Dylan Jones soaked up the vibes at London Pride’s sizzling Sunday party for the BME LGBT community.
On Sunday, pretending as hard as I could that my hangover didn’t exist, I dug out my best bandana, pulled on my most frayed denim shorts, made sure there definitely WASN’T any Iggy Azalea on my iPod and skipped down to Vauxhall for the national celebration of UK Black Pride.
The afternoon was a scorchingly cool celebration of culture, colour and love that brought a frenetic and frankly insane weekend in London to a streamer-strewn close. It took place in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens is actually not as seedy it sounds. Far from being the comedowny-cruisefest the name suggests, it’s actually a lovely little park with undulating hillocks, fringed by some of those infamous luxury flats we keep hearing so much about.
The air hummed with the rich aromas of Senegalese curries, the thick smoke of barbecue jerk chicken, and a certain even thicker smoke whose smell was sweet, lovely and instantly recognisable.
The vibe was noticeably different from the rest of the weekend’s frenetic fun. Actually ‘frenetic fun’ is putting it far too politely, London Pride was ridiculous this year. Just fucking ridiculous. Glass-smashingly, jeans-rippingly, RitaOriculous. Which, after all, is what Pride is all about.
But Black Pride was much less insane. There was less pressure to have fun, less pressure to snog every man in sight (although that would have been nice) and less pressure to impress. Most people just lay down in the sun, and sank into the grass as they sank their teeth into huge helpings of street food.
“I think something like this is important because it makes us closer as a community,” said Rania, a 22 year-old Fine Art undergrad who had come with three of her mates and her Staffordshire bull terrier, Michelle. Rania was wearing a crop top made from woven bamboo, and a neon green netted miniskirt, paired with Doc Martens. Michelle wore a patent leather collar paired with an embossed silver dog tag (model’s own).
“We’re not just united in our queerness, we’re united in our blackness, and to have that kind of connection on two levels is really special,” she continues. “I think it’s good for people who are maybe more sheltered too. I’m lucky in that my parents were open and stuff so I always got to get out and do what I wanted to do and meet who I wanted to meet. But some kids might not realise that there are people out there like them, who can love them and value them for who they are. Events like this are a great way of helping people do that.”
Things perked up later in the day as the stage opened and played host to some of the best DJing I’ve heard this year. He mixed Ty Dollar $ign’s ‘Drop That Kitty ‘into Fifth Harmony’s ‘Worth It’, into Eve’s ‘Who’s That Girl’, into ‘Dontcha’ by the Pussycat Dolls. I mean really. WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE ABOUT THAT?
The day marked several dietary milestones for me as a recently lapsed vegetarian. Most notably I tried barbecue jerk chicken for the first time in my life and I shall never be eating anything else ever again. I also had ackee and saltfish, which is RIGHT up my street. I love salt far too much. When I’m famous and sat on Graham Norton’s sofa and he asks what my vice is, I’ll cross my legs, take a sip of water and say “well Graham I have a terrible weakness for salt.” Gogglebox’s Sandy & Sandra were in front of me in the queue and they said it was “DELISH”.
But the event was about more than just amazing food and amazing music. It was a symbolic recognition of the struggles the BME LGBT community encounter both here and abroad. In a particularly emotive show of solidarity, there was a minute’s silence for the persecution of queer people in Africa, in some countries still executed as penalty for their sexuality. Seeing a crowd of hundreds of jubilant revelers suddenly stop in their tracks and fall silent is a hugely powerful sight to see, and was a suitably startling way of raising awareness for the issues that are still very real.
“I think recent history has shown how Black Pride is more important now than ever,” said Sam, a young fashion designer. “The recent conflicts with the police in the US show that it’s not all love out there, and that’s what we need to look at and remedy. It’s about unity. And it’s about making sure we don’t forget we’re all human and we all need to give love and receive love in equal measure.”
Judging from the gorgeous atmosphere and unassailable positivity, that’s exactly what Black Pride was doing.
• Black Pride UK is putting on a host of events at upcoming Pride events over the summer, including Brighton and Manchester. Go to ukblackpride.org.uk for more info..
