We had a fabulous time at Brighton Pride yesterday - the first I have been to in more than a decade, and by far the busiest party in a park I have been to since the heyday of Pride parties on Clapham Common! Madam Arcati was working, but John-John and I travelled down together (on an accessible community transport bus laid on by Islington Council, which made us feel like we should have been licking windows or something). I joked that they had neglected to put the silver shoe on the roof (a la Priscilla), but it got us to Preston Park in plenty of time to wander down London Road and get a good spot to watch the parade, and to meet up with the Madame's niece and nephew Jen and Stu.
The parade itself (although small in comparison to London) was nonetheless a jolly affair - lots of cute council-house-trash totty about, and a mixed crowd of queens, dykes and local families lining the route - in fact it had the atmosphere of a village carnival or fete rather than a political statement... But it was only once the floats and marchers had actually gone past that you realised the scale of the thing, as masses of people crowded the narrow streets heading for the park.
Preston Park is by no means a small venue to host an event of this kind, and the organisers had stated they anticipated 250 to 300,000 people to turn up. In my estimation, at least double that number were there, so it was rather difficult to get around. But get around it we did, taking in all the events on offer, and, despite the inevitable difficulty with phone reception we managed to meet up with Russ, Joe, Paul and Jim, as well as bumping into loads of people from London including Ginger Dave - although we completely failed to meet up with Tony and Grumpy.
It is indeed a very special festival, with a huge dance tent, enormous cabaret tent, wimmin's space, kids' space, loads of food outlets and bars, and a full-size funfair. We had the time of our lives, and still managed to grab a few last drinks in Kemp Town before heading back by train, then ended up at The Stag in Victoria for last knockings!
Having got in at 5am it is unsurprising that I had a bit of a late start today, waking up as Alistair called around for dinner. However, I feel I must post for your delectation the song that was everywhere in Brighton - the next single from Princess Kylie - Get Outta My Way...
A fab day.
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