Tickets for the resurgent Pride festival are flying off the shelves at a record rate.

Pride Brighton and Hove organisers have sold as many tickets in the first three weeks as were sold in the first three months of last year’s event.

More than 7,000 cheaper early bird tickets costing £12.50 have already been snapped up by the most organised of partygoers in the first few weeks since they went on sale, raising £7,000 for good causes already.

Festival organisers say the strength of last year’s line-up is part of the reason why interest in this year’s event is so high.


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Disco legend Martha Walsh, original member of The Weather Girls, has already been announced in this year’s line-up, with many more acts to be named before the main event in Preston Park on Saturday, August 2.

Organisers are promising a louder and prouder event this year, with the Preston Park time extended until 10pm and also hosting a second day on August 3.

More than 160,000 people are expected to take part or watch the Pride Parade with this year’s theme of “The World’s A Disco”.

Paul Kemp, festival director, said: “The return of the main stage in 2013 was an amazing success with stars including Alison Moyet, Ms Dynamite, Paloma Faith, MK1, Stooshe and MKS insuring one of the best line-ups for Pride ever.

“We are really proud to have raised over £43,000 for our community groups and feel that Pride now has regained one of its main objectives in helping support our communities.

“The Pride festival is now a more diverse and safe event that’s open to the entire community, supporting equality and the ‘Freedom to Live’ message.

“We have already sold a record-breaking amount of tickets compared to previous years, so this will definitely be the best attended Brighton Pride ticketed event ever.”

Organisers are also promising fans an easier time getting into the venue this year after a small number of complaints were made in 2013.

Mr Kemp said fans were likely to see improvements to queuing to get into the park event this year with its longer opening hours meaning fewer ticketholders all trying to get in at the same time.

He added: “Pride is unique because unlike many other festivals, we have almost 30,000 people arriving in one place in a very short time period as the parade arrives.

“It is the Pride rush hour and this will always be a logistical headache for the organisers.

“But to help to address this issue Pride 2014 will operate a designated gate system plus queue busters to help us ensure queues are kept to a minimum.

“With the extended opening hours we hope everyone has longer on the park to enjoy the Pride celebrations.”

Tickets are available from brighton-pride.org or at local venues around St James’s Street.