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Well, Timmy, I'm sorry that you were disappointed but I'm very glad you went. I'm sorry, too, that I didn't go. I think I ought to have shared in the disappointment too.
But the organisers thought it was OK, I gather. Maybe it's the best show that Reading has ever put on?
And 300-400 is a lot better than nothing.
Thank you very much for your report.
Love,
Anthony
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After seeing Tim off at the station, I returned to the event. Something that became clear was that when we arrived with the parade, the event had not really started. Over the course of the afternoon more and more people arrived until it was actually pretty packed by the time I left.
I hung around until about 5 or so, looking at the stalls and listening to the drag queen acts. (Very risqué for a family audience; one invited a cute 16 year-old boy, who had been provocatively kissing his girlfriend in the crowd, on stage to flirt with him). The only disappointment at that stage was that I couldn't find anyone I knew, so there wasn't very much more to do. I left and met some friends at the pub for the rest of the evening, so I only got back about 15 minutes ago. My friends had picked up a friend of theirs earlier from the Pride event, and she said that the actual march is usually pretty small (and by implication not really worth attending), but that the event afterwards is more substantial. As it did seem to be.
All in all -- not, for me, the disappointment that Tim found it. Small compared to Brighton, but not small in absolute terms. It was heartwarming to see so many gay people together in Reading; Reading is a pretty drab, unexciting, middle-England sort of place usually.
David
[Updated on: Sat, 05 September 2009 23:00] |
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I don't disagree, David. I expected it to kick off in the late afternoon, but, and this is the point, it advertised itself as starting at noon. And it was scheduled to close at 8pm.
Also the party in the park is not really relevant to the thousands of shoppers in the town centre. For them we must make a good procession. And this was more like a guided tour with a guide who was new to the area.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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You can't force people to come along to the procession, or to turn up to the event in the park afterwards by a particular time. Putting together a march on the scale of Brighton or London would cost a lot of money, which presumably isn't available. While you would certainly expect people from the local area to turn up, Reading's not really a nationally-recognised destination. London, Brighton, Manchester etc. are well-known for their gay communities -- Reading isn't (sadly).
David
[Updated on: Sat, 05 September 2009 23:12] |
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Of course you can't force folk to process, nor to arrive at particular times. But I am a marketing man. And this marketing was lacking here. And, if I were available to volunteer, this is the skill I would offer at no cost to the event.
Floats are provided, usually free of charge, by transport operators for reasons of their own, often to create goodwill. This is true of the Herne Bay Carnival and of all student rag carnivals and other events.
Alternatively a special interest group, such as the Reading Gay Men's Chorus (where were they?) will hire a vehicle.
Then a float is built, and a professional driver drives it in the parade. The float building comes out of the special interest group's funds.
At least two groups gain:
The special interest group's profile is raised and it attracts new blood.
The parade itself gains
If the transport provider also has a plaque on the vehicle to show they WANT to be there (rather than were just rented for the day) they also gain. All publicity is good publicity.
Even a single float generates the start of a carnival atmosphere. And the fact that group A has a float encourages group B. Now two groups have floats the rest also join in.
Yes, it costs money to police (literally) a route with rolling road closures, and that money comes, in part, form bucket collectors lining the sides of the procession route and getting folk to drop hard cash in, but the event also has to raise funds in other ways. Groups ought to pay a small (means tested) levy for a formal part of the procession. Since they gain this is advertising, and advertising is not free. This must not apply to ordinary LGBT folk and supporters who also wish to march "unbannered" if you like.
So if we took an iomfats.org organisational banner I would expect to pay £50-£100 for the privilege to unfurl it, but if we walked as ordinary blokes and supporters I would expect to march free.
It costs money to make a route like Broad Street "Float Friendly" for the event. But the local authority has funds for good causes and some shoudl be used, perhaps pound for pound, to do this.
As for the arrival times, no, one cannot force this either. But might the very embarrassingly poor turnout for the parade (that was a parade?) have been higher if the parade had arrived and the events in the park, ADVERTISED to start at noon, started... At noon? And might other folk have arrived in greater numbers form noon onwards if "Sudden Death and the Undertakers" had been playing exciting bangin' tunes on the sound stage?
Remember that Gay Pride is two parts:
Part one is the parade - a parade intended to show that real, live, normal folk (and a load of oddballs) are in reading and the Thames valley, and to excite the people in reading because it's just plain good fun. This is the outward face of Gay Pride.
Part two is the party. That is for gay folk and friends and also the general public who choose to attend. But this is far less of a PR activity. This is just having fun.
I care about the party because it draws people in, of course I do, but I care far more about the carnival procession because it surprises and grabs non aware people's attention. This one didn't.
[Updated on: Sun, 06 September 2009 10:07]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Tim,
All your points are valid -- perhaps I was so surprised to discover that Reading even had something like that at all (it being the most uninspiring place in the universe usually) that I'm at risk of being indulgent.
Have you considered writing to the committee about it?
David
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I am considering writing to them, yes. I want to finish any thoughts I have before doing so. If we were staying here I would most certainly be offering them substantive help, but my mind is on moving, not on other tasks. I am no longer local.
I am certainly making my thoughts public on my blog, something that is not read as widely as I would hope, partly in the hope that someone in Reading who is gay sees it and takes some action, positive action, to make 2010 fly!
[Updated on: Sun, 06 September 2009 13:01]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I have now written a carefully worded letter to the committee chair. With luck they will read it as positive
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Macky
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: November 2008
Messages: 973
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No doubt about it, Tim, you have a way with folks. But we still like you anyways.
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1 NASB
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The problem with criticising anything like this is that people who enjoyed themselves will feel that you are belittling their experience.
I have no doubt that the committee did work very hard to achieve what they did achieve. It may well be that they did not feel any need to achieve what you think they should have achieved. I would be interested to hear if you get a reply from them about it. A friend from work has offered to introduce me to a friend who is a member; if she does I'll ask him about the committee's perception of the event. I wasn't embarrassed by it at all. Or are you just playing devil's advocate?
I had a good time. Not as good as at the Brighton one, but there are at least a couple of reasons for that:
(a) In Brighton I had a friend of my own age who introduced me to several other people who were themselves very much enjoying the event. I naturally became part of it. After you left I was on my own so felt a bit self-conscious about hanging around by myself, even though the event was really only just getting going. My experience would almost certainly have been a hundred times better had I known some people there (or overcome my pathological inability to get into conversations with strangers).
(b) My expectations were middling for the Brighton one, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Therefore my expectations were very high indeed for this one, particularly since it was so close to home. In retrospect I could have enjoyed the day a bit better. But I wouldn't blame it on the organisers in my case -- the fault was mine.
David
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I'm sure the organisers worked extremely hard and well to achieve all that they achieved. But this was, to me, a first year's event. And it started in 2005. So no, not devil's advocate at all.
I didn't "not enjoy it", but I was disappointed with it. And, when I left, I couldn't face any more hanging around with nothing at all happening however pleasant the company. But for me the parade is an affirmation that I am normal. That is my part of things. And it wasn't there for me in Reading.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Tim,
You said,
>when I left, I couldn't face any more hanging around with nothing at all happening
If, rather than returning to Bracknell straight away after our drink, you'd come back to the event with me, perhaps you'd have found there was more to do -- it was certainly much busier when I returned, and the entertainment was in full swing. Yes, maybe it should have started earlier, but that could easily have been forgiven if you were willing to give it another chance.
I think ultimately you and I were looking for different things, which is why we came to a different conclusion. Looking back to Brighton, you left and returned to town for a coffee shortly after arriving with the parade at the park. Whereas for me and J, the parade was a very small part of the whole: fun to watch, but not the highlight of the visit by any means. The highlight, for me, was the chance to be part of a community I'd not been part of before, to meet new people, to make the most of the enormous variety of entertainment on offer. The parade didn't do that for me: it was too spectacular and artificial. The events in the park did.
I think there's a substantial different in outlook there. You wanted different things from the Reading event from me, which is fine. The Brighton event satisfied both of us, but the one in Reading, deliberately or through apathy I don't know, toned down the march and the spectacle of it. You're right that Reading as a whole was not moved much by the event, but does it need to be?
David
[Updated on: Mon, 07 September 2009 22:46] |
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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It seems that the advertised start time of 12 noon meant 3pm. You got back there around 4 I imagine. Events need to do what they say on the tin.
We do want and get different things. I'm not much into live bands nowadays, for example. I woudl have got back there, noted it was much more fun, and still left.
Why does it need to affect Reading? So many reasons:
The list is huge but includes:
* local business awareness
* Local public service awareness
* Entertaining local people
* Making a statement, ranging from extreme to tame, about the normality of homosexuality, sometimes by resorting to grotesque images
* Local sports club awareness, especially soccer in the UK
* Including people, all people, who are happy to be included
* Tempting in the people who feel excluded, from all strata of the society
* Making, if just for one day, the street safer.
* Showing the fascist politicians and christians that we are real, normal people
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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