Behind the scenes of Pride Torbay – find out more about the Bay’s first summer pride event

By PRSD, on Friday, May 15, 2009

Matt Newbury organiser of Pride got in touch to talk about the new fun festival on the Bay’s calendar.

It’s been a bit of a roller coaster three months since I somewhat drunkenly agreed to organise Torbay’s first summer pride event. Since that time, I have not only sobered up, but have developed the programme into something as diverse and quirky as the people I hope it will attract. And if no one comes, at least I’ll have a good time and some extremely exclusive entertainment to enjoy with the boyfriend.

Pride Torbay will take the form of a four-day festival incorporating a boat trip, themed club nights, a pool party, a beach picnic with live musical entertainment, community stalls, cinema screenings and a cabaret street party. Early on the pride committee decided that we should have a few events away from bars and clubs, making the event accessible to everyone.

It was also important to us that the Pride Torbay shouldn’t just be a celebration of sexuality, but also the stunning natural environment of the English Riviera. In a year when nostalgia tourism seems to be all the rage, with more people holidaying at home, we wanted both the structure of pride and our marketing to have a bit of a saucy seaside feel to them.

This was our motivation for creating the beach hut logo, incorporating the six colours of the gay rainbow flag on the door. Come and watch the free open-air cinema screening of Milk in the grounds of Torre Abbey on Friday, July 17 as part of Pride Torbay, if you’d like to know the history behind those six colours!

The nostalgia concept is also being incorporated into four special postcard designs, which are a cheeky tribute to the English Riviera Tourist Board posters of the 80s and 90s, with a gay twist, obviously. These will be available for free in the next couple of weeks, so that people can send them to friends and relatives across the UK to invite them down for Pride Torbay.

Another fun idea we have come up with is attaching Pink Pound stickers to coins, which are then given out in people’s change at gay venues across Torquay. The stickers also mention the pride dates and the web address at www.pridetorbay.org.

It’s going to be an interesting experiment to see just how far these pink pounds get, or if people will just feel embarrassed to use them and peel them off. If nothing else, it should get us some free publicity in national gay publications and the media in general.

Of course, besides the marketing, the biggest challenge of organising event of this size is finance, especially as everyone is strapped for cash at the moment, even the gays! We are, therefore, organising a huge summer raffle with some amazing prizes kindly donated by local businesses. We are also organising a series of fundraising events in the lead up to Pride Torbay.

The next one of these will take place on Friday, May 22 and is a Hillbilly Hoedown Barn Dance, at the Spanish Barn in Torquay. Tickets are a tenner, and include you first drink and a hot dawg. The barn is being fully themed, complete with a large quantity of straw bales and the bays brewery Saloon. There’s also some great entertainment, including a bucking bronco, line dancing and even a Dolly Idol competition, to find the best Dolly Parton. The event is open to absolutely everyone, as long as you are dressed in country and western theme. You can pick up tickets at the Torquay Tourist Information Centre and online here

If I don’t see you there, you’ll be able to follow the progress of Pride Torbay in regular updates here on the People’s Republic of South Devon site. I’m always keen to hear people’s views, suggestions and ideas about the festival, especially if you are a highly generous millionaire or the manager of gay icon who would like to perform at the festival (well you never know…). Message me at: info@pridetorbay.org

posted by Matt