brighton pride 09
Saturday, August 1st, 2009My tenth Brighton Pride today. The forecast was light rain but we decided to head down there anyway: me, Matt, Phil and Ivo. We marched for a bit, we headed into Preston Park, it rained for a bit, then stopped, then around 4pm or so the heavens opened and just kept going. The Gay Nation got wetter and wetter, and eventually we realised it was never going to stop so we fled Brighton clutching our sopping feather boas, mascara running down our upturned faces, wringing out our dripping day glo jackets on the train. Not before we’d seen Jodie and Dan H, had a good chat with Dan M and Paul, bumped into Adrian, huddled under an umbrella with David F, and picked up Sean, who ranted about the weather all the way back to London.
It’s possible to stand proud under a mild or even medium quantity of rain, but that kind of onslaught inevitably wears you down in the end. Mind you, we heard there were still quite a few people in Preston Park by 8pm. Let’s hope for more sun next year!
We got back to the flat, ordered an Indian takeaway, and watched Afghan Idol, an intriguing documentary about the equivalent of Pop Idol in Afghanistan, which took to the airways in the Noughties with a Western style format that at times challenged and shocked this conservative nation but was also avidly watched by a massive proportion of the population. I recommend it.