to assess each potential partner on their own policies, actions and track record, particularly their commitments to equality, inclusion and the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ people here in Wales. We make informed decisions based on evidence, and we continue those conversations beyond the event itself.

When you see a logo at Pride, it’s there because that organisation has chosen to stand with us, not speak for us. Together, we’re working to make Pride Cymru safe, sustainable and spectacular for everyone. 

Getting the right headline talent is something you tell us really matters, and we hear you. We’ve had some brilliant suggestions over the years… but quite a few have been wayyyyy over budget. (We admire the ambition, though. Truly.)

Many of you say you’d love a mix of well-known acts and local legends, and that’s exactly what we aim for. In a community as diverse as ours, we know not everyone will agree on every booking. Our job is to balance representation across the LGBTQ+ community while keeping the programme affordable so ticket prices stay as low as possible.

We’re not allowed to publish specific fees paid to performers due to “commercial confidentiality” clauses in artist contracts; we could genuinely be sued if we shared that information.

It’s also worth saying that many of our headline acts perform for significantly less than they’d charge a profit-making festival because they want to support our community and understand we’re a charity. Publishing their fee could weaken their negotiating power elsewhere, which wouldn’t be fair to them.

And of course… we know you’ll definitely let us know in the comments exactly what you think of the line-up and headliners. You always do.

Pride Cymru has always been a not-for-profit charity, run by a dedicated team of volunteers from all over Wales. Our Core Team and trustees don’t get paid a thing (yep, really!). They all volunteer their time, energy, and passion to help make Pride Cymru something Wales can be proud of. Any surplus we make when we’ve settled all the bills, goes straight back into making next year better or helping a community group. 

We do have a tiny but mighty paid team, led by a part-time Charity Manager, who keeps everything running behind the scenes. That includes all the fun (and not-so-fun) stuff like VAT returns, fire alarm checks, funding applications, and most excitingly that our community projects run smoothly all year round. 

So when you buy a ticket or drop us a donation, you’re not lining anyone’s pockets, you’re helping us cover the costs of putting on the event, keeping it safe and accessible, and supporting LGBTQ+ people across Wales 365 days a year.

Thanks for helping us keep Pride Cymru by the community, for the community!

Pride is organised by a big group of wonderful people from the LGBTQ+ community. The ‘Core Team’ acts as our community advisory body. It is made up of over 30 people from across the LGBTQ+ community, bringing a wide range of lived experience, skills, and perspectives.

The Core Team helps shape decisions across Pride, including accessibility, community spaces, programming, partnerships, and operations. This means community voices are embedded directly into decision-making rather than sitting alongside it.

We’re always keen for more people from the LGBTQ+ community to get involved, and regularly welcome new members to the Core Team to help ensure Pride Cymru remains accountable, inclusive, and community-led. We are always open to feedback: drop us a line on hello@pridecymru.com

Pride Cymru is a registered charity. Our trustees are appointed through a recruitment process in line with UK charity law. This ensures we have a board with the right mix of skills, experience, and accountability to manage the charity responsibly.

Our current board is made up entirely of LGBTQ+ people from across Wales, representing a range of backgrounds and lived experiences.

We’re reviewing how we can make leadership pathways more open and reflective of the wider community, including clearer routes for volunteers and community members to get involved in governance.

Putting on Pride is harder than ever. Across the events industry, costs have risen sharply while funding and sponsorship have become more limited. You’ve probably seen other festivals, even big-name ones, cancelled recently. There’s real pressure on the sector, and we’re not immune to that.

Pride Cymru operates at the scale of other major music and cultural events in the city, but at a significantly lower ticket price. Delivering an event of this size comes with huge responsibilities, approvals, safety planning, infrastructure and year-round work behind the scenes.

Ticket income helps cover essential costs such as staging, sound and lighting, security, medical provision, power, toilets, infrastructure, accessibility measures, staffing, artists and performers, and the delivery of the Parade. These aren’t “extras”, they’re what make Pride Cymru safe, secure and welcoming for everyone. We also work hard to ensure our funding comes from ethical sources and aligns with our values as a community charity.

We constantly review our budgets and work hard to keep costs down wherever we can, but small ticket increases are sometimes necessary to protect the quality and safety of the event and to pay artists and crew fairly.

Pride Cymru is a registered not-for-profit charity. We’re independent and community-led, not owned by a large festival operator. Every ticket sold goes directly back into delivering the festival, supporting the Parade, and investing in the LGBTQ+ community throughout the year.

Allowing police staff to take part in Pride is an ongoing conversation within our community. Across the UK, different Prides take different approaches, and we know there are strongly held views on all sides.

It’s also important to note that all large-scale events in the UK are legally required to work with the police as part of their safety and licensing conditions. This includes Pride Cymru. South Wales Police are therefore involved in the event in an operational capacity, regardless of whether their staff march in the parade.

In 2023, following discussions with our volunteers, members of the local LGBTQ+ community, UK and European Pride networks, and the police, Pride Cymru decided to allow the LGBTQ+ Police Staff Network to march under specific conditions:

• No uniforms
• No police-branded banners
• Participation led only by their LGBTQ+ staff 

This decision is reviewed regularly by our Trustees, in the same way we review all requests from organisations that wish to take part in the parade.

We understand and respect that not everyone will agree. Pride Cymru recognises that policing has caused harm to LGBTQ+ people in the past and that trust must be earned. We will continue to speak out when we believe the police have got things wrong and need to make amends.

At the same time, we believe that constructive engagement with institutions creates space for accountability, dialogue, and positive change from within.