The need for the continued existence in 2014 of a Pride festival was underlined this week after a horrific homophobic attack in Whitechapel, despite the arrival of same-sex marriage and huge strides towards equality.
If you’ve never been to Pride, whatever your sexuality, shame on you. It has to be the most lively, good-humoured annual festival to take place in the capital. But it’s easily rectified: on Saturday, simply head first to the main event, a huge free bash in Trafaglar Square (pictured, above) – this year featuring the standard mix of queer and pop performers, from east London’s Sink The Pink collective to Sam Fox, Sinitta and Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst.
But there’s lots more to dip in and out of, too: the 20,000-strong annual parade leaves Baker Street at 1pm, a “rainbow fete” in Golden Square promises to be a chilled-out space bristling with streetfood stalls, and there’s a cosier Dean Street Soho stage, with its own scroll of artists performing. And it’s all free.
But for those of you who want to celebrate safely in the confines of north London, well you can do that quite happily if you prefer. Events kick off tonight at 630pm with a leisurely Gay Outdoor Club Evening Walk. Meet at Regent’s Park tube, before strolling over to Primrose Hill and down Parkway to Camden High Street boozer the Black Cap for a bevy. How civilised.
Tomorrow, meanwhile, sees in a wilder party for the ladies: entitled Down Girls, it cheekily suggests all attendees “prepare for a #mingetwinge” (see poster, above). Good Lord.
On Saturday itself, there are two big north London bashes in the evening. The first is up in Archway at Exilio (1 Archway Close, N19), the longest ever running LGBT Latin club in London. It’s also a good choice for footie fans, as the Colombia vs Uruguay match will be shown at 9pm, but expect cholados (ice cream desserts), cocktails and exotic dancers too, till a bleary-eyed 4am.
And finally there’ll be a big old hoedown at the Black Cap – where else? – which has been proudly pink for half a century (although it makes a good Camden Crawl venue too). Called Trendy Discotheque, a tongue-in-cheek reference to EuroPride taking place this weekend in Oslo, the night features Scandi-fixated DJs playing only tracks from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. So brush up on your moves to Ace of Base (with, we hope, some late-period Abba, Royksopp and the Cardigans to boot).
And if you do all the above, why not report back to us on Monday?
