Wet Pride of Brighton

Although we've lived in Brighton for two years, we were Gay Pride virgins and our first experience was a wet and stressful one. The plan was to drop off all our stuff at Kev and Karol's in the North Laines which included laptop and stuff for DJing, drinks and a cake Kerry had made the night before (6 hours of chocolate labour). We wanted to catch some of the parade after this then collect enough willing mates to join us at the festival in Preston Park.

When the taxi arrived for us at around 11:40am we bundled out without realising the front door key had been left in the lock. The last time this happened it cost me about £90 to get a locksmith out who used a type of bar. I'm not going to give away how I did it but got back into the house without another expensive call-out. Kerry and Emma went without us in the taxi but rang 10 minutes later saying the parade had blocked all traffic and there was no way of crossing the road in the North Laines. This left James and I to cycle down and pick up the bags and cake. I'd never seen so many people in pink and had to fight against the flow missing the parade.

We got to Kev and Karol's as it started to rain which delayed our plan to visit the festival site and put a dampner on everyone's spirits. It took another two and a bit hours to sort ourselves out waiting for the rain to stop. Grabbed the next bus nicely decorated in rainbow colours and got onto the site looking for the Callabash tent for some decent music. No decent music so tried the carousel for some elevated swinging fun. It certainly put a smile on my face. Later we tried getting into the main tent looking for a place to dance and to secure a dry place in case it rained. Too late, as the heavens opened with the heaviest rain yet. The entrance to the tent was rammed and we all knew it was time to go.

Getting a bus back into town was also everyone else's plan it seemed and buses filled up quickly as people pushed to get out of the downpour. Back at Kev and Karol's all we could do was start drinking and forget about the outside world.

After a lot of tasty food and drink we all moved over to Paul's disco dungeon for some sweaty exercise. I thought I might have peaked too early with the intake but managed to pull off one of the best sets I've done in ages. I've played almost all the tunes before but I must be getting used to the Virtual DJ software and tweeking the sound effects at the right time. Kev's laptop didn't feel like partying so it left Paul to do a mammoth 6 hour set.