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Mardi Gras
Jul. 8th, 2002 07:49 pmAt Mardi Gras in London on Saturday.
Compared to Leicester Pride...
- it was about ten or twenty times bigger site and more stuff
- it was more spread out, so that, pleasingly and somewhat surprisingly to me, there was less thumpy dance music at our stall than we'd had at Leicester
- it was harder to get to (and not just in the sense that it's further from Nottingham - it was forty minutes walk from Stratford, the recommended station, and about thirty minutes from Homerton, the nearest.)
- it wasn't as good for badge sales (lots of people, but also lots of stalls)
- it didn't really get going till mid afternoon whereas Leicester was busy by 2pmish, and it was still hotting up at tea-time whereas Leicester was over at 8pm
- we had a better stall, but they didn't provide chairs! although luckily I was able to borrow one off another stallholder.
- there were hardly any children - I remember one teenager with their parent, don't remember any younger ones, whereas there were quite a few at Leicester, although most of the ones I saw were already bored.
And, of course, most people had to pay 17 quid to get in to Mardi Gras, whereas Leicester Pride was free.
Can't really comment on the ents at Mardi Gras. I did hear (though not see) some Abba impersonators in the distance and enjoyed singing along to Dancing Queen with the people from the next door stall. But I never actually set eyes on either the main stage or the Popstars stage. When I left our stall I just wandered round the other stalls. There were a lot of them and by the time I'd done one circuit it must have been half an hour or 40 mins later, and I thought I better get back. I did see some toilets though. The one I went in was OK.
On the whole I enjoyed being there. On the other hand, the tradeoff of travel effort against results-&-enjoyment was much less favourable than Leicester. And in a way I enjoyed Leicester more, just in itself - Mardi Gras seemed kind of overgrown to me. With a site that size, and that many ents, it seemed like a 2- or 3-day festival crammed into one day. I think maybe that's partly why people weren't buying as much, especially at first - the sheer amount of stuff to see was a bit overwhelming. Though to be fair, I think some people found Leicester a bit dull after the first hour or so. Maybe the best size is in between.
If I ever do it again, I'd plan to stay in London overnight, ideally walking distance from the site, so I could have stayed later. I left at 19.30 to be in reasonable time for trains back, and it was very much still happening then.
A lot of people were wearing stickers saying something like "Mardi Gras should be free". These were being given out by the NUS LGB campaign, which happened to be the stall next to us. Just before I left, someone on that stall was doing a wear-our-stickers spiel to the passers-by about how "we shouldn't have to pay to celebrate our sexuality" and we were all being "exploited" by "having to pay to be there". I found this rather irritatingly ill-thought-out. After some animated but good-humoured arguments with some of them, I was at one point spontaneously moved to respond at equal volume "No we're not".
Yes, I do think it would be better if Mardi Gras was free - for various reasons. But come on, none of us had to pay to be there. None of us had to be there at all! It's not like the only way to celebrate our sexuality is by going to Mardi Gras!
Compared to Leicester Pride...
- it was about ten or twenty times bigger site and more stuff
- it was more spread out, so that, pleasingly and somewhat surprisingly to me, there was less thumpy dance music at our stall than we'd had at Leicester
- it was harder to get to (and not just in the sense that it's further from Nottingham - it was forty minutes walk from Stratford, the recommended station, and about thirty minutes from Homerton, the nearest.)
- it wasn't as good for badge sales (lots of people, but also lots of stalls)
- it didn't really get going till mid afternoon whereas Leicester was busy by 2pmish, and it was still hotting up at tea-time whereas Leicester was over at 8pm
- we had a better stall, but they didn't provide chairs! although luckily I was able to borrow one off another stallholder.
- there were hardly any children - I remember one teenager with their parent, don't remember any younger ones, whereas there were quite a few at Leicester, although most of the ones I saw were already bored.
And, of course, most people had to pay 17 quid to get in to Mardi Gras, whereas Leicester Pride was free.
Can't really comment on the ents at Mardi Gras. I did hear (though not see) some Abba impersonators in the distance and enjoyed singing along to Dancing Queen with the people from the next door stall. But I never actually set eyes on either the main stage or the Popstars stage. When I left our stall I just wandered round the other stalls. There were a lot of them and by the time I'd done one circuit it must have been half an hour or 40 mins later, and I thought I better get back. I did see some toilets though. The one I went in was OK.
On the whole I enjoyed being there. On the other hand, the tradeoff of travel effort against results-&-enjoyment was much less favourable than Leicester. And in a way I enjoyed Leicester more, just in itself - Mardi Gras seemed kind of overgrown to me. With a site that size, and that many ents, it seemed like a 2- or 3-day festival crammed into one day. I think maybe that's partly why people weren't buying as much, especially at first - the sheer amount of stuff to see was a bit overwhelming. Though to be fair, I think some people found Leicester a bit dull after the first hour or so. Maybe the best size is in between.
If I ever do it again, I'd plan to stay in London overnight, ideally walking distance from the site, so I could have stayed later. I left at 19.30 to be in reasonable time for trains back, and it was very much still happening then.
A lot of people were wearing stickers saying something like "Mardi Gras should be free". These were being given out by the NUS LGB campaign, which happened to be the stall next to us. Just before I left, someone on that stall was doing a wear-our-stickers spiel to the passers-by about how "we shouldn't have to pay to celebrate our sexuality" and we were all being "exploited" by "having to pay to be there". I found this rather irritatingly ill-thought-out. After some animated but good-humoured arguments with some of them, I was at one point spontaneously moved to respond at equal volume "No we're not".
Yes, I do think it would be better if Mardi Gras was free - for various reasons. But come on, none of us had to pay to be there. None of us had to be there at all! It's not like the only way to celebrate our sexuality is by going to Mardi Gras!
