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A colourful scene from last year’s Reading Pride festival
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15,000 expected for biggest Reading Pride yet

By David Millward
September 02, 2011

Final preparations are being made for what promises to be the biggest Reading Pride festival yet.

Organisers are expecting about 15,000 to join in the fun at the free event at King’s Meadow tomorrow.

An array of colourful acts will entertain the crowds on the main stage and there are stalls and activities to keep people of all ages amused throughout the day.

Lorna McArdle, chairwoman of Reading Pride, said the event is a celebration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, but encourages everyone to join in.

She said: “Every year I think ‘what a great festival the LGBT community can put on, we really can’t do any more’.

“Then, suddenly we have our own theme tune donated by our very own local Nicolette Street and Carl Englemarc which, I would like to add, no other pride event has ever undertaken.

“We are the first pride event to really recognise same-sex families within the celebrations and implement a family picnic area.”

She continued: “The Reading Pride committee has grown beyond recognition. I sometimes wonder how much bigger we can get but we just keep on growing.

“As such, Reading Pride is now more than a festival.

“We educate with music, we promote the community wherever possible and we have more ideas for the future coming through.”

The headline act on the main stage will be Booty Luv, the former Big Brovaz girls Cherise and Nadia, who enjoyed top 10 hits with Boogie 2Nite and Shine.

Rising boy band Eli Prime (formerly Inju5tice), featuring Wokingham’s own Kyle Abo, will be supporting with their self-penned fusion of electro club beats and commercial pop.

Top cabaret acts, including Drag With No Name, Lola Lasagne and Sandra, will be performing as well as singers, such as Mark Maddison, Benji and Alexis Houston.

An exclusive performance of the first Reading Pride single Sticks and Stones will be performed by Nicolette Street, accompanied by members of Reading’s LGBT community.

The CD will be available to buy at the site and can be downloaded, with proceeds going to towards anti-bullying initiatives in the Thames Valley.

Families and children can enjoy a new improved area with inflatable attractions, including a pirate ship, and Beni the Buzzard’s human cannonball.

The Youth Zone will feature a bungee run, water zorbing, funfair rides, Reading Spinners and pole dancing.

And in the market area there will be traders, community groups and professional organisations such as the Thames Valley Gay Police Association and the Royal College of Nursing.

The day gets underway with a parade which starts at the Civic Offices at 11.30am and makes its way through the town centre before arriving at King’s Meadow for the noon start. The event in the park, off Napier Road, runs through to 8pm.

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@ Twyford, Woodley - the article said the pole dancing was in the Youth Zone

UneducatedApe
05/09/2011 at 15:38

More right than wrong. Well thank goodness that is a name because it clearly isn't a fact. You're right in that sexuality in itself isn't an identity if we want real equality, but the simple fact is that there isn't gender, race or sexual equality in this country, though it is better than many countries. We can all pretend there is and sweep the differences and problems under the carpet but surely better not to otherwise nothing moves forward.

As for the pole dancing, it was by one of the bars, one set of toilets and the STD information desk, so you may want to check on its location before saying it was in the "Youth Zone".

Onto the "stupid sexual culture" issue and, I'm making an assumption here, but it would appear you didn't attend the Pride event so how do you know what it was/is like? It is a very relaxed and friendly day (though as with any public event where there's alcohol, you do get trouble makers), there were plenty of people there with their young children and they all appeared perfectly happy.

Twyford, Woodley
05/09/2011 at 15:03

PCWatch is wrong. Pole dancing started in lap dance clubs and to have this in the Youth Zone is ridiculous and part of the stupid sexual culture which pervades so called "family friendly" events. Also if I was gay I would hardly want to define my lifestyle so much by my sexuality. The Pride event is utterly flawed because sexuality is not an identity if there is to be real equality. Go out and do something worthwhile instead of celebrating a biological imperative.

More right than wrong, Reading
05/09/2011 at 12:32

As much as PCWatch (apparently) dislikes me agreeing with him, I have to say that the comments here regarding the sexual connotations of pole-dancing are pathetic displays, unworthy of those claiming to be adults.

C8H10N4O2
04/09/2011 at 23:32

My thanks to the organisers of this event. As a lonely, isolated, middle-aged gay man living in a small country town I had a very pleasant afternoon. I've been queerbashed three times over the years, so I do get slightly apprehensive about going out on my own. It was nice to spend an afternoon without worrying about that.

Pete Baggett, Thatcham
04/09/2011 at 16:37

In May I was at a school fete with a friend and his young son. A group of young girls were performing a maypole dance. 'Dad, dad, is that pole dancing?'

'Ask your mother.'

N Tropy
02/09/2011 at 19:53

PC Watch - google pole dancing. tell me what comes up. - Uneducated Ape

Ooof Matron! 'what comes up' eh, fnar fnar.

That was totally gratuitous and unworthy of me. Funny though.

voiceoftreason?
02/09/2011 at 17:39

I've seen pole dancing and I don't want to see any from this event!

Dong-Ding, 3rd world slum
02/09/2011 at 17:05

That also REALLY sounds like the sort of excuse you tell people to justify the amount of pole dancing you do watch.

Presumably you also read Playboy for the articles?

UneducatedApe
02/09/2011 at 15:01

Is Tarrant presenting the awards again this year?

John, Caversham
02/09/2011 at 14:59

PC Watch - google pole dancing. tell me what comes up.

UneducatedApe

-------------------------------------- Yes I have and this is what comes up on Wikipedia...

"Pole dance is a form of performing art, a combination of dance and gymnastics. It involves dancing and performing acrobatic tricks with a vertical pole and is an increasingly popular form of fitness and dance, practised by many enthusiasts in gyms or dedicated dance studios. A wide range of amateur and professional competitions are held in many countries around the world".

Who's the monkey now Apeman?

PCWatch, Reading
02/09/2011 at 14:58

PC Watch - google pole dancing. tell me what comes up.

UneducatedApe
02/09/2011 at 14:52

Pole Dancing in the Youth Zone? UneducatedApe -------------------------- It's you grubby dirty little mind that thinks pole dancing is necessarily sexual. All activities such as dance and gymnastics has an element of physical muscular body movement. I have watched so called pole dancing and it is a display of physical and body strength and if you see eroticism in that then it is you who could be called a dirty old man! We are not talking seedy nightclubs but highly clever body strength on vertical apparatus.