"a big arse park full of gay people"

In the words of a half drunk, pink shirted bloke, Brighton Pride 2008's finale today was just that. Regardless of it drizzling rain the whole morning, true British spirit saw thousands of punters turn up for the finale parade of Brighton Gay Pride, which has been celebrated all this week. In a sea of lesbians, drag queens (at one point one stood right in front of me, wearing an incredibly large costume adorned with feathers), half naked twinks and middle aged men wearing pink cowboy hats and waving rainbow flags, Matt and I watched the parade start to finish from outside the World's End pub. Today was the first time either of us had been to a Pride parade/festival before and we were blown away. The sheer amount of people turning out, despite the bad weather, the diversity of groups represented in the parade and just how many of the 'marchers' were willing to get naked in the cold and the rain, all made it a great experience. I love seeing people united at the best of times, let alone when it involves trucks of nearly naked boys. 

Of course, the parade is only half of it. The park was crammed with massive music tents, stalls and, obviously, loads and loads of gay people. We spent the afternoon searching for our 'little lesbian' Emma, mooching round the stalls of what claimed to be 'legal' ecstasy and acid, 'erotic emporiums' and by the time we witnessed a full demonstration of one of these, it was time to collapse under some trees and watch people do jelly shots. A group of twinks dressed up like cavemen seemed to be everywhere we went and saved me from boredom several times while Matt was trying to phone Emma. The stone age never looked so good. 

Matt in the park, looking happy

Brighton Pride was a great day out. Unfortunately a day trip to Camden on Friday and another early start carting my parents around Southern England tomorrow morning meant that I was too knackered to stick around much past 5pm. Matt was ready to collapse after walking around in his new 13inch New Rock platform boots, so we called it a day and trundled back to our respective homes. 

Right now, I'm in a piss shit mood. The mood swings have been all over the place today, not good. And this second I just want to collapse in to bed, which is why I'm cutting this short. More tomorrow, after driving to fucking Southampton and back at 8.30 in the morning. Bah fucking humbug.