Take a look at our Brighton Pride Gallery
It was, as they say, a game of two halves at this year’s Brighton Pride festival – a wet gloomy morning followed by belting sun in the afternoon. It sometimes feels as though we’ve had more than our fair share of rained-on parades down here on England’s Costa del Cool, and 2008 delivered us another doozy.
As I made my way down to the Grand Parade, coachloads of guys and gals from all over England were being disgorged on to sopping pavements. Drag queens in full slap tottered uncertainly under indelicate umbrellas over the spongy grass of the Victoria Gardens, while the sight of boys in nothing other than little swimming briefs made you kinda glad you’d dressed for October instead. My, they looked cold.
The Brighton Parade may not be the biggest gay parade in the world, but what it lacks in length, it more than makes up for in sheer, in-yer-face shoutiness. It was led, as in previous years, by a column of around a hundred uniformed police officers, whose presence provoked outbursts of spontaneous applause along the route, proving that it still matters to know that we’re all on the same side.
Any political edge that Pride might once have had (and it hasn’t been much in evidence in Brighton for a good few years) was confined to a small group holding up placards naming and shaming those European countries that still have homophobic legislation on their books - hello Lithuania! - and a couple of images of the demented Robert Mugabe with a richly deserved blood-red X through his moosh.
By the time we got to Woodstock (sorry, Preston Park), it felt like we were half a million strong. This, more than anything, is the issue the organisers now have to contend with. Rather like Fatboy Slim’s free party on the beach a few years back, Pride is becoming a victim of its success. It used to be possible to set up a picnic blanket and stretch out in the sun. Now it feels like you’re jostling for every square inch of breathing space. They could start by having a word with all those people who insist on bringing their freakin’ dogs with them.
As usual, the lesbians had all the best T-shirts. My favourites were ‘Yes we are, and no you can’t watch’, and ‘My girl says if I play rugby one more time, she’ll leave me’. In contrast, Stonewall’s ‘Some people are gay. Get over it’ felt like a feeble seventies throwback.
Best food was the Asian stall doing fabulous chow mein and Japanese veg curries in monster portions, while the stall offering pills, trips and speed (above each of which the disappointing qualifier ‘Legal’ appeared in much tinier letters) was doing a roaring trade.
The fairground rides still look too rickety to risk to me, so I squeezed myself into the Wild Fruit club tent where the air was lubricated with equal parts humidity, sweat and pheromones, took my top off and got my nips mercilessly tweaked. Cheers mate - whoever you were.
Read our interview with Josh Mills, the chair of Pride in Brighton and Hove. Plus, check out our Brighton Guide, Brighton Scene Guide and Brighton Listings!
Brighton and Hove Pride 2008: Pride Around the World
Saturday 2 August 2008, www.brightonpride.org
Brighton Pride Gallery 08
As usual, click on the images below to reveal the full picture
Have you got any Pride images you’d like us to use? Email them to feedback@gaydarnation.com and we’ll do our best to include them in the gallery!