What better way to spend a sunny bank holiday than watching the wonderfully camp and silly games in the annual Vauxhall Gay Sports Day?

Part village fete, part surreal silliness, with a sharp competitive edge, some notable fundraising and some equally impressive muscles this shows how community engagement and bringing in the cash should be done.

GMFA should be congratulated on providing such a fun, interesting and rewarding way to spend the afternoon and the impressive crowd who turned up to cheer, jeer and laugh at the days proceedings should give themselves a pat on the back for supporting such a strong community focused gay charity.
Timberlina, our rough hostess for the afternoon arrived astride a roaring motor bike and Nick Heath did a good job of commentating including his wonderful ‘Grand National’ style job on the highlight of the afternoon; the 50m mince. This brought the whole crowd to it’s feet and the collection of teams from ‘Fatima & her Four Husbands’ -who were crowned winners of the sporting events.   (Although Fatima ended up in hospital in his Burkha after falling off a space hopper in the Equestrian event and dislocating a shoulder.) ‘The Dibb Dobbs Experience’ who were the top fundraisers, bringing in over £1,400 from sponsorships, while ‘Prissy Queens of the Knoll’ won best costume for their Priscilla Queen of the Desert-inspired outfits which were both delightfully impractical and endlessly funny.
 
Rugby star Ben Cohen and gay icon Kylie Minogue gave their support to this year’s event, canny old Ben donating a signed jock strap!  All money goes towards GMFA, Vauxhall City Farm, and The Friends of Spring Gardens.
 
This was a lovely afternoon, with huge grass roots support for an origination that knows how to engage with it’s target audience in an innovative and entertaining way, the fact that it had a sober side and some serious sexual health messages mixed in their too just made it all the better. Just sort the PA out next year lads, ok.

I left smiling and  wondering why we in Brighton don’t have anything quite like this event to liven up one of our endlessly dreary club/pub/booze weekends and raise money for a bloody good cause.

More information about GMFA here: