Lockdown Won't Stop Pride Festival Coming to Your Back y-AR-d

In collaboration with Snapchat’s Official Lens Creator community, AMV BBDO and GSN’s Digital Pride launch world-first AR Pride festival floats. People can discover spectacular AR Pride floats wherever they find themselves from the kitchen to the back garden.

2020 has marked a serious dampener on Pride festivals, parties and parades around the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic forcing governments to restrict and even ban large public gatherings. Hundreds of Pride festivals have been postponed or cancelled, keeping in line with government guidelines and protecting the health and safety of the community. 

Creative team, Ant Eagle and Claire Gordon-Webster were distressed by the situation and endeavoured to find digital and virtual ways to keep Pride celebrations alive, while adhering to social distancing measures.

In collaboration with Gay Star News (GSN) and Digital Pride, a virtual Pride festival that aims to create a safe space for anyone and everyone wanting to take part in pride celebrations, Ant and Claire engaged with a number of Snapchat’s Official Lens Creators to create spectacular, immersive, virtual Digital Pride Floats, bringing the Pride Festival feeling home.

“Pride is my favourite time of the year, it’s an amazing platform for expression and creativity. 2020 has seen many challenges but also many creative solutions” says Ant. “Pride is so important to me as a proud gay man, it’s not just a celebration it’s a sense of community and belonging. So to be part of a team that’s created something new and assembles the whole community is awesome. It’s a testament to ‘Love always wins’.”

Each AR Pride float comprises of a face Lens that allows a Snapchatter to transform their face with fun and playful Pride inspired designs. Think drag queen makeup or rainbow face paint. Flip the camera around and you can place the individual Pride floats into your space, playing with their placement and size, fully immersing yourself in the AR Pride festival experience.

Working with a diverse range of creators, from proud members of the LGBT+ community to fierce allies, each float has a unique story: 

Official Lens creator, Joshua Keeney, who brought his alter ego 'Neptune' to life in his spectacular, futuristic float, describes the importance of technology for the future of Pride festivals: "It's an opportunity to create not just a Pride that brings people together in the present when we can't be together - but also a Pride of the future. One that embraces technologies and new mediums for exploring and celebrating identity.” 

Clara Bacou, the Official Lens creator behind the bright and playful Pride Parrot float agrees: “Being part of the Pride and Digital Pride floats campaign brings me a lot of joy. The experiences I have had growing up attending this festival are some of my favourite memories...I'm so fond of this idea of being able to heighten the love online with AR and lift anyone who may be physically separated from larger communities or festivals to still share who they are and have their moment to celebrate.”

Released on 1st of August 2020 to align with when Brighton Pride, globally famous for its spectacular floats and celebrity performances, would have taken place, the Digital Pride Festival Floats bring the spectacular, playful, joyous energy of Pride floats into a digital space, creating a sense of community and celebration no matter where you are.

GSN created Digital Pride in 2014 as the first ever completely online Pride festival for LGBT+ people. Since then it’s reached tens of millions of people each year. A truly global event, it’s reached people in 240 countries, including those which criminalise and persecute LGBT+ people and where having an IRL Pride is just too dangerous.

Scott Nunn, co-founder of Digital Pride and GSN, said: "Digital Pride was the first totally online Pride festival. We have always found innovative ways LGBT+ people around the world can connect and take part. The new Snapchat floats are a fantastic example of that. They are a great way of celebrating our community and making it visible online. And that's so important, particularly for people who are still struggling with their sexuality or who can't attend an IRL Pride. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the amazing people at AMV and Snapchat to take the spirit of Pride to even more people in the months and years to come."

In addition to these impressive Pride floats, Ant and Claire created 'Sticking with Pride' - a set of 180+ Digital Pride GIPHY stickers, allowing people to express their Pride digitally. Launched over the weekend London Pride would have taken place, the sticker range was massively popular, reaching over 40 million views within the first month.

To experience the floats search ‘DigitalPride Float’ on Snapchat, or open directly via the float snapcodes within the platform.