memevector (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
memevector) wrote2002-07-08 07:49 pm
memevector) wrote2002-07-08 07:49 pm
Mardi Gras
At 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!
no subject
I dunno, I never said we should! :-)
for my reasoning for & against going, see my previous LJ post (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=memevector&itemid=4052).
some people did take BiCon booking forms you know :-)
I'm somewhat surprised you didn't check a map and go 'hang on, in what sense is that set of muddy football pitches "close" to Stratford?'
oh, I didn't walk from Stratford. Someone else told me that was how long it had taken. (and it seems to be a meme of the moment - one of my housemates reports a DJ on Radio One last night throwing in a pointy aside along the lines of "And wasn't the site really near Stratford station like they said" - ha!)
My plan was to go by Homerton, and I knew it was a mile or so from there. In the event, I did the journey to the site by bus, as the tube station at KX was so teeming with people & so hot, & the queues for tickets so long, that I thought "fuck's sake, what's the train gonna be like, can't face this". (Met/Circle/H&C part of the station was closed, I think due to the St P building work, so the other side must have been extra busy.) Bus journey took ages but was quite pleasant apart from thinking "bother, I'm later than I predicted, and Kevin's not got a mobile" and "I don't know the route of this bus, wonder if I should ask the driver my best stop". It was probably about a mile from the bus stop to the site as well.
I agree the leaflet was distinctly misleading though. It referred to Stratford as "20 minutes from central London", and said nothing about the walk. That's a spin they'll only be able to pull once - be interesting to see next year's publicity & next year's turnout (at whatever site, but esp if they're there again).
as for mud, that was a minor and localised feature, but they were lucky that it didn't rain or it could have been another big talking point :-)
Walk from Stratford
when he talked about Stratford as I live inbetween Stratford and Leyton... Was intending to explore around where the site took place, but was busy all last week, so ended up finding out on the day how far it was. Normally I wouldn't mind walking all that way, but I was tired after the Pride March and carrying the banner. Even after the event it took me a good 20 minutes to walk home, and I was one of the lucky ones, I didn't have to continue all the way to Stratford station late at night.
Can't imagine going to Mardi Gras again, unless I get in free again, and even then I might think twice, there was an alternative this year at St. James that Grant & friends organised. But I had already agreed to help out on the Stonewall stall.
Sorry to hear you had a such long journey. ;-(
Roxy641
Re: Walk from Stratford
Opps, I left a space where I shouldn't have. It should read:
I wasn't sure if
Roxy641