Pride event goes ahead despite funding concerns
Previous Worthing Pride parades had cost about £6,000, with a main sponsor usually covering half that amount. In April, event organiser Gary Richardson said he had unsuccessfully been trying to secure sponsorship.
But the two-day event returned to Steyne Gardens on Friday.
The event is being headlined by Natasha Hamilton on Saturday, who is best known for being part of pop group Atomic Kitten.
Louisa Johnson, who won season 12 of The X Factor, was also scheduled to perform.
Hundreds attended the event in 2024, with about 500 people expected to have taken part in the parade.
Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.
Hundreds turn out to mark Worthing Pride parade
Brighton Pride makes changes to street party plans
Pride parade faces axe over sponsors
Pride in London returns as events struggle with falling funds
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THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, LONDON — Wimbledon has a roster of annual staples. An overnight queue for tickets. An all-white clothing rule. Grass-court tennis. And baffling outsiders with one or many of its traditions. At 10:18 p.m. Monday night, the latter two came together, as they so often do. American No. 1 Taylor Fritz and France's Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard finished the fourth set of what had become a five-set match, Fritz leveling the contest at 2-2. But instead of continuing, they met at the net with tournament officials. Words were exchanged. Arms were flung up. Then the players picked up their bags and walked off the court. Advertisement Then at 9:30 p.m. Thursday night, Ben Shelton sat down to prepare to serve to win his match against Rinky Hijikata of Australia. Or so he thought. The chair umpire instead announced that the match had been suspended, leaving Shelton remonstrating with a tournament supervisor as darkness fell. 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Fans on No. 1 Court were generally furious and let their feelings be known, while broadcasters — including ones in America where it was around 5 p.m. ET were similarly perplexed. Foreign broadcasters are often one of the key stakeholders in scheduling decisions. Not so at Wimbledon, where the Centre Court 1:30 p.m. start time, by far the latest of all the majors, is not because of any televisual considerations but so that the spectators in hospitality can get lunch in before play starts. Advertisement Going home at 11 p.m. is also ingrained in British culture. Pubs close at 11, and in general it's not a country where people eat late or stay out especially late. In the UK sitcom The Office, the character Tim articulates the difference between the UK and the U.S. by describing a nightclub called 'New York, New York.' 'They call it the nightclub that never sleeps. That closes at one.' Wimbledon is the tennis manifestation of this attitude, the sensible friend who likes to call it a night early. Wimbledon has work to do in the morning. Wimbledon will absolutely not be doing shots at 2 a.m. As much as the Centre Court fans were upset by the Fritz vs. Mpetshi Perricard match finishing early, many are happy to leave when it gets dark. As for the players, barely any want to be playing after midnight given how late that means they actually get to bed, and how that then affects them for a day or so after. When Djokovic beat Lorenzo Musetti at 3:07 a.m. at last year's French Open, sports medicine experts told The Athletic that doing so would increase his risk of injury going forward. In Djokovic's next match the following day, he tore his meniscus in his right knee. The Wimbledon attitude to night-time tennis is not without issues. After beating Mpetshi Perricard the next day, Fritz said that he would prefer to have a late finish to coming back the next day. Dusk stopping play has also been a feature of this year's tournament, with matches held over on all of the first four days, including on both main courts on Monday — despite no rain on three of the days. If matches are becoming so drawn out that it's a struggle to fit in a full day's play at Wimbledon before night falls with the current start times, then the structure of the tournament will start to creak. Shelton and Hijikata's match Thursday did not start until around 7:15 p.m., giving them just two hours and 15 minutes to rattle through it. Matches in the men's singles draw last year averaged two hours and 43 minutes last year, according to data from Opta. Advertisement They very nearly managed it, but were stopped with Shelton a game away and about to serve for the match. He and Hijikata had already discussed stopping at the end of the second set and then again a few games into the third, and so finishing with the end potentially 70 seconds away was deeply unsatisfying. Unlike the curfew, there isn't a designated stop time for bad light. It's down to the discretion of tournament staff, who decided that it was too dark even though Shelton was told that there was five minutes before the ELC system would no longer be able to function. 'I was telling him, I only need 60 seconds,' a smiling Shelton said in a news conference Friday. Adding floodlights on the outside courts would not solve the issue of grass courts becoming slippy once night falls and the temperature drops. The daylight rule, like the curfew, is more sensible than it perhaps first appears. Shelton, who was sanguine about having to come back to beat Hijikata on Friday, said that adjusting to different conditions and regulations was all part of being a tennis player. Nowhere is this truer than Wimbledon, which has always been a law unto itself. — Caoimhe O'Neill contributed reporting.
