Brighton Pride 2011

Although I've lived in Brighton for fours years this was the first time I've been able to see the Brighton Pride Parade. Starting at 11am from Madeira Drive it snakes its way up West Street then down North Street turning left past Old Steine and down to Preston Park via London Road. We staked out a good shaded spot along Gloucester Place. It must have taken nearly an hour to reach us but it was worth the weight in gold glitter. There were some excellent costumes and some cheeky moments. The local police got a nice cheer after the riots business last week. Surprised to see many politcial parties having their own float and dressing up as outlandish as possible keeping within the brief of 'Out of this world' with so many sci-fi and alien costumes.

This year's Pride was no longer a free event at Preston Park (at £12 pre-booked or £18 cash entry). I didn't really enjoy it the other year, mainly because of the soaking wet rain that drowned even the highest platform wearing tranny. Instead we headed to the seafront and the Volks club to see Gus DJ for Calabash via Morrisons in St James Street who must have had their highest number of customers like ever. The early drinking took effect and loads of us were dancing to the camped-up house and disco. So infectious was it that even a visiting Methodist gospel church group joined in. I'm almost thought it was some comedien's dressed up as a prank. Gus's set went down really well but the next DJ changed the vibe completely so we decided to go home and prepare for the evening's entertainment around St. James Street and the rumour of Danny Rampling DJing at Black Rocks Bar.

It was a gross under-statement to say that the St. James Street street party was busy. It took ages just negotiating our way through the hedonistic crowd who wearing an overload of colour and style. When we arrived at the street entrance to Black Rocks bar we realised from the queue it was a one in one, one out rule. Instead we headed over Paul's then onto Riki Tik's to see a couple of mates DJ. We didn't hang around for long with our energies seriously depleted from the previous night's clubbingat the Green Door Store for Go Bang.