By Mabel Wellman.
The two day Pride In The Park event has started today on the 8th June, and will continue into the evening of 9th June.
The day started fairly quietly, but the live performances soon grew a crowd to sing and dance along to many queer classic songs.
There were dozens of stalls including multiple bars, food and drink, merchandise, unions and political parties. There was also a quiet space, which was an improvement from last year where it unfortunately wasn’t possible to be quiet.
As a volunteer of Trans Pride Southampton, we had our own stall. We had a great time meeting old friends in the queer family. We gave out leaflets for our own event and asked people for names of Blahaj – shark plushies popular in the trans community that live in IKEA.
There were also two ice cream vans, the prices were average for for single and double ice creams with a flake. One ice cream van provided classic ice cream varieties and the second one sold Jude’s ice cream.
There were also a couple of amusement rides, so no matter your preference for activities at Pride, you will be in store for a good time.
One critique of the event was that there has not been a protest march to start the event. This is due to financial pressures to pay for road closures. I firmly believe that city and county councils should support LGBT rights and do so by allowing Prides to conduct their protest marches safely without obstruction.
Overall, this is a great event, which will continue tomorrow on the 9th June, if you have any time spare do come on down!
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