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Macmillan Coastal Garden trail 2019

Driftwood garden

The eighth annual Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail takes place over the weekend of the July 27-28.

2019 has turned out to be a rather special year, as eleven of the twenty-one gardens opening their gates are brand new to the trail.

Trail organiser, Geoff Stonebanks, says he was rather despondent at the start of the year, with many old favourites deciding to have a year of this season. Geoff has had to work quite hard to recruit some new venues and has ended up with eleven. There are eleven gardens in the city of Brighton & Hove, five in Telscombe and Peacehaven, four in Seaford and one in Alfriston. So, quite a bunch to choose from and visit across the two-day event!

This year, the trail patron, TV Gardener, BBC Gardener’s Question time panellist and The One Show’s gardening reporter, Christine Walkden will be on hand to talk to visitors and officially open the event in Geoff’s garden, Driftwood (garden 17) at 11am on July 27.

Geoff says: “visitors to the gardens in Seaford will be in for a real treat as one of the new venues is the old walled garden on The Egg, in Bishopstone old village, garden 18.” The garden is a hospice for hedgehogs after they have been at the Wildlife Rescue Ambulance Service, just North of Eastbourne.

31 Preston Park Avenue
31 Preston Park Avenue

Wild animals who have been hurt in any way can be taken there and once they are better they are released back where they came from. However, sometimes they are too vulnerable to be re-released back into the wild due to their injuries, so the hedgehogs go to the walled garden to live out the rest if their lives, free from predators, cars, chemicals, strimmers etc.  Currently there are six, although they only three tend to be seen. “Maybe you will be lucky!” says Geoff.

Meanwhile in Peacehaven, Farm View Therapies in Crocks Dean is one of the new ones and there is a brand new one in Saltdean too at 33 Wivelsfield Road.

11 Rugby Road
11 Rugby Road

11 Rugby Road, an open house favourite in the city is also opening its gate for the trail this year with Dan and Adam filling the garden with lovely wares to sell.

Full details on all the gardens, maps to locate them and images to see, can be found on the trail website, www.macmillangardentrail.co.uk 

Refer any enquiries to Geoff on 01323 899296.

Tickets to join the trail can be purchased in the first garden visited and cost £8 on both Saturday and Sunday, meaning, if you have the stamina you can see all 21 gardens, a bargain!

Alternatively, you can pay just £3 to see individual gardens, many of which are serving home-made teas and a few selling garden art. There will be a raffle for over £900 worth of artist donated work in Geoff’s garden and much more art for sale too.

Geoff Stonebank’s garden, Driftwood has appeared on BBC2 Gardeners’ World, was a finalist in Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Small Space and a finalist in Lewes District Business Awards 2018 as The Tourist Destination of the Year.

24 hours left to vote in the Golden Handbag Awards, 2019

Voting in the 2019 Golden Handbag Awards closes at midnight, on Monday, June 17.

IN the closest race for years, the top three nominations in seven different categories are presently separated by just ten votes in this years Golden Handbag Awards.

You still have time to register your vote, and make a difference in these categories to make sure the awards go to those who deserve them most.

Richard Hadfield
Richard Hadfield

The Golden Handbag Awards now in their twenty fourth year were created in 1995 by James Ledward the editor of Gscene to acknowledge everything fabulous about the city’s LGBT+ communities while putting a spotlight on the many volunteers who work selflessly behind the scenes all year round delivering effective front line services to LGBT people in the city.

Topping the bill this year is ex-Collabro star Richard Hadfield who will be supported by Mary Mac, Kara Van Park and Gabriella Parrish.

Your host for the evening will be the indomitable Lola Lasagne who will present the glittering award ceremony from the spectacular Moulin Rouge set from the Midsummer Ball being staged the night before at the Hilton Brighton Metropole.

To vote online, click here:

Headline sponsors of the glittering awards this year are Reveries Event Production and Design who are providing the set, stage, lighting design and production on the evening, E3 Events and PSAV®.

Once again this year Security and Event Solutions will provided security personnel for the evening and the tables in the ballroom will be dressed by Billie Lewis Promotions.

NYC Pride announce the speakers for Human Rights Conference

Raquel Willis, Janet Mock, and Tracey “Africa” Norman will speak at the Human Rights Conference during NYC Pride, who is the official host of WorldPride 2019 | Stonewall 50.

THE conference which will take place from 9am at the New York Law School in New York on June 24 and 25 will gather activists, public figures, policymakers, and students for a two-day immersive session that explores LGBT+ human rights around the world. Expect presentations and performances, politics and policies, and academics and activism!

Raquel Willis
Raquel Willis

Raquel Willis, Out Magazine’s Executive Editor, will lead the keynote fireside discussion along with Janet Mock and Tracey Norman for the panel entitled, Marsha Wasn’t Alone | A Brief History of Black Trans Power: On the History of Black Trans Resistance and Resilience in the US and How Black Trans Organisers are Shaping a New Future, Today.

Raquel said: “Fifty years after those future-defining moments at Stonewall, let it be clear that Black trans women have been positively impacting the LGBT+ community since then – and long before.

“I’m honoured to share space with powerful possibility models Tracy “Africa” Norman and Janet Mock and dive deep into our experiences navigating the world in our full truths.”

Tracey “Africa” Norman was the first African-American transgender woman model to appear on a box of Clairol in the 1970s. Originally from Newark, New Jersey, she’s modelled and has been photographed for publications such as Essence, Vogue Italia and Harper’s Bazaar India. Norman also had a magazine cover and life story spread in New York Magazine.

Janet Mock
Janet Mock

Janet Mock,  a writer, director and producer whose memoir, Redefining Realness, debuted on the New York Times Best Sellers list in 2014, added: “I’m thrilled to be sharing space with an icon like Tracey “Africa” Norman who blazed trails for girls like us and Raquel Willis whose work moves our culture to deepen their understanding and empathy for trans folk everywhere. For three trans women of colour to occupy this space 50 years after Stonewall is a full circle moment — an homage to veterans like Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P Johnson and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy.”

To purchase online single and two-day general admission passes for the Human Rights Conference, click here: 

Tickets include breakfast, lunch, and coffee break networking throughout each day.

WorldPride 2019 | Stonewall 50 is comprised of more than 25 different events for LGBT+ and allied people during June. Throughout the course of the celebrations, all WorldPride events will adhere to the theme, Millions of Moments of Pride.

For more information, click here:

REVIEW: Plenty @Chichester Festival Theatre

Premiered in 1978 at a time when Britain was divided by industrial unrest and enjoying a fatally wounded Government, Plenty is a tale of two periods – 1943-47 and 1953 to 1962.

THE action which is episodic flashes back and forth between occupied France and the England of the Festival of Britain and Suez crisis.

In Susan Traherne, playwright David Hare creates a strong feminist character, but one deeply flawed. Her teenage war exploits create in her a positive vision of the future – hope and prosperity for all.

But she rapidly descends though a strange semi-lesbian bohemian existence to a psychotic mess, unable to cope with life or the people around her. Rachael Stirling gives a stunning performance as the ever-declining Susan, who can find solace in nothing and whose promising life seems totally wasted.

Stirling commands the stage and is on it almost every minute of the production, storming around its bare expanses and pushing aside all who come near her.

Rory Keenan as her long-suffering husband is witty and dry as a self-assured diplomat but soon his surprising windfall wealth becomes the cause of the couple’s eventual downfall “too much money” he concludes, when he no longer has that wealth.

Anthony Calf is outstanding as dry as dust ambassador and later Foreign Office mandarin who feels totally betrayed by the Government Ministers who have lied to him about Suez. Though we and Susan both have a kind of affection for his chicanery, Hare ironically makes him a kind of hero of conscience.

And through the words of a third mandarin – Sir Andrew Charleston (played by Nick Sampson) Hare’s contempt for the manoeuvrings of Whitehall is made explicit. Sir Andrew remarks that when Britain had an empire there were 600 people at the Foreign Office to administer it; now the empire is being dismantled there are more than 6000 engaged in the process.

The sarcasm of the diplomats is matched by Susan’s growing political awareness. She compares the parachuting of troops to the Suez Canal with the allies dropping into 1940’s France “At least we landed in countries where we were wanted” she says caustically.

The playwright has little to praise Brussels for. His characters describe it as a “debilitating place” a reference written 40 years ago that in Brexit Britain raised a big laugh. Hare also talks about the 30 million displaced people wandering across borders in the 1940’s which for sure resonates with a modern audience.

Kate Hewitt directs the play with speed, clarity and vigour and the scenic effects, particularly the play’s finale, are stunning.

On one level Plenty works as statement of Britain’s loss of purpose and position on the world stage and on another as the personally tragic self-destruction of a woman bent on finding meaning where there is none.

Plenty is at the Chichester Festival Theatre until June 29.

Review by Brian Butler

Draguation: new queer student night at Patterns

Draguation, a new regular student night, launches with the queer graduation party Queers Out for Summer at Patterns, Brighton on Thursday, August 1 from 7pm.

ORGANISED by the Drag Society, and designed for meeting new people and making new friends, Queers out for Summer features queer performers, including: drag superstar FRUIT, Drag Society president the Prince of Persia, Youtube sensation Kelsey Ellison, queerlesque and parody singer Oliver Hooters, plus DJ Jumeau who’ll be spinning queer pop party anthems.

The organisers say: “Get ready to throw your grad cap and tassels in the air like you just don’t care for the first queer graduation party!”


Event: Draguation: Queers Out for Summer

When: Thursday, August 1

Time: 7pm.

Where: Patterns, 10 Marine Parade, Brighton BN2 1TL

Price: £6

To book tickets online, click here:

COMPETITION: Win a pair of tickets to the Golden Handbag Show

Gscene has three pairs of tickets to give away as competition prizes to Brighton’s Gay Oscars, the Golden Handbag Awards.

TO win a pair of tickets answer the following question. Who is the host each year at the Golden Handbag Awards at the Hilton Brighton Metropole?

Email your answer to info@gscene.com, by Tuesday, June 18 at noon. Include your address and mobile number with your answer on the email so winners can be notified immediately.

Richard Hadfield
Richard Hadfield

This year’s Golden Handbag Awards, will be headlined by ex-Collabro star Richard Hadfield, Mary Mac, Gabriella Parrish and Kara Van Park.

The annual awards ceremony takes place in the magnificent surroundings of the Oxford Suite Ballroom at the Hilton Brighton Metropole on Sunday, June 23 at 7.30pm celebrating everything fabulous about LGBT+ Brighton & Hove.

The glittering award ceremony will this year be using the spectacular Moulin Rouge set from the Midsummer Ball being staged the night before in the same ballroom.

The awards, now in their twenty fourth year, celebrate everything fabulous about Brighton’s LGBT+ communities while also recognising the magnificent work done by LGBT+ volunteers all year round in Brighton & Hove.

Mary Mac
Mary Mac

All VIP tables have sold out, but a few tickets on public tables costing £20 each are still available from Prowler at 112 St James’s Street, Brighton. Prowler do not charge a booking fee so you need to attend in person at the shop and pay in cash.

If you experience difficulties securing a ticket to sit on the public tables email info@gscene.com OR telephone 01273 749 947.

Headline sponsors of the glittering awards this year are Reveries Event Production and Design who are providing the sensational Moulin Rouge set, stage, lighting design and production on the evening – E3 Events and PSAV®.

Once again this year Security and Event Solutions will provided security personnel for the evening and the tables in the ballroom will be dressed by Billie Lewis Promotions.

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