I went to my first Pride festival in Bristol last year as a straight girl supporting my gay friend and having never been to one before I wanted to get a bit of the atmosphere and catch what was going on.
Last year's Bristol Pride was held on College Green, a small bit of grass at the bottom of Park Street. It was pretty small, and pretty crammed in with very little space for all the potential the festival has. When I heard that this year's was to take place in Castle Park, a park running along one side of the river, I was eager to head down there.
I missed the parade but headed down there about 3pm, pushing through crowds, past people getting PRIDE2013 paint tattoos, past families come to check out the festival, past cross dressers ready to jump on stage, past the Thai Festival promoters getting their photos taken with people, past drinkers and ravers, to get to see what was going on.
And a lot was going on. There were two stages, one seemed to be predominantly cabaret and cross-dressed impersonators, and the other was local acts - rappers, singers, and not to mention boy band Blue (who were my first concert aged 12) and the legend that is Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Round the other side of the park there was a mini funfair (which I have to say did't look particularly safe), food stalls, pop-up bars and pubs, arts and crafts, stalls, you name it! The organisers really stepped it up this year and it was truly leaps and bounds better than last year.
And what I love is that everyone gets involved. Everyone. I love it because by going, and by seeing other straight people and heterosexual couples and families going, we are saying to Bristol's LGBT Community that we support them and that actually we're proud to have such large numbers of you in our city. Bristol is forward thinking, and you can tell by looking around you on any given day. There are still some in this county who haven't heard of our fantastic city, but we accept, embrace and love whatever our community has to offer us, making Bristol a constantly updating and changing beautifully diverse city.
See you at Bristol Pride 2014!
Last year's Bristol Pride was held on College Green, a small bit of grass at the bottom of Park Street. It was pretty small, and pretty crammed in with very little space for all the potential the festival has. When I heard that this year's was to take place in Castle Park, a park running along one side of the river, I was eager to head down there.
I missed the parade but headed down there about 3pm, pushing through crowds, past people getting PRIDE2013 paint tattoos, past families come to check out the festival, past cross dressers ready to jump on stage, past the Thai Festival promoters getting their photos taken with people, past drinkers and ravers, to get to see what was going on.
And a lot was going on. There were two stages, one seemed to be predominantly cabaret and cross-dressed impersonators, and the other was local acts - rappers, singers, and not to mention boy band Blue (who were my first concert aged 12) and the legend that is Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Round the other side of the park there was a mini funfair (which I have to say did't look particularly safe), food stalls, pop-up bars and pubs, arts and crafts, stalls, you name it! The organisers really stepped it up this year and it was truly leaps and bounds better than last year.
And what I love is that everyone gets involved. Everyone. I love it because by going, and by seeing other straight people and heterosexual couples and families going, we are saying to Bristol's LGBT Community that we support them and that actually we're proud to have such large numbers of you in our city. Bristol is forward thinking, and you can tell by looking around you on any given day. There are still some in this county who haven't heard of our fantastic city, but we accept, embrace and love whatever our community has to offer us, making Bristol a constantly updating and changing beautifully diverse city.
See you at Bristol Pride 2014!