menu

Bristol Pride unveil plans for 2014

Bristol Pride have unveiled a week long series of events to take place all over the city from July 5-12.

Bristol Pride. Castle Park: Photo Hannah King
Bristol Pride. Castle Park: Photo Hannah King

The week-long festival will see a diverse range of events including a comedy night, sports fun day, dog show, Stonewall conference and theatre night featuring specially curated performances from Bierkeller Theatre and the award winning Confessions Of A Rabbi’s Daughter.

Pride week is also host to the Bristol Pride film festival at the Watershed and will feature specially selected and award winning, films. The week culminates in an outdoor music and arts festival which takes place in Castle Park on Saturday, July 12.

Bristol Pride in 2013: Photo Hannah King
Bristol Pride in 2013: Photo Hannah King

Celebrations start with the Pride Parade through the city to Castle Park where the festival will feature two stages of entertainment, family area with kite making classes from Bristol Kite Festival, funfair, market and expo stalls, food and bars, roller disco with Bristol Bump and a Community Area hosting over 60 organisations including health services, charities and sports groups.

Entry to Pride Day will be by donation (£3 suggested) but Pride are offering £5 Day wristband or a Day and Night pass for £15 that will offer discounts onsite including food stalls, reduced bar prices and skate hire as well as offers with other Bristol businesses keen to support Pride.

Acts already confirmed for Pride Day include: VOIS, Love Beats Riot, Katherine Ellis, Kate Bush tribute Cloudbusting, Dr Meaker and 90s dance sensation Corona with more yet to be announced including the festival headliner.

Pride Night sees Pride takeover the O2 Academy for the official Pride afterparty which brings together Bristol clubnights and DJs with international acts and performances. This year dance/house DJ sensation The Freemasons will headline along with eccentric party makers Sink The Pink, 90s club night Another Night and a specially created ‘Pop Paparazzi Parlour’ from performance artist Harry Clayton Wright.

Organiser Daryn Carter, said: Last year saw or biggest Pride yet and we’ve got a really exciting week of events planned for Pride 2014 as well as an amazing line up for Pride Day and Night. We’ve created something truly special, an exciting and credible festival using a range of events to champion and celebrate LGB&T talent while still delivering a festival which is entry by donation. We hope to keep building on the success of Bristol Pride, creating an opportunity for people to celebrate and feel engaged whilst also making a stand against discrimination both here in Bristol and around the world.’’

Blue at Bristol Pride in 2013: Photo Hannah King
Blue at Bristol Pride in 2013: Photo Hannah King

2013 saw 31,000 people attend Bristol Pride events with Blue and Sophie Ellis-Bextor headlining the free festival which had an economic impact of £953,500 in the City.

2014 will not only be one of the largest Pride events in the UK but one of the biggest festivals to take place in Bristol following on from winning a number of awards including being named second Best Pride event in the UK (Cooperative Respect Awards) and had celebrity support from Kim Wilde, Zoe Lyons, Comedian Paul Sinha, Stephen Fry and more.

Pride is a celebration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community across the South West, but its reach extends much further. Earlier this year the plight of LGBT people in counties such as Russia were highlighted by the Sochi Olympic games and this year the Bristol Pride has chosen the theme We Are: One as a chance for LGBT people, their friends, families and the whole of the South West to stand up and support gay rights on a global scale by maintaining a proud and visible presence and showing support to communities around the world.

For more information about Bristol Pride, CLICK HERE:

 

Future of local gallery at risk

ONCA Gallery, the UK’s only public gallery dedicated to exhibiting work that raises awareness of climate change and conservation issues launch a Kickstarter campaign.

ONCA Gallery

ONCA the only inner-city art gallery raising issues of climate change and biodiversity loss, could close without public support.

Despite successes, the ONCA Gallery will close if it does not reach its £15,000 fundraising target, with crowdsourcing website Kickstarter. The deadline for the campaign is the, April 27, at 1pm.

To donate, CLICK HERE:

Laura Coleman, ONCA’s Director, says: “It is important for a city such as Brighton, with the UK’s first Green Party administration, to champion and support this gallery with a conscience.

“Historically, environmental art has been a movement often stigmatised. Today, with rarely a week going by without a new symptom of climate change being revealed, the possibilities of this type of art to communicate feeling and action are fast being realised, as it becomes an important social driver of environmental awareness.”

ONKA GalleryTrees take centre stage in the gallery’s immediate priorities. 100 is an open submission exhibition this summer for visual artists working in all mediums. The brief is simple, represent a tree in any way you choose. There is one restriction – the dimensions must fit within 20cm cubed. For each artwork a tree will be planted in central Brighton, creating an artistic forest within the gallery and a real forest outside. In time this forest will become a space for workshops and performances, building on this opportunity for new and established artists and nurturing talent for future generations.

ONCA opened in Brighton, part of the city’s London Road regeneration scheme, in November 2012. The gallery presents contemporary art exhibitions with accompanying programmes of performance and education. Since their launch ONCA have spearheaded over 12 exhibitions and have worked with artists from Margaret Atwood and Charming Baker to emerging poets, storytellers and school children. The summer programme of exhibitions and events is themed around home and habitat.

Organisations they have partnered with include Birdlife International, Cape Farewell, the Sussex Wildlife Trust, Arts Council England, the Marine Conservation Society and many more. Their patrons include Green Party MP Caroline Lucas and writer Robert Macfarlane.

Laura Coleman founded ONCA after working for three years with animals rescued from illegal trade in Bolivia. She sees the gallery “quickly becoming a hub for key conversations about environmental change, as art plays a powerful role in the engagement and education of younger generations. ONCA offers a space where creativity has the potential to inspire belief in positive action, and ultimately help to forge an environmentally aware, integrated and active society.

Caroline Lucas MP for Brighton Pavilion
Caroline Lucas MP

Caroline Lucas says: “I’m very proud that Brighton is home to ONCA. The arts have a vital role to play in encouraging more people to care for our environment, and to take action to defend it. At a time of increasing environmental destruction, we need to reach the hearts and minds of as many people as we can with a positive message that urgent change is possible and desirable. ONCA shows how that can be done.”

The ONCA Gallery – home of The ONCA Trust – is an inner-city hub for art, ecology and education. Unique in the UK, ONCA runs exhibitions, workshops and performances that ask questions, tell stories and initiate conversations about environmental change, whilst raising awareness for frontline conservation projects.

For more information, CLICK HERE: 

 

 

 

Chris Kift: 5.8.1950 – 17.3.2014

Entertainer Tony Page remembers his friend Chris Kift.

Chris Kift
Chris Kift

Chris Kift, a native of Ilfracombe in North Devon and long time resident of Brighton & Hove, died on March 17 from a massive heart attack.

At the age of 64, Chris had encompassed many careers in his life ranging from publican to theatrical agent and N.H.S. administrator, he attacked all with panache and a powerful Joie de vivre.

When I first met him, he was assistant to the manager of The Cock and Comfort in London where he dealt mainly with the booking of cabaret artistes for the venue.

He moved back home to Bristol and took The Elephant Public House which under his expert guidance soon became THE cabaret venue of the South West.

Chris would always throw his heart and soul into any venture he attempted and you would always find him sitting at the end of his bar, ready to welcome you.

In addition, he took on the area management of Wales and the South West for Rainbow Artistes my own cabaret agency. He would never ask an artiste to appear at any venue unless he had personally vetted it himself.

Ill health began to catch up on him and he was advised to leave The Elephant. He moved to Brighton and took a job as administrator for the National Health Blood Service becoming  the area representative.

Again his health deteriorated forcing him to retire completely, but not content with sitting around and resting as his doctors had advised, he became the Don Quixote of the South Coast, embracing the combined windmills of Brighton & Hove City Council, local councillors and MP’s; fighting for tenant’s rights, the disabled and elderly, (he was now confined to an electric wheelchair which he insisted was named Blanche) the LGBT Community and Brighton Pride.

Every year on the first Saturday in August, he could be found mounted on Blanche, rainbow flags flying at the head of the Pride Parade, shaking a huge bucket and cajoling punters to “Give generously…. or I’ll run over yer feet!!”.

Chris KiftNot happy with running Blanche’s batteries down all afternoon on Preston Park, the evening found him on his balcony in St. James’ House helping co-ordinate the Pride Street Party by radio and telephone.

The following day he was always in the front row of the After Pride Charity Cabaret Show supporting the numerous cabaret artistes whom he was proud to call friends.

He will be sorely missed, not only by those organisations he fought for but by hundreds of friends from all over this country, the Canary Islands and Thailand.

Some 80 people crammed the little Chapel at Woodvale and Charles Street for his farewell on April 9 but the true Epitaph was more than 600 posts on Facebook not to mention innumerable tweets and emails from those saddened by his passing.

He was my friend, I shall miss him but there will always be a smile whenever I think of him.

 

 

Hove MP calls for permanent funding for New Crime Unit

Mike Weatherley MP, Intellectual Property Adviser to the Prime Minister, has asked David Cameron to establish permanent funding for the newly-formed Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), which tackles Interlectual Property crime across the country.

Mike Weatherley, MP for Hove & Portslade
Mike Weatherley, MP for Hove & Portslade

Mike has written to both the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon David Cameron MP, and the Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Theresa May MP, to praise the excellent work of PIPCU, which is based at the City of London Police. PIPCU is currently funded by the Intellectual Property Office.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Mike wrote: “I appreciate that funding for this new unit is not permanent. However, I would like to put on record my support for committing future funding to fighting IP crime and boosting the current level of financial support that is available for PIPCU. As I am sure that you are aware, the creative industries add over £70 billion to our economy each year and so it really is in our national interest to protect that revenue.”

Commenting, Mike said: “PIPCU is a fantastic scheme that I really hope will get secure financial backing, which will help our long-term strategy to tackle IP crime. I have been working closely with the head of the unit, who is leading a number of interesting avenues that are being explored to help address, for example, the huge number of websites that host copyright-infringing material.”

Kemptown MP welcomes Government commitment for local shops

Simon Kirby, MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven has raises the issue of maintaining and revitalising local high streets with Ministers.

Simon Kirby, MP for Kemptown & Peacehaven
Simon Kirby, MP for Kemptown & Peacehaven

He asked if retail guru Mary Portas was still championing British high streets and what other actions the Government had taken to support local shops and businesses.

In answering the Written Parliamentary Question, Brandon Lewis, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government replied saying that in addition to the hard work of Mary Portas, as a member of the Future High Street Forum, the Government has also cut business rates for local shops and tackled unfair parking practises.

Simon welcomed the positive actions the Government has taken to support valued local shops and businesses. This will benefit those in Peacehaven, Telscombe Cliffs, Saltdean, Rottingdean, Woodingdean and all across Brighton.

He said: “I welcome this further evidence of the Government’s commitment to our local high streets and shopping areas in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven. These areas act as a hub for the community in our towns and villages as well as providing job opportunities for local people.

“As the economy improves I want to make sure that our local shops and high streets benefit from this. As part of my role as the local MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven I will continue to champion our local shops and give them as much support as I can.”

 

X