Clapham Common: Pride and Protest

The Common’s size, open layout and transport links made it one of the few places capable of hosting what was promoted as the largest free outdoor music festival in the UK.
Pride ’96 drew hundreds of thousands of people for a day that combined political campaigning, community stalls and live performance. LGBTQ+ organisations, trade unions, health services and campaigning groups shared space with music stages and social areas, reflecting Pride’s dual role as both protest and celebration. The festival lineup blended queer cultural icons with mainstream pop and dance music — featuring Jimmy Somerville, Boy George and Take That, alongside acts such as Chrystal Rose, The Beverley Sisters, Bananarama and Happy Clappers — bringing together political visibility and popular culture on an unprecedented scale in south London.
Pride ’97 returned on an even larger scale, with headline artists including the Pet Shop Boys, Erasure and Heaven 17. Alongside the main stages, a more prominent women’s programme was promoted under banners such as “Girl Power in the Park,” responding to long-standing concerns that Pride events were often dominated by gay male audiences and commercial sponsors. For two summers, the Common became a site where queer culture, feminist organising, public health campaigning and mass celebration overlapped in a highly visible public space.
Behind the scenes, however, the events were costly and complex to run. Security, staging, infrastructure and insurance placed enormous financial strain on the volunteer-led Pride Trust, which collapsed the following year. Subsequent London Pride celebrations shifted towards more commercial models and different locations.
For many LGBTQ+ Londoners, Clapham Common remains a defining memory of Pride as a mass, free, community-led event — a moment when queer life took over one of the city’s major public spaces not just as entertainment, but as a statement of political presence and collective belonging.