Brighton Pride

An exhausting day!

I went to Brighton Pride to help on the Coöperative Group’s stall there as well as for the fun of one of the best free festivals around. The stall was decorated with nude pictures of head office staff with the words “altogether different” (geddit?) obscuring the important places and we volunteers were given a t-shirt with the same slogan. There was a free dance mat machine. This was being used enthusiastically and hilariously before we opened by head office staff (not in the altogether) and this proved a popular attraction during the day. However it was not as popular as the fair trade coffee, tea, chocolate and biscuits offered for tasting samples and the bottles of orange juice for sale! There was a prospect of a protest by Christian Voice at our stall- they never turned up. I suppose, like all bullies they would not have the courage to turn up where they’re hopelessly outnumbered.

My task (in two hour shifts) was to encourage people to enter the prize draw for a holiday in Sydney at Mardi Gras 2006. There was no catch to this but getting people to fill in the form was hard work although it was easier if someone had had some chocolate etc first! We were giving out pink wristbands for Smile- the Internet Bank and these were popular too.

The festival dance tents, fairground and market areas were all very busy and I managed to make a few interesting purchases as well as get some useful information from the Police and Fire Brigade.

I saw a few people I knew including Chris from the DCA Rainbow Network- Hello everyone!

All in all a fun but exhausting day.