It’s been another successful Brighton Pride with both the Preston Park and Pride Village Party being very enjoyable events.
But whilst it takes the concerted efforts of a huge amount of people to deliver Pride, I wanted to single out and thank Tony Chapman and his team at Legends.
His generosity and commitment every year to Pride and Brighton’s LGBT communities ensures the cabaret tent remains sponsored each year and we are able to invite the finest cabaret artists in the country to appear.
On Pride Sunday he then throws open Legends to me to stage the, now annual, cabaret fundraiser for the Rainbow Fund.
This action indicates to me his understanding of what Pride is about. A chance to highlight to the thousands of visitors and to remind those of us who live here that our LGBT scene is wonderfully diverse but needs constant care and most importantly funding for it to remain so in the future.
The Rainbow Fund is an excellent model for delivering this and Tony’s constant support, not just over Pride, really leads the way across our scene.
Each year we raise thousands of pounds for the Rainbow Fund through Pride ticket sales but the Sunday event at Legends boosts that total whilst providing a real sense of community thanks to the Legends team’s hard work.
This year we collected in the buckets, £3,526.74 at Legends, our best yet and I thank everyone who donated but especially Tony Chapman for ensuring it could happen and who made a £1,000 personal donation bringing the total raised to £4,526.74.
Stephen Richards aka Lola Lasagne