Call us now

Author: Eric Page

BOOK REVIEW: He’s Always Been My Son by Janna Barkin

Posted on by Eric Page

He’s Always Been My Son

A Mother’s Story about Raising Her Transgender Son

Janna Barkin

This inspiring and moving story, told with great passion and gentle humour gives us the inside story of an extraordinary family. Barkin’s engaging and entertaining prose allows us to gather first-hand experience, frustrations, learning, insight and humour as they recount the emotional and uplifting journey of raising a transgender son.

Janna Barkin’s family has come a long way since their child, Amaya, first told them he was a boy and not a girl and this charming memoir charts the family’s experiences of raising Amaya, from birth through to adulthood.

The book shows us how it’s not just the parenting; but the friends, family, wider community and people living shared lives that all contribute to raising healthy and happy adults.  The books has may different points of view with chapters from Amaya’s grandparents, family and friends sharing personal stories of the support  and learning shared by the wider community and family.

Barkin wisely then brings all this learning and discoveries her family has encountered and provides a ‘care package’ of advice for families facing similar issues. There is a glossary of terms and a list of hand-picked support sources.

Written with warmth and humour, ‘He’s Always Been My Son’ reminds us to accept others for who they are, guiding us in how to support the development of young people into their full adult potential and will offer support and inspire anyone who reads it. Barkins’ story of her family and their adventures in life is wonderfully warm, fun and has a simple clear honesty about it that all parents will be able to connect wit. It’s a balance: the soft unconditional care of motherhood with the gentle academic sifting of hard granite truths from conventional (and unconventional) wisdom that allow gender questioning folk to construct their own firm foundations in life, elicit their own solutions to the problems presented to them and learn from this educator teaching from experience.

As she says herself in her heart-warming, shrewd and candid blog

I feel called to tell our story. Making the decision to go public was a challenging one. I certainly don’t want to put my son, myself, or anyone in danger. But I know my silence would not make the world safer for transgender people. My silence would not provide comfort to other parents, nor tell them they are not alone. And it’s more than that: by sharing our stories, we can give voice to the voiceless. Our family is fortunate for what we have, for where we live, and we are grateful. We have the strong support of our extended family and a wide circle of friends, a great number of loved ones who fully accept our transgender child. We have good jobs and good medical coverage. We are white. We live in an accepting community.

I am humbled to remember every day that not everyone shares these privileges.

Janna’s website is a warm and welcoming place for other parents to lean and use the collated resource’s that they have found over the last few years, although it has a continental USA bias (as the family are American). The info, advice and guidance work for all parents; it’s simple, loving and considerate.

Out now, paperback or e-book. 

£12.99

For more info or to buy the book see the publisher’s website here

 

 

 

THEATRE REVIEW: Driving Miss Daisy @Theatre Royal

Posted on by Eric Page

Driving Miss Daisy

Theatre Royal

Set in Atlanta, Georgia, the story begins one day in 1948 when a prickly, 72-year-old Jewish widow, Daisy Werthan, crashes her car.  Deemed too old to drive, her son hires her a chauffeur, an African-American named Hoke Colburn. Daisy and Hoke’s relationship gets off to a rocky start, but as times change across the course of a 25 year backdrop of prejudice, inequality and civil unrest, a profound and life-altering friendship blossoms.

It’s more than 30 years since the play written by Alfred Uhry & the award winning film first gained its reputation and this celebration tour is impeccable, stripped back to its essentials.

This is a perfectly balanced cast, Sian Phillips as Miss Daisy captures the fierce but fragile nature of this woman whose humble beginnings and comfortable retirement dictate her relationship with the outside world.  Derek Griffiths as her driver Hoke Colburn who ages and changes along with her is terrific, and the two of them get the accents and attention to detail just right.  The eye contact, the pauses, the deference, the challenges,  are all superb reflections of the South Georgia of its day, and although Griffiths gets the best laughs, it’s the careful and inevitable descent into  delicate brittle old age which Phillips nails with utter grace and charm.  Griffiths and Phillips have a believable relationship which starts with grudging good manners and ends with heart-breaking tenderness and care. They both look out and look after each other and become each other’s greatest friends and this ongoing friendship – which jumps through decades as the play progresses – is handled well by this stellar pairing. Teddy Kempner  portrayal of Daisy’s son  Boolie is a masterclass in deferral as well, it’s understated and allows the true focus of this story to remain on the principal pair whilst giving the plot just enough of a push along and keeping the narrative tension pleasantly taught each time he appears.  These three are directed by Richard Beecham in a uncomplicated way allowing the splendid acting to glow.

The play is a lovely handling of a horrible subject at a distance and although it’s been truncated there’s still enough ugliness in the world that these characters inhabit to bring the horror home. Both characters hold stereotyped attitudes which are challenged by the actions and behaviour of the others experience and then the connections of them both belonging to minorities being the targets of hate: the bombing of Daisy’s synagogue, the lynching of the father of Hoke’s childhood friend, the pernicious and pervading WASP attitudes and subtle white supremacy attitudes are all explored from different points of view, and all with a sheen of good southern manners.

Although the play was written more than thirty years ago, it’s soft but persistent message of hope, working hard to challenge prejudice and calling it out for what it is still relevant. It’s the steely softness of this play which makes it relevant, it’s so utterly polite in many ways and that masks the ugliness of racial segregation and the casual racist attitudes of the time.

My companion left welled up with tears, Phillips’s portrayal of Daisy in her twilight days is beautiful, touching & tender, capturing her humour and fragility at the same time and the final scene of Hoke feeding Miss Daisy her Thanksgiving pie is beautiful and touch perfect.

The set is simple, and subtle lights, sound scape and music give ambience and setting without any fuss at all, the car is a wheel on a stand, but it really doesn’t matter with this pair in the driving seat of this play.  There were a few sound hiccups and both the first act and end of the play were hasty; a slow lights down and moment to reflect would have ended much better than a hasty leap up for the applause.

Driving Miss Daisy reminds us of the cycles of human hatred and violence, how we can change them by changing ourselves, that little things matter and that the horrible times of the past are still relevant to us living today, more so considering the ugly rise in intolerance and hatred once again, but it’s a beautiful tender exploration of trust friendship and uplifting to watch.

Until Saturday, September 23

Theatre Royal

Brighton

New Road

 

 

 

BOOK REVIEW: Carnivore by Jonathan Lyon

Posted on by Eric Page

Carnivore

By Jonathan Lyon

This book follows the misadventures of Leander: Queer, druggie, manipulator, friend,  lover, fighter, liar.  Gifted with synaesthesia; a condition where the senses confuse and enhance information and also in constant chronic pain he seeks to rent himself out for BDSM sex as a chance to literally feel something different, or does he? Leander’s recanting of this tale is utterly unreliable in this book and the author enjoys playing with us as much as Leander seems to enjoy the same toying.  We jump right in and follow Leander’s decent into his primal world, described in extra intense tones and the prose sometimes has a life of its own.   With echoes of the narratives of Irvine Welsh, this chemical and narcotic story weaves a mysterious path in and out of reality and perception. The narrator’s perceptions are often twisted by pain, anger, clashing senses or huge doses of heroin so it’s got a pretty gaudy kick to it.

The book pivots half way through and the carefully set up states seems to unravel and hunter becomes hunted and twister is unwoven, there’s not a single normal person in this book, everyone has a huge backstory and everyone is pretty vivid.  I read it in flashes, it reads in chunks and the author has taken time to ensure the reader experiences the world though the drug fuelled warped senses of the anti-hero.  Lyon manages to keep most of this under control and although I wasn’t entirely sure at some parts who was talking to who or what was happening, I just rolled with it and went with the punched.

It’s refreshing to read such a horrible but totally Queer protagonist whose embrace of sexuality and opportunity is fully, apologetically bent. This books reminded me of  Exquisite Corpse, by Poppy Z Brite, it’s got that ‘smack in the face’ (as well as in the veins) quality about it.

There’s a fair amount of gruesome violence in the book and paired with such an apparent series of characters the volte-face of the final few chapters is not quite as plausible as the pace of the constantly rising narrative tension. However that’s a small gripe for what is an interesting and arresting book and if you are a fan of twisted crime, murder or druggy thrillers then you’ll find this book enjoyable.

Lyon has a strong voice and a curious crepuscular turn of phrase, one which he unleashes with full force in this book.  His personal experience of pain and intoxication is also transferred and then carefully explored in the book and provides a jolting  constant background hum/scream which I found difficult to shift after putting this book down.

This is a strong debut novel from Jonathan Lyon. He has the face of an angel but an inquiring and debauched imagination which has given us this compulsive psychoneurotic take on the crime thriller.

£12.99

For more info or to buy the book see the publisher’s website here

 

THEATRE REVIEW: Flights of Fancy by Veronica Thompson

Posted on by Eric Page

Flights of Fancy
Veronica Thompson

Directed by Nathan Evans

With a fake plane safety announcement opening this show started flat and I prayed we managed to get off the ground. The premise, worn out and only workable these days by the filth that is PamAnn could be jettisoned at take off with no harm to this curious and well wrought production.

Veronica Thompson takes us, via costumes, songs, burlesque, confessionals and video interludes on a journey across the experiences of women and of exploring quite who and what she is herself. American, of Korean decent, living in London, travelling the globe Thompson is a Citizen of the World, who travels as widely through identity and sexuality as they do time zones. What we are presented with is a wistful chimera of charm, someone who wants us to accept what we are presented with, before being surprised by transformation within twist, within pivot enveloping transformation. It’s a dizzy journey of tease and reveal, but with an intellectual deconstructive charge behind it and Thompsons comforting smile all the way.

It’s a collection of set pieces, which are woven together under the guise of a plane trip hopping around the world. This mostly works, although it’s a borderline clichéd line to hang off. Luckily the set pieces are strong enough to pull away from the annoying in-flight interruptions and each video examines some curious and crepuscular pressure to look or conform. We have a manic make up artist – the very triumph of sad self delusion, the wife of an Asian dictator in her gilded prison, killing on whim, before she is perhaps faced with the same fate, a jingoistic  North Korean who is desperate and hungry, a lovely sharp piece about right-on folk’s casual racism & the assumptions of privilege and a video on the ongoing gentrification of Dalston which is ironically being made by an international artist who chooses to film there.

The monologues which segue into songs, some howls of rage which themselves morph into singing the triumphant song of the body electric, others sad melodies racked with pathos before transforming into self aware celebrations of destiny and identity are extraordinary, like the most fantastical Fado and it’s here that Thompson is at her strongest. Taking lived experience, honing it down and sharing both the light and dark sides of her thoughts. One song following Thompson career trajectory ends in a surreal combination of talents which is as life affirmative as it is cautionary, but it’s a mark of this show that each time you think you’ve reached a dark place, that Thompson pulls a shining rabbit of hope and optimistic opportunity out of the situation. This had the audience smiling and laughing out loud each time. It’s a great way to live and a superb way to perform on stage. Profound Burleque!

Did I like the show well… I had my reservations, although the airhostess makes good stage sense I felt that Thompson had more than enough bloody raw presence to be able to move, shunt, jump and leap across the divides of the various pieces and be able to connect them in a more vibrant and original way. I wanted her to jettison the character along with the uniform. What I loved was the performer and performance. Growling, prowling with more than a hint of menace I longed for some real interaction with the audience. I suspect Thompson has an untapped ability innate here, although I’ve no doubt of her ability to hold and keep an audiences attention- to interact with it, off script would be interesting. The trust and charm is there in abundance.

But that small gripe about staging aside, this show is engaging and honest. The combination of effective sound-scape, atmospheric lighting and a cool prop of a suitcase which is used with effect makes this a superb show about intersectionality, self construction via talent and ultimatly about belonging.

When you are so much and so many in one where is home? Thompson ends this journey into herself and herstory by bringing us right up to date to London, now, where’s she’s single, happy and looking to the future, and although the journey getting here has been hard and long it’s been one of discovery, experience and hard won learning.

‘Flights of Fancy’ is utter celebration of the possibility of being truly, wonderfully yourself, where and whoever you happen to be, it’s a reverie rooted in reality.

Worth popping out for!

To book tickets see the Marlborough website here:

Until Saturday 15th
Marlborough Theater
Brighton

BOOK REVIEW: We’re queer and we should be here by Darryl Telles.

Posted on by Eric Page

We’re queer and we should be here

By Darryl Telles.

Darryl Telles’s lifelong passion for his beloved Tottenham Hotspur is a real passion, yet like other gay football supporters, he has had to endure decades of abuse and threats from homophobic fellow fans in a sport where discussing being gay or talk about homosexuality is still so awkward that there is not a single `out’ gay player in the top four tiers of the Football League. Just think about that for a moment, it’s the only sport without any out gay players, the only sport….even golfers are gay these days.

This is the story of his campaign against ugly homophobia in the beautiful game of football world, his work with the Gay Football Supporters Network (GFSN) and his attempts to advance the cause through constant campaigning, personal conversation and commitment and media publicity and TV interviews.  He is a member of Proud Lilywhites, Tottenham Hotspur’s official LGBT supporters group.

Learn more about the GFSN here

Telles tells us his story from his own viewpoint- that of a super fan, who’s also gay and of Asian descent and gives us an intersectional glimpse into the culture of the stands and he offers insight into the changes on the terraces, the changes in the country and the utter lack of change on the pitch. His background of football obsession is carefully played out against the social changes during  the Thatcher years, when being out meant you had to be a political homo. It was a difficult time and Telles suffered some serious challenges and abuse but ultimately overcame them.

Telles says “Most of the crowd are white, so you stick out because of your brown face. They’re singing the sort of chants that make you feel unwelcome, and not only because of your colour – they just can’t stand anyone who’s a poof, an arsebandit, a queer or a raving homosexual. And that’s exactly what you are…”

His ability to put things in context, to move on, to channel his passion for the beautiful game and want it to be beautiful and inclusive for all is empowering. His focus and commitment to what’s right makes this memoir an interesting read. Even if you’re no football fan you’ll find this a curious and engaging book filled with interesting anecdotes, including one where him and Justin Fashanu get drunk in  a Dublin pub, exchange sexual exploits and swap tips on where to pull later on that night.

As Telles himself states, football still has a long way to go in rooting out homophobic attitudes, but in the same way racism has been shoved almost out of the game, Telles shows how football clubs and fans are open to change, change is happening at every game and eventually he hopes to sit and watch gay and straight players on the same pitch playing & scoring for the same side.

We’re queer and we should be here is a compelling and important narrative told with passion.

Out now

£12.99

For more info or to buy the book see the publisher’s website here.

 

BOOK REVIEW: Manhood: The Bare Reality by Laura Dodsworth

Posted on by Eric Page

Manhood: The Bare Reality

By Laura Dodsworth

WARNING: This review does contain pictures of penises. It may not be work safe. Be warned. There are no knob puns though.

These days we are all less bound by gender and traditional roles, but is there more discussion about what being a man means.  From veteran to vicar, from porn addict to prostate cancer survivor, men from all walks of life share honest reflections about their bodies, sexuality, relationships, fatherhood, work and health in this pioneering book.

Following on from her previous study & photo essay, Bare Reality: 100 Women, Their Breasts, Their Stories, Dodsworth has turned her gentle, enquiring attention to men and their dicks.

Stuffed with plenty of insights and curious asides this book bares more than just penises, and the thoughts and obsessions of them men who are attached to them.  It uncovers the state of modern masculinity and how insecurities about an organ which is hardly ever seen consumes and obsesses men to the point where they change their lives to accommodate and deal with their feelings about it.  Straight men hardly ever get the honest opportunity to look at other cocks or discuss their dicks in a rational way, and unlike gay men may only ever handle one penis their whole lives.

See the Bare Reality website for more background and information about this series of books

Size matters (to men) this book says over and over again, along with the incongruities of nudity and the strengths and vulnerabilities that this brings forth.

All one hundred of these interviews are intimate and exploratory and give us candid, honest and sometimes difficult insights in what it means to be a man in the 21st Century. Manhood shows us the spectrum of ‘normal’, revealing men’s penises and bodies in all their diversity and glory, helping in dispelling body image anxiety and myths.

Sensitive and compassionate, Manhood may both surprise and reassure you. It may even make you reconsider what you think you know about men, their bodies and masculinity and make you look at your own dick (if you have one), or dicks in general  in a whole new light.

Out now £12.99

For more info or to buy the books click here:

BOOK REVIEW: Straight Expectations by Peggy Cryden

Posted on by Eric Page

Straight Expectations

The Story of a Family in Transition

Peggy Cryden

A memoir of a mother’s experience of raising both a gay son and a gay, transgender son that acknowledges her own upbringing in an adopted family. Peggy, mother of two and hardworking professional in the field of mental health uses her lived experience, a great deal of humour and some startlingly simple insights to guide us through her personal narrative of raising children with her partner from birth to early adulthood.

Cryden as author offers insights with an engaging and pleasant prose, keeping both the energy of the story going along with the necessary learning and sharing from the growing as her family continues to challenge, change and develop into healthy and well-adjusted people.

Cryden allows us into her family life with a constructive viewpoint but doesn’t aim to gloss over or hide any of the difficulties and challenges along the way, but provides hope and clear constructive advice and further resources for other parents of LGBT children.

There are some wonderful anecdotes and stories featured in this book, and the book progresses up the current day with some honest and refreshing comments on her own personal journey into self-discovery and parenting.

An excellent book and most useful to any parent/s experiencing gender diversity matters with their children or who yearn to learn from lived and loving experience in how to equip their children to live without labels and grow up in a world apparently obsessed with them. With a short introduction from Janet E Goldstein-Ball to contextualise the flexible use of pronouns in the unfolding narrative.

Timely, insightful , recommended.

Paperback

£9.99

For more info or to buy the book see the publisher’s website* here:

*Jessica Kingsley Publishers is an independent company, committed to publishing books that make a difference.

The company publish books for professionals and general readers in a range of subjects. Are well known for book lists on the autism spectrum, social work, and arts therapies and have started to publish extensively in the fields of LGBTQ, gender and intersectionality, mental health, counselling, palliative care and practical theology.

They also have an interesting range of graphic novels across these subject areas and books for children, on issues including bereavement, depression and anger. Well worth checking out the books lists of this innovative fully inclusive publishers.

 

 

 

BOOK REVIEW: The Merry Millionaire Duology by John Wells

Posted on by Eric Page

The Merry Millionaire Duology (second book Pomp & Circumstance)

By John Wells

These books, thick and detailed follow the antics and adventures of society gent Captain Ronald Fry and his crush and working class sidekick Mervyn Watson as they travel around the world of the pre Second World War years.

This is a story of privilege and indulgence, of luxury and secrets of seeming to be one thing, but being another and it’s also a story of white privilege in last days of imperial exploitation and indulgence of the European (and particular British) elites of the time and a story of gay love and sex lived without shame or restraint, but in a discreet way forced by the mores of the time.

Well’s prose is heavy with detail and he crafts his words richly, to ensure the background, weather, smells and colour are fully described so we feel immersed in his representations of these luxurious and often secret worlds.

His narrative follows the adventures of Fry and Watson on cruise ships, hotels, gentlemen’s clubs and many other places across the word and he is particularly good on his descriptions of Cairo and Egypt. It’s a kind of gay Great Gatsby and has that same slightly repugnant edge of ever-so immoral people whose cares are beyond mere money and who can buy themselves out of (and into) trouble, and do so with little affect on their conscience.

In the context of it’s time the books work but there’s some uncomfortable reflections from our modern social norms, but such was the behaviours of these people at the time. The early part of the books follow the development of  Fry’s mentoring of Watson, after the ravages of the first world war and its impact on the British social structure. Fry’s largess is spread all across Watson’s family and he then partners up with Fry to begin their travels. Fry as the bent gent and benefactor, Watson as the erotic enabler. It’s a curious mix but works if you like a tub thumping shirt ripper of a yarn.

Well’s relishes geographic descriptions and the books, although pretty hefty and thick have an enjoyable narrative tempo about them. His vivid and careful crafted descriptions of the seemingly endless places that Watson and Fry find themselves are evocatively suggested.

He suggests that the books are based on true events and actual people, now all dead, who’s names have been changed to preserve their anonymity and although I find this a stretch too far on the incredulous scale there’s no doubt that men like these would have existed, travelled and thrived (indeed they still do) and Wells does a good job of keeping us interested and absorbed in characters who are not always such likeable people.

Pomp and Circumstance, which is book two of The Merry Millionaire follows these two gay gents and their further adventures, back in a sumptuous described Egypt again but with an edge of murder mystery and the macabre about it, but still with a focus on the shadow and glamour of this shady gay pair as they exploit their privilege, money and raw male beauty, along with the gun-boat diplomacy of their Britishness and Empire connections to explore the more secret and gay focused places during the gilded days of the end of the Jazz age.

For more info or to buy the books see the author’s website here or you can buy e-versions of the book from Amazon

BOOK REVIEW: Timber by Dale Lazarov & Player

Posted on by Eric Page

Timber

By Dale Lazarov & Player

In Timber, a hunky third-wheel bachelor goes on a quiet hike in his solitude after his paired up friends disturb his sleep by having endless early morning sex in the campgrounds. After completely losing his way in a slightly magical forest, he meets an uncannily masculine threesome of lumberjacks who are very friendly, very touchy smiley and then take him to their cabin for rescue of a different kind and reveal their true, devastatingly hot natures in bed!

Timber is published by Sticky Graphic Novels, which was founded by Dale Lazarov for wordless, gay character-based, sex-positive graphic novels (think hyper colour filthy cartoons…) to which you can add your own imagination and story as you’re lead along into these seriously erotic wonderlands of beautifully illustrated and coloured manfuck pagan fantasy.

Hot, fun and affirmative this is a sensual and stimulating treat with a knowing wink and a huge thick throbbing sense of humour.

Out now, for more information about Lazarov’s books or to buy this book see the Bruno Gmuender publisher’s website here.

Pride Cymru 2017 – colourful, brilliant and proud!

Posted on by Eric Page

Pride Cymru 2017 and Welsh Pride came together in Cardiff City Centre for the The Big Weekend over the August Bank Holiday.

In glorious sunshine, in full glorious voice and with a thumping sense of fabulousness Pride Cymru launched on the evening of Friday, August 25 leading to a full rainbow dragon strewn weekend of wonderful LGBT+ inclusive events across the city.

The Pride Cymru parade, snaked and danced its way through the city centre, up and along Queens Street then down the full length of St Mary’s Street, the main city artery, past the historic Cardiff Castle, whose battlements were bestrewed with rainbow flags for the weekend and ending up outside City Hall Lawns where the main pride stage and events had been set up.

The Pride Cymru procession included all the main Welsh political parties showing their support for LGBT+ rights in Wales, Unions and public sector groups were very strong, trans, queer and activists groups were very well represented, (although a bit too far back in the march behind the corporate sponsors, who, as is becoming increasingly familiar, were well represented).

Banks, supermarkets (including Tesco who had pride of place at the start of the march for some corporate sponsorship reason, in front of ANY of the LGBT+ groups), building societies and a slew of sports groups, city LGBT venues and religious groups, all the emergency services, LGBT+ and Gay choirs, a hefty handsome Leathermen contingent and the gloriously welcome Cardiff Chapter of the sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who blessed us all for being so outstanding!

The boys, girls, gender non-specific non binary people, parents, lovers, friends and allies of Wales’ LGBT+ community were out in strength too, marching with Pride with lots of placards showing commitment to Europe, to inclusiveness, to tolerance and working together to challenge bigotry and hate. The sun shone on the parade and the citizens of Cardiff lined the streets cheering, waving and being full-voiced in their support as only a Welsh crowd can.

Welsh Pride had combined with a big Cardiff event called ‘The Big Weekend’ to provide a whole bank holiday weekend of events, music, food and community stalls of a wide variety and one of the biggest and best funfairs I’ve ever seen at any Pride event, ever (and I love a good ride…..).

The ever-popular Big Weekend was always one of the key events in Cardiff’s calendar turning the City Hall Lawn and the streets surrounding the civic Centre into a carnival of colour, with fun fair rides, amusements and entertainment from some of the UK’s biggest names in music.

Now, Pride Cymru has brought back the Big Weekend reinventing it and making it bigger and better than ever before.  The Pride committee had secured more than £300,000 of fundraising to secure the event (and further Pride events in the future). Tickets were an astonishingly reasonable £2 per day, yes two whole British Pounds for all of that! And prices inside the Pride festival were not too bad, although from a Welsh perspective a £5 pint is expensive.

The well planned event surged with huge crowds all weekend, well-behaved and serious mix of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicity and types of people.

The Pride Cymru crew had given some good thought to the layout of the area, with stages, toilets, food stalls, community area all given enough space and flows and sitting areas kept spotless and safe by a fun team of volunteers who worked hard all weekend to ensure everyone enjoyed themselves.

Main Sponsors of Pride Cymru ticketSource.co.uk – provided a superb and comfortable VIP area but the whole area was comfortably managed for ease of access for all, including a high dependency unit and best views of the main stage from the disabled area. There was a cabaret tent all day Saturday which transformed into the Glee Club comedy tent all day Sunday, a Ministry Of Sound Dance Arena which throbbed to the sounds of superb local DJ’s and brought the younger people of Cardiff out to dance and a focus on the local talent on the main stage on the Sunday.

Charlotte Church wowed crowds during the finale of Pride Cymru with her superb festival set of The Late Night Pop Dungeon combing superb eclectic music mixed with her enthusiastic, and inspiring activism. It’s so good to hear artists with some understanding of what it’s like being young and LGBT+ or just living in a community where life’s not so easy for you.

Headlining the three-day line-up, thousands of fans went wild as Charlotte Church took to the stage to perform following a UK tour with a line up the day before of some famous Welsh Tribute acts and some of the UK’s Premier Drag Performers, including our very own Lola Lasagne who wowed the crowds with their own engaging and entertaining set, giving the Welsh singers a run for their money as Lola’s beautiful voice echoed off the carved writhing Welsh dragons of City Hall. I’m pretty sure one or two of them winked back at Lola.

Acts performed outside the Civic Centre, with Fun Lovin’ Criminals having played on Friday, Into the Ark on Saturday and Charlotte Church on Sunday.

Stephen Doughty MP, of Cardiff South and Penarth joined the singers on stage to sing classic Queen song Crazy Little Thing Called Love with his own group House of Chords and there was plenty of other talent mixed in throughout the day.

As a Welsh Gay man, returning home for this superb, fun, engaging LGBT+ Pride event, I felt truly proud to see my countyfolk and capital city embracing LGBT+ folk and LGBT+ rights in such a passionate, friendly and authentic way.

What a great BIG weekend and what a welcome from the Cardiff and Welsh gay boyo’s.

Balchder yn Hapus & Cymru am byth!

For more information about the event and to view many more photos, click here:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Latest News

Sport Keighley Cougars Rugby League club makes history with nomination of India Willoughby as patron
Sport Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer calls for ban on trans athletes competing in female-only events
Film Peccadillo Pictures secures Iris Prize-winning film ‘Norwegian Dream’
Arts KKWEER Arts exhibition, curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley and Ell Pennick, to feature some of the biggest names in LGBTQ+ art
X