Warwickshire Pride defiant against hate in ongoing vandalism

For the third year in a row, Warwickshire Pride has been the target of vandalism but the community turned “the negativity and the hate into something positive - pure community power,” explained Dan Browne, one of the festival’s organisers.

Warwickshire Pride march from previous year

In a video on social media, Dan said that a “gang” had attacked the event’s site in Leamington Spa’s Pump Room Gardens overnight. Flags were torn down and stolen “as per usual”, Dan added.

Security was hired for this year's event, to help minimise the damage after the site had previously been targeted by vandals the previous two years. Last year, gazebos were destroyed, broken glass littered the site, and attempts had been made to set fire to flags.

Despite security’s best efforts, though, the site was still targeted by vandals this year.

“They got into some of the tents. The trans tent in particular is pretty trashed,” Dan explained.

An appeal was put out to the local community to support the clean-up, ahead of the event’s start at 11am on Saturday 16th August. Great numbers responded, turning up to help.

Dan said: “It's been a really fantastic day of community power. The community came together really early to put the site back together."

He praised the "massive community response", offering "a big thank you to everyone who has turned up to help".

After the clean-up, several hundred people attended a march through the town centre, and thousands visited the festival site, celebrating the LGBTQ+ community.

Speaking to BBC News, Dan Browne added that 2025’s Warwickshire Pride had “been a really fantastic and positive day.”