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Gay village street party in jeopardy

Brighton Pride Village Street Party
Sharon Barr, Chair of The Gay Village Party Ltd has announced that this years Village Street Party has been put in jeopardy due to Eristoff Vodka withdrawing their promised financial support.
The Gay Village Street Party had been in discussions with the vodka brand managers for the last six months. Last Friday without any warning Sharon Barr claims she was telephoned and told the main donation from Eristoff Vodka was being withdrawn. She claims no notice was given.
Sharon Barr
Sharon Barr

Sharon said:

“This is a huge blow to the event. Bacardi-Brown Foreman owners of the Eristoff brand had promised £15,000 towards this years event. The bars in return agreed to sell Eristoff as their favoured Vodka Brand  for 6 months.
“We are now so close to the event that I really cannot see us raising the funds needed to pull the event off. I am meeting with the Bars, Council and Police next week in order to decide what the next step will be. I urge ALL business’s in the St James Street area to pull together and donate as much money as possible to make this event work.”
“I will be able to give more information after the meeting on June 19.”
Bacardi-Brown  Foreman have been asked to comment.

 

 

Last call for teams to sign up for ‘Brighton Half Marathon Corporate Challenge’

Brighton Half Marathon 2013
Brighton Half Marathon 2013

Public places to run the Brighton Half Marathon are almost sold out. Organisers have issued a last call to anyone wishing to enter the race on February 16, 2014 either as part of a corporate team or as an individual runner.

More than half of the 11,000 available places were snapped up in the first month alone following the opening of registration  in April.

 The Brighton Half Marathon Corporate Challenge takes place as part of the Brighton Half Marathon and is designed as a team event to assist companies and organisations to build teamwork in the workplace and promote health and fitness, with the Corporate Challenge Trophy being presented to the team that has the lowest aggregate time of their first 3 runners.

The fastest team in the Brighton Half Marathon Corporate Challenge 2013 was L’Oréal, followed by runner up Transport for London and The Grand Brighton in 3rd place.

In 2013 there was also a trophy for ‘Best Fundraisers’ which was awarded to Worthing-based company Travel Places who raised over £4,000 for St Barnabas House hospice in Worthing, with nine of their staff members taking part.

Entry to the Corporate Challenge is integrated into the standard registration process, with entry fees of £30 for affiliated runners and £32 for non-affiliated runners including a goody bag and a medal at the finish.

To find more details, CLICK HERE:   

Over 40 teams are signed up to the Brighton Half Marathon Corporate Challenge 2014 so far.

The Brighton Half Marathon is organised by and the main fundraiser for Brighton based charity The Sussex Beacon, a unique centre providing innovative services to meet the changing needs of people living with HIV. Other official charities include WaterAid and Rise.

Partners for the 2014 race confirmed so far include the Seattle Hotel, Visit Brighton, Brighton & Hove City Council and Studio57 Clinic.

 

Brighton Half Marathon

 

 

 

‘Tainted Love’ with Actually Gay Men’s Chorus

Actually Gay Men's Chorus

Cabaret star Miss Jason will perform with Actually Gay Men’s Chorus when they take to the stage for  their new show Tainted Love as part of this year’s Pride celebrations.

The Chorus will perform iconic songs from the sixties to present day, written and performed by artists such as Adele, U2, the Beach Boys and Elton John, songs exploring the ecstasy, angst, devotion and despair associated with matters of the heart.

Musical Director Jason Pimblett, said:

“The theme of this year’s Pride, Gay Icons, gave us an ideal opportunity to explore more of a contemporary repertoire than audiences might expect.”

This is a welcome return to St Andrew’s for Miss Jason who performed with the Chorus in 2009 as part of their Fringe show, Coming Out of Make Up.

There will be two performances of Tainted Love at 7.30pm on Thursday 1 and Friday, August 2 at St Andrew’s Church, Waterloo Street, Hove.

Tickets are £10 with £8 concessions available at the door. Proceeds from the event will support the work of  Sussex Beacon and MindOut.

To book tickets online, CLICK HERE:

MIss Jason
MIss Jason

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brighton Bear Weekender

Brighton Bear Weekender

With less than three weeks to go until Brighton Bear Weekender 2013, now is the perfect time to buy your wristband. You don’t need one to enjoy the weekend, but it costs only £5, helps the promoters stage the event and brings you these amazing advantages:

• 10% discount on alcoholic drinks at the Welcome Night Party at 112 Church Street on Friday June 28 from 8-11pm

• Reduced entry to Bear Cave at Subline on Friday 28 from 11pm-3am

• Free entry to Bear Shaft at the Basement Club at Legends on Saturday June 29 from 8-11pm

* £2.50 bottled beers, selected alcopops, house single spirit and mixer, and pints of Carling at Bear Shaft & Legends main bar  on Sunday June 30 from 8-10pm

•  £2 off entry to Come to Daddy club night at Club Envy on Saturday from 11pm-3am

• 15% discount at Nice’n’Naughty, St. James’s Street, Brighton (all weekend)

• Two-for-one entry at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton

•  £2 off a beard trim at Jackson’s Barber shop, in Manchester Street, Brighton throughout all of June

• £5 off one-day entry or weekend pass at Brighton Sauna (all weekend)

You can order your wristband for home delivery (if you’re quick) or for collection at the Welcome Night Party at 112 Church Street, together with one of their stylish vests, t-shirts or hoodies, at brightonbearweekender.com – hurry before they sell out!

All profits from the events and merchandise sales will go to the Rainbow Fund, a local charity that awards grants to local LGBT/HIV organisations providing front line services to the community.

For More information about Brighton Bear Weekender, CLICK HERE: 

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Dance World Cup comes to Brighton

Dance World Cup

The Dance World Cup 2013 is taking place in Brighton & Hove at the Brighton Dome complex from July 1-6. It is the first time a mainland UK destination has been chosen to host the event which is designed to bring young performers from around the globe together through the language of dance.

The event is expected bring economic benefit in excess of £2.5 million to the city. A record-breaking 3,000 competitors from over 24 countries have already registered to take part in the event, which last year attracted 2,000 participants to Austria.

Entrants aged from 3-25 years will compete in an array of dance genres including ballet, national, modern, jazz, show dance, tap, song and dance, street and hip hop.

Each year over 18,000 dancers take part in a series of heats in their own countries to qualify for a place in the final competition which is seen as a showcase for the best children and youth dancers in the world.

An opening ceremony led by Brighton & Hove mayor, Denise Cobb, will see competitors, with their national flags and mascots dressed in national costume, gathered on the lawn of the Royal Pavilion on July 1 at 3.45 pm.

Local school children have been invited to attend the event over the course of the week and are encouraged to champion competitors from other countries as well as cheering on the England team.

A gala performance to showcase the competition winners will take place at the Brighton Dome Concert Hall on Saturday July 6 2013.

BHCC’s assistant chief executive, Paula Murray, was instrumental in the bid to bring the event to the city and the VisitBrighton Convention Bureau has acted as conduit providing support to the organisers, facilitating accommodation bookings and arranging Greeters to welcome people to the city. All event participants will be given city maps and a VisitBrighton Delegate Deals card which offers a range of discounts at stores and restaurants across the city.

Paula Murray adds:

“We’re very happy to have brought this important event to the city and look forward to giving the young dancers a warm welcome. There are so many different types of dance and the competition is an ideal platform to highlight what’s on offer. The event is a fantastic showcase for the skills and dedication of these young people in their chosen sport and should inspire our own budding dancers to aim high.”

 

 

Summer ‘Breeze’ hots up!

Photo: Transport Marketing
Photo: Transport Marketing

The number 77 bus to Devil’s Dyke moves up a gear from June 22 when it will be transformed into a seven days a week open top bus service, with additional evening buses, right through to September 1

Leave your car at home and relax in your grandstand seat while the bus breezes you through Brighton & Hove and out to the Downs. Buses return from Devil’s Dyke right up to 8.30pm, you can even pop up for a summer evening stroll.

Two open-top buses per hour will work the Devil’s Dyke route. Each of them is low-floor and accessible to people travelling in wheelchairs or pushing buggies.

Up to two children per adult go free on the 77 bus.

An adult return to Devil’s Dyke is £5.00, or buy an Explorer ticket for unlimited bus travel. Senior citizens’ bus passes are accepted too.

Explorer  tickets allow unlimited travel on virtually all bus services, including the weekend 78 bus to the heart of Stanmer Park and the weekend 79 bus to Ditchling Beacon. One day versions of the Explorer can be bought from Brighton & Hove’s bus drivers for £7. Two people can save with a Family Explorer for £10 which includes up to three children.

Each Breeze bus service offers the chance for motorists to reduce their carbon footprint and help reduce traffic congestion at popular local attractions like Stanmer Park. The services also open up hard-to-reach areas of the Downs for the many city residents who don’t have access to a car.

To help you enjoy your journey even more, there’s now a podcast showing all the things you can see from the top of the 77. Printed route guides are also available on the bus.

Leaflets with information on each of the three Breeze bus routes (77, 78, 79) are available from www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/breezebuses or at libraries, council offices and bus offices, or by calling the council on 01273 292480.

The National Trust’s Summer of Adventure is a great way to combine an open top bus ride with activities for children at Devil’s Dyke. Or take the weekend 79 bus to Ditchling Beacon and enjoy a six mile walk on the South Downs Way to the Dyke.

The Breeze up to the Downs project is supported by Brighton & Hove City Council, The National Trust and the South Downs National Park Authority.

 

 

City Council proposes ‘Tourism Advisory Board’

 

Brighton & Hove CouncilBrighton & Hove City Council is seeking approval to establish an official tourism advisory board to help shape the future of the city’s tourism strategy. The proposal will be presented to the Economic Development & Culture Committee on  June 20.

Tourism provides an estimated economic benefit of £772 million to local businesses including hotels, restaurants and retailers as well as supporting over 18k jobs

Currently, VisitBrighton , is responsible for the city’s official tourism marketing with  a small marketing and PR team working to promote the city as a unique destination to visitors.

The VisitBrighton website provides online information about events and facilitates accommodation bookings as well as promoting over 400 partner businesses. A demand for online information has seen traffic to the website increase rapidly in recent years and unique visitor numbers to the site regularly exceed 150,000 each month.

The introduction of an advisory board is seen as a step to involve  local businesses and utilise their experience and expertise for the benefit of the city’s tourism economy. It is envisaged that board members would include a range of tourism stakeholders including figures from private companies, education establishments, tourism associations and local councillors.

The advisory board would be a conduit for businesses to formally channel their views to help shape current and future strategies for the city. Members would not be paid for their involvement and their role would be for the mutual benefit of the tourism industry as a whole and not for the promotion of their individual organisation.

Establishing a tourism advisory board was one of the recommendations suggested by independent consultants that were employed to explore how tourism is organised and supported in the city.

Brighton & Hove City Council’s head of tourism and leisure, Adam Bates, says:

“Tourism management has changed significantly in recent years and we’re facing challenging times. VisitBrighton already has strong relationships with hundreds of businesses in the city but we recognise the benefit of engaging more tourism stakeholders and giving a voice to those that have a vested interest in the tourism economy. We see the engagement of an advisory board as a positive step towards supporting the successful branding of Brighton & Hove and ensure its position as a leading UK tourist destination for years to come.”

Brighton & Hove Council

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Amen Corner: James Baldwin: National Theatre: Review

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Since losing her unborn child, Sister Margaret (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) has put herself in the hands of the Lord. He’s made her a preacher in a small but thriving Harlem church, and he’s guided her hand as she’s brought up her now 18 year old son David single-handedly.

But the Lord now seems to be letting Sister Margaret down. Her congregation are bitching and scheming behind her back, and David can be found piano-playing and drinking in jazz clubs. And to top it all, her estranged husband Luke has turned up, ill and belligerent and is drawing David away from her with his worldly ways.

In this revival of black gay writer James Baldwin’s debut play, set in the 1950s, we’re treated to a sparse yet effective split layer set in the Olivier: above is the church hall, below is Margaret and her sister Odessa’s (Sharon D Clarke) kitchen where an all-black cast play out this passionate story of loving, losing and control-freakery – for nice as she is, it’s clear that Sister Margaret needs to be top dog at church and at home. For the next 160 minutes we see her set to lose all her control. Will her faith crumble? By God it won’t!

Punctuated by rebel-rousing gospel stomp-alongs, The Amen Corner says nothing very new but it does say that ‘nothing very new’ very well. Boys grow up and want to separate from their mothers, power struggles in communitites have been going on since the beginning of time, but it’s all new to Margaret of course and through her, it’s new to us too.

Faultless acting from the whole cast and deft direction from Rufus Norris make this production a joyous National Theatre night out.

Jean-Baptiste plays Margaret with a sort of round-shouldered, hang-dog weariness. She perks up whenever her pride is under fire (which is often) but her look tells us that deep down she knows the game’s up. Clarke as Odessa has a deep, dark voice full of gravitas and solidity. Odessa obviously cares deeply for her sister, and there’s a touching scene when she helps a deflated Margaret get undressed and into her preacher’s gown ready to fight her final battle with the obstreperous church above and it feels like a mother getting a sad little child into her Sunday best clothes (it helps that Clarke is twice the size of Jean-Baptiste).

The laughs are provided by Cecilia Noble as Sister Moore, and they are belly laughs, so carefully crafted is her performance as the church gossip and all round snake-in-the-grass.

With her white rimmed Mary Whitehouse specs, her breathy butter-wouldn’t-melt voice and her insistence that she’s pure in both thought and deed, she’s the perfect foil to the earnest, earthy and tormented Sister Margaret.

In one glorious scene Sister Moore dances herself into a righteous (and self-righteous) sweat, as if trying to out-religion everyone. It’s a curious, stompy, confrontational little number which begins like a playground taunt and ends in a religious fervour, and it brought the house down. So well thought out is this tiny piece that I reckon it’s the bit of the play that most people will take home with them.

And then there’s the songs. You can’t really go wrong with gospel can you, especially when you’ve got bits of the London Community Gospel Choir on stage.

There are only two (purposefully) discordant notes. The first is as the lights go up on the second half and we hear gospel hummed, but it’s out of time, out of step, out of harmony. Then, as the play comes to an end, gospel is replaced totally by jazz. Jazz has ‘won’, gospel has ‘lost’, reflecting what’s happened in Sister Margaret’s life.

Norris’s direction is full of small but significant moments like this that punctuate but don’t overtake. When the agitators in the congregation try to rattle Odessa into giving up on her sister, their nasty outpourings are accompanied by the snap, snap, snap of wooden chairs being opened, as if they’re animals circling her and snapping at her feet.

It’s touches like this that make this production outstanding along, of course, with the pitch-perfect performances and the soaring, timeless songs. I walked out of the National on a cloud, wanting to shout ‘go tell it to the mountain, sisters!’…..but I refrained.

Event: The Amen Corner

Where: The National Theatre, South Bank, London

When: Various times. Booking til 14 August

Tickets: £12-£34

For more information: CLICK HERE:

 

 

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