Last weekend, between 29 and 30 April, Brighton welcomed National Student Pride for the third time.
The official pre-party was held at Revenge nightclub and warmed up students and locals before the main event on Saturday.
The Saturday day-time event took place in Oceana and it included a panel discussion, as well as stalls, food and live music provided by Brighton’s Women’s Tent.
Leader of the Green Party and MP Caroline Lucas officially opened this year’s student pride and emphasised the idea of a community and non-discriminatory society. She expressed her happiness in being there and promised to attend next year’s event.
The Question-Time debate, chaired by Matthew Todd, editor of Attitude magazine, was panelled by Aaron Porter, the president of the National Students’ Union (NUS), author and former NBA basketball player John Amaechi, Dr. Christian Jessen, host of Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies and Aled Haydyn Jones from BBC Radio.
After the debate, NUS LGBT presented the UK premiere Beyond Gay: the politics of pride, a documentary film that explores the reality of some places where Pride is still a political protest and where homophobia is ingrained in society.
The market place of 40 stalls included services like the Sussex Police and its LGBT liaison officers, Stonewall campaigners, the Green Party, University of Brighton’s student radio and television as well as promoters of the GoGo Festival to take place in Kent during the month of July, Ernst & Young, this year’s Platinum Sponsor of the National Student Pride.
The night-time event was divided into three parts. The first one consisted of a pub crawl around some of Brighton’s gay pubs, including R-bar, Charles Street, Legends and The Marlborough.
The different groups were then led to Coalition where they saw the acts of Joe McElderry and local band Doll and The Kicks. The after-party was held at Revenge until the morning of Sunday.
Next year’s Pride is scheduled be in Brighton again, between the 2-3 March.
One student commented: “It was my first time at The National Student Pride and I had a blast. I got lots of information from the stalls, mingled and got to know people from several universities in the country. The pub crawl was fun and everyone had seemed to have a good time. The stewards were very friendly and joined in with us in games and general merriness. I am definitely coming back next year!”
