Gay Pride Entertainment

There is hardly a City or major town in the UK these days that is not home to a Pride festival or event of some kind. The parades that stretch through the streets in the larger cities are a wonderful and colourful delight to be seen and experienced.

Once the parades are over, a festival of music and entertainment begins. Only the biggest of Pride festivals will have a budget to be lavish enough to boast some of the biggest and famous stars and icons.

London, Manchester and Brighton Pride events are such areas where no expense seems to be spared. The Pop Stars are big names and the events are a massive success attracting tens of thousands of people over a few days.

The Queen of the pride events has to be Kylie Minogue. Kylie herself is appearing at Brighton pride 2019, to the delight of the LGBT community on the south coast. She follows another icon, the pop princess Britney Spears who headlined at Brighton in 2018.

Not to be outdone, Manchester has booked some big names too. Headlining in 2019 is Ariana Grande. An icon in waiting? maybe.

Most pride events turn to Tribute Acts for their festival entertainment.

Compared to the real pop stars, tribute acts are much cheaper and much more readily available to perform.

There are many tributes to Gay Icons that adorn the stages of Pride events all over the UK. Some seem more popular than others. Some are yet to gain the stature of an icon but their popularity cannot be ignored.

At Shout Entertainment alone we have seen over 30 different acts booked for Pride events over the last several years. We have published a page full of the 20 most popular acts for Gay Pride events.

However, here we will look at the overall picture. I have broken this into 3 lists.

In no particular order.

Timeless Iconic Tributes.

Kylie
Cher
Elton John
Abba
Dusty Springfield
Shirley Bassy

Popular Modern Tribute Acts

Lady Gaga
Pink
Boy George
Madonna
George Michael
Adele
Freddie Mercury
Britney
Ariana Grande
Little Mix
Spice Girls
Beyonce
Dolly Parton
Erasure
Take That
Annie Lennox

Other Tribute bands not to be ignored.

Katy Perry
Taylor Swift
Steps
Celine Dion
Tina Turner
Sam Smith
Paloma Faith

Drag Queens.

A pride festival would not be complete without the appearance of a talented Drag Queen. Drag Acts perform a multitude of tasks from floor show, DJ to compere. A talented Drag Queen can be priceless when holding a show together.

Organising Pride Entertainment

These lists have been produced from our own data and may not be truly representative of the UK and we don’t claim they are. You may have your own favourites and your own lists too. We produce this to give tried and tested suggestions to anyone that has been given the task of booking entertainment for a Pride event and to give you an idea of where to start.

If you are looking to put together a full schedule for a festival or you just need one artist for an event, be sure to drop us an email. We will help if we can.

One thing for sure is that Pride events have grown and the commercial spin-offs have not been ignored. For each town and City that host a Pride event there is generally a commercial gain for the whole area. Pride entertainment is a major factor and many music festivals rely on tribute acts rather than the real thing in an effort to keep costs reasonable.

Gay bars and restaurants in and around the main areas often put a Drag Artiste or DJ on to attract new customers. Others will host their own tribute nights in a bid to capture the passing trade. All this celebration held in good spirits has also attracted the attention of people that do not belong to the LGBTQ communities but just want to join in and have a good time.

Traditionally a pride festival would be held in the month of June, however, they now spread across the whole of the summer and some, such as Bolton, hold theirs much later in the year. Whether indoor or outdoor the LGBT pride events will be sure to be buzzing with entertainment and loud music.

Given the interest and commercial gain for the community, if you are organising a Pride event, it could be wise to ask the local businesses to contribute a small fee towards the cost of the entertainment by way of some form of sponsorship.

If you wish to jump to the page of our top 20 tribute acts for Pride, click here.