The Sheffield gay scene part 2

[aeinstein199 10]

And London pride is a glowing representation....

 

In 2012, the previous organisers Pride London were forced to significantly "scale back" the WorldPride London 2012 event nine days before the event was due to take place. The London Evening Standard reported that four contractors from the previous year's Pride event were owed £65,000 in unpaid debts, though this has been officially denied by organisers.[7] Subsequently, a bidding process for non-profit community based organisations to submit bids to run and develop Pride in London was announced by the Mayor of London.[8] The winning bidder, London LGBT+ Community Pride, was awarded the right to run London's main gay pride festival for five years on 18 January 2013.[9]

 

If you go to London Pride it will probably cost you in the region of £200 + for the night/ weekend, If you go to Sheffield it will be £50, the markets are different.

[Darkstar 10]

Think you missed the point.

 

Don't like something. Change it.

 

Don't just whinge because your whinging probably Isn't the consensus.

 

---------- Post added 03-06-2014 at 16:22 ----------

 

And London pride is a glowing representation....

 

In 2012, the previous organisers Pride London were forced to significantly "scale back" the WorldPride London 2012 event nine days before the event was due to take place. The London Evening Standard reported that four contractors from the previous year's Pride event were owed £65,000 in unpaid debts, though this has been officially denied by organisers.[7] Subsequently, a bidding process for non-profit community based organisations to submit bids to run and develop Pride in London was announced by the Mayor of London.[8] The winning bidder, London LGBT+ Community Pride, was awarded the right to run London's main gay pride festival for five years on 18 January 2013.[9]

 

If you go to London Pride it will probably cost you in the region of £200 + for the night/ weekend, If you go to Sheffield it will be £50, the markets are different.

 

Agree 100% different markets and demographics all together.

[aaron1867 10]

And London pride is a glowing representation....

 

In 2012, the previous organisers Pride London were forced to significantly "scale back" the WorldPride London 2012 event nine days before the event was due to take place. The London Evening Standard reported that four contractors from the previous year's Pride event were owed £65,000 in unpaid debts, though this has been officially denied by organisers.[7] Subsequently, a bidding process for non-profit community based organisations to submit bids to run and develop Pride in London was announced by the Mayor of London.[8] The winning bidder, London LGBT+ Community Pride, was awarded the right to run London's main gay pride festival for five years on 18 January 2013.[9]

 

If you go to London Pride it will probably cost you in the region of £200 + for the night/ weekend, If you go to Sheffield it will be £50, the markets are different.

 

I appreciate this.

 

However the point being away from the costs is that it still clashes.

 

---------- Post added 03-06-2014 at 16:30 ----------

 

I would always go to Sheffield Pride regardless, however this year it looks as if the dates make it unlikely that I will attend.

 

However if I was to see that it clashed with London Pride & I can generally afford either, I would go to London. I think a few others would as well.

[hoody47 10]

Hello *waves*

So, I’m Adam and I run Sheffield Pride along with a group of others.

We don’t post on here much but I have a look occasionally and see what’s going on and can see a lot of comments about pride and a lot of issues about listening to what’s being said, so it seems to me it might help if we actually showed we listen.

 

So firstly, London Pride. Our date was decided before theirs was announced, it’s unfortunate, but it’s also a nightmare to select a weekend. We can’t have the first weekend in July (TDF) or the second (week before tramlines, Council don’t like it) or the third (tramlines) the earlier in the year we go the less hopeful the weather forecast is, so then we’re into the end of July/august and are either going to clash or be the week prior/after Leeds or Manc. So for attendance sake we want to avoid all of that, but we’ve also got to consider Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham and avoid them because we try and support them as they’re growing regional prides so it’s a difficult situation. But there you have it; 28th June was free when we decided.

 

Aeinstein199 – I remember the fiasco with world pride. And that was with £100k funding from the Mayor of London and another £30k from tesco. I don’t know how much the other sponsors put in. Even with all that financial support these events are ridiculously difficult to make feasible.

 

Mister M – not a clue who you are, but not a single person involved in Pride in the first two years is involved now, you’ll be pleased to hear. I know some of the people that I suspect you’re on about, and I would share your opinion of them. Unfortunately, in your comments you haven’t actually said what your feedback was that they ignored – it might not be relevant 5 years on, but email me at ahood@sheffieldpride.co.uk and I’ll listen. I can't promise I'll agree, but I’ll definitely listen.

 

Darkstar – thanks for taking the time to think about the complexities of it all, you’re absolutely right. The event is expensive, it’s a real struggle to raise money and even though I managed to get us a small lottery grant this year, money is incredibly tight. More established prides have larger resources to work with, and larger cities like Manchester and Birmingham have a greater pool to fish from, so to speak. The truth is that although this is our 7th year, realistically we struggled to gain any serious interest from many organisations in Sheffield city until we moved to the city centre. We had faithful supporters in the universities, Irwin Mitchell and g casino, but expanding that base group was really difficult. As soon as we came into the centre a lot more interest appeared, and since last year’s event we’ve gotten a lot more leads – unfortunately they’re not just willing to hand over huge amounts of money. But we’re getting more support in kind and other benefits that we turn one way or another into supporting the organisation and the event - we’ve got collaborations with the Chamber Of Commerce, East midlands trains, a couple of new sponsors and some other support from organisations like Gaydio and Smirnoff since moving to the city centre. To be clear, we get no financial support from the council (but have to pay out policing costs, for use of the car park on Devonshire green, licensing, and other bits and pieces).

 

People complain about the ticket price but I can say categorically the ticket price is solely based on what is needed to make ends meet/leave us with money to get started on the following year. We’re volunteers, we don’t get paid, we don’t get a share in profits or anything like that. All the money goes back into the organisation and me and the rest of the team spend our free time trying to raise extra cash to keep the cost as low as possible. Being in the city centre does cost more to run – but as the event kept growing each year endcliffe park became an unsuitable site in a residential area, and so the move was necessary – this was the opinion of the residents, the local authority and ourselves. Nevertheless I whole-heartedly believe pride should be in the city centre anyway, not two miles outside in a field. When it was in endcliffe park a LOT of people wanted it moved, and now it’s in the city centre some people, but a lot less, aren’t so keen. That’s unfortunate – but in the grand scheme of things it’s being in the city centre that’s getting local businesses and organisations interested, it’s getting more coverage in the press and getting better attendance – if we want to make a statement and be noticed and have an impact (which we do) then I think those are good results.

 

Andyms1 – you’re not the only person to raise the issue of the fencing. People complain about this a lot, including us. It’s required by law. We have to fence off the area under the premises licence. We have to be able to track and control the number of people coming in and out of the site because we are providing ‘licensable activities’ – in this case entertainment, dance and provision of alcohol. The tarpaulin is a rather frustrating addition as a result of – in my opinion, over the top – health and safety concerns. There is an unbelievable amount of health and safety involved in putting on any event, but a festival in a park attracts even more. We would do away with it if we could (it would save money for a start!) but we can’t. Tramlines has it for the same reason, as do other large Prides.

In terms of us being ‘closed off’ well, that’s how festivals go. We have the parade which has been extended this year, is free, and isn’t fenced off so there’s something at least.

Brighton pride – we are not the same price as Brighton pride. A limited ticket release was £9, that’s sold out. As has the £12.50 release and the £15.00 release. The price is currently £17.50 and will go up to £20 – which is still an advanced price. I’ve no idea what price it is on the day.

 

 

Bfield1972 – thanks for sticking up for us! We all share the view that it’s about everyone coming together – unfortunately the lgbt audience is so diverse that that can make it even more difficult, which I’ve gone into detail bit lower down.

 

The line-up – we held auditions of local acts and selected the best to perform alongside some more national ‘up and comers’. We spent a large amount of money last year on Sam and the Womp, who were the best act we could afford, and they weren’t received that well. There’s recently been a leaked PDF online of artists are their rough costs in $ (oztix.com.au/Home/tabid/373/mid/852/newsid852/2159/Leaked-Band-Price-List/Default.aspx) and you will be able to see from that the massive cost of paying for headliners. Lucy Spraggan, for example, wanted £3000. Katy B was £10,000+. There were a number of others but again, out of our price range. It doesn’t help that some of the larger Prides ‘fudge’ the headliners – one Pride advertised JLS (starting price £50,000) but in the fine print it was ‘DJ Set’ meaning they don’t actually perform, and the cost is down near £10,000. Even then it just shows the difference in finances that some of the bigger Prides have to play with - the cost of our event is in the region of 60,000 before considering the cost of headliner. For Katy B (who is quite popular, appeals across the board if moreso to the younger generations) that’s almost a 20% increase in costs.

 

A lot of this falls on, unfortunately, a rather heavy-handed Council that were over-cautious as to what the event would be like. Most of you won’t know, but we have regular meetings with the Safety Advisory Group, made up of the fire, ambulance and police services, licensing, health and safety, city centre management and environmental health departments of the Council. Last year they were incredibly demanding of us in terms of security and health and safety, leading to a £5000 policing bill on top of over £7,000 in security costs, almost £2,000 spent on licensing and another £2,000+ on medical and safety cover. That’s before we’ve even got to the actual event! Fencing and Toilets, which again are a legal requirement cost almost £10,000 together. And all of this was on top of the Council withdrawing its limited funding from the previous year (£3,000). Aaron asked where all the money is – there isn’t any, we ran at a loss. Unfortunately the scrutiny that the Council is under (what with last year’s tramlines nearly shutting down Northern General hospital) meant they required us to massively over-compensate for these services. They are, of course, just trying to be safe, and that’s good. But not for us or the rest of the lgbt community when it comes to making the event financially viable. At one point we had to meet with a rep from Northern General to discuss the impact of the event on their services following the impact Tramlines has… for those of you that were at Pride I’m sure you’ll agree this was totally unnecessary. Happily, this isn’t the case this year. All of those costs above are massively reduced, but as we ran at a loss we are effectively still paying for some of them this year. Aaron suggests asks if the current team is capable of continuing, and I can state categorically they are – they’ve spent the last year managing the debt from the last event and convincing the Council to ease off on the requirements, whilst increasing sponsorship and interest from groups in the City. Pride events aren’t particularly profitable as it is (several shut down this last year) but this team has managed to deal with all these difficulties as well as listen to feedback on what was missing from last year…

 

So we decided to not go for a headliner this year and focus on the other issues raised by people following last year’s event – a lot of people said it wasn’t family friendly (and Devonshire Green wasn’t, under 16s weren’t allowed in – another measure we took to appease the council) so this year it is. There may not be a headliner but there’s a second stage dace stage, allowing the main stage to become more mainstream and family friendly. There are a lot more attractions and activities going on, that are designed to appeal to all the family. It’s difficult to put on an event for the lgbt community because there’s very little that unites us aside from our sexuality - we are different ages, races, ethnicities, religions, with different incomes, politics and family situations. We’ve changed things a lot this year so that there are things going on at the event that will appeal to a lot of different people within those categories.

 

Tyranna – I know we’ve spoken before about the cost of pride and I hope above addresses why it can’t return to endcliffe park. As for getting enough bucket shakers to make it free, that simply isn’t realistic. Nottingham Pride did that last year – a ‘voluntary donation’ of £1 from every attendee to raise the 17,000 they needed to break even. They reportedly had 15,000 people and under a third made the donation. Having been involved with pride when it was funding by bucket shaking I can tell you it doesn’t raise anywhere near the amount of cash needed.

 

Aaron1867 has raised numerous points so I’ll try and address as many of them as I can:

I’ve addressed London pride above.

No, Pride doesn’t pay for us to get drunk in other cities. It does pay for the petrol costs in driving to those other cities in our spare time to take the promotions team out trying to encourage people to attend the event from other cities – and last year saw the widest attendance from outside Sheffield of any Pride.

Attendance figures last year were throughout the day 5000 at barkers pool, 2000 in the parade, 3000 at the main event and another 1500 at the afterparty. We rounded up by 4% to 12,000. And absolutely there’s overlap between those, although I’ve no way of working out how much. There was no decline on 2012, which saw around 500 in the parade, 4000 at endcliffe park and we never got the figures for the afterparty as it was run by Climax not pride, but as the capacity is around 1000-1200 again, an increase.

We’ve left o2 because we thought the location was a bit inconvenient for some people (although now with it being equidistant from fuel and dempseys maybe this isn’t such an issue) but also because the Students’ Union have often supported us, they spoke to us about how keen they were to be involved again and made a good case for it. I liked o2 as a venue too but ultimately we weighed up the pros and cons and went elsewhere this year. It’s nearer Devonshire green and what with Pride’s earlier finishing time this year, they’ll be putting on a bunch of their own stuff from 9 until the afterparty starts, which isn’t something o2 can offer.

 

 

 

I think there’s a lot of information there. Hopefully it explains a lot of stuff and answered most of the points raised. If anyone does want to email me, feel free, or send us a message on facebook.

 

Sheffield Pride is 28th June 2014, Devonshire Green. The Parade will start at Tudor Square assembling from 1pm leaving at 1.30 to arrive at Devonshire Green at 2pm. Entry is £8 advance or £10 on the door, the parade is free. Under 5s are free to attend, and Under 14s/over 65s are £3 and there’s a family ticket for 2 adults 2 under 14s that £16.

It will finish at or around 9pm, with the afterparty starting from 10.30 at the students union, but there will be activities going on at the union from when Devonshire green ends.

 

We do a lot more than just the annual festival. We run the region's only online hate crime reporting centre from our website (working with the Sheena Amos Youth Trust), we host free business networking events throughout the year with Chamber of Commerce, and held the first annual lgbt ball last month. We’re looking into doing some more projects with young people, as well as the possibility of holding a conference type event for the region with workshops and seminars on workplace and community equality.

 

 

Sorry this has been really long, so thanks for reading.

Adam

[aaron1867 10]

I appreciate the reply & it needed to be lengthy anyway.

 

I think your numbers on regards to attendance are disappointing. You've simply added all the numbers together & some are obviously overlapped, the most relevant number to use here is the numbers that attended Dev Green.

 

I'm pretty unsure to location too, it's very close between O2 & Climac for the after party & you can go Climax any other month anyway! Not to mention people like to go home & change, then it highlights what a problem the Uni location can be.

 

There are still many problems here though & you still need to go back pages to see some of them, especially the issue Witt the ticketing on the day, where your staff was probably in breach of trading standards that day or something similar.

 

But in the same note, not all my comments have been negative. I have highlighted previously the good work you guys have done. Last year was fresh & good, O2 was fantastic, the drink prices at Dev Green very good & some acts was also very good, but the positives was outweighed by the negatives, which I've highlighted previously.

 

At the same time I appreciate all the work you Snd the others do & I know it is difficult. However you and others are letting yourself down by not acting on these concerns with the respect that they deserve. You and a couple of others have disgraced yourself with your behaviour towards me & this is disappointing, especially one persons attitude. But I've already mentioned that. But YOU do need to sort this & get away from your attitude towards it & I admit mine has not always been perfect & I've been told that the ban you said I have, will not actually be in place, which seems silly to be there in the first place.

 

It's a little disappointing that you've replied to these concerns a little late, people are here to help, including myself. I could have got sponsorship for the event, but with things as they are it won't happen anytime soon, maybe next year.

 

I obviously have issues with you guys at the moment, but I know 100% that ALL of you are good guys & want this to succeed. But you need to work together with us, outline the plans beforehand & work with concerns a lot better than you have. The concerns purely on here have only seen a proper reply two years on!

 

We need to work together for a better Pride.

 

PS - I appreciate your detailed reply.

 

PPS - Please stay on the forum to discuss concerns!

 

PPPS - Apologirs to everyone for spelling & grammar, I'm on my iPhone!

[No User Name 10]

So is Aaron still banned then, Adam?

[BFeld1972 10]

 

I'm gay but find it hard to come out. I support the edl gay division and lots of you might dis own me because of my beliefs. Many of us in the edl gay division feel alienated

 

Umm... are you f-ing kidding? You, a member of the EDL feels alienated?

 

What about all the people the EDL alienates, and worse?

 

What about my friends who are gay, and also happen to be asian, who feel alientated as they are abused walking down west st when the EDL are in town?

 

What about my friends who are gay, and also happen to be black, who feel alienated as EDL members makes monkey chants towards them?

 

The ridiculous right wing politics of the EDL is based around alienation and demonisation. I bore withness at last years EDL march that the organisation is nothing more than trumped up neo-Nazi's. I saw with my own eyes members of the EDL being allowed to give Nazi style salutes at the centograph in town.

 

This disgusts me not only due to the to the massive hypocrisy of saying you are proud of British heritage and support our troops and then behaving in such a manner, but also disgusts me as a gay man as we have seen where this particular form of far right wing politics takes us.

 

Pink triangles anyone? Concentration camps for the gays?

 

You are worried about being accepted but it is you who alienate yourself from the gay scene. The modern gay scene is multicultural and accepting of all. Your racist views prevent you from being a part of that, so I'm afraid you really have no one but yourself to blame.

Edited June 4, 2014 by BFeld1972

[aeinstein199 10]

Umm... are you f-ing kidding? You, a member of the EDL feels alienated?

 

What about all the people the EDL alienates, and worse?

 

What about my friends who are gay, and also happen to be asian, who feel alientated as they are abused walking down west st when the EDL are in town?

 

What about my friends who are gay, and also happen to be black, who feel alienated as EDL members makes monkey chants towards them?

 

The ridiculous right wing politics of the EDL is based around alienation and demonisation. I bore withness at last years EDL march that the organisation is nothing more than trumped up neo-Nazi's. I saw with my own eyes members of the EDL being allowed to give Nazi style salutes at the centograph in town.

 

This disgusts me not only due to the to the massive hypocrisy of saying you are proud of British heritage and support our troops and then behaving in such a manner, but also disgusts me as a gay man as we have seen where this particular form of far right wing politics takes us.

 

Pink triangles anyone? Concentration camps for the gays?

 

You are worried about being accepted but it is you who alienate yourself from the gay scene. The modern gay scene is multicultural and accepting of all. Your racist views prevent you from being a part of that, so I'm afraid you really have no one but yourself to blame.

 

The troll just caught his fish.

[Mister M 1,609]

Hoody47 - Thanks for responding to my earlier points, it's good of you to do so.

I'm just pleased that the people who were involved in organising the Sheffield Pride events no longer are....It's not personal animus against them, I just felt the way they organised themselves was very cliquey, and not very professional.

[BFeld1972 10]

The troll just caught his fish.

 

*Blush* - now I feel silly. Darn interweb with its trolls and whatnot.

[aaron1867 10]

The Sheffield Pride committee now and previously was and still are to an extent very cliquey. This isn't having a dig at anyone btw, but it is reality that the now and previously the people in charge are very good friends and are often seen out together.

 

There are still questions that need answering and there is still proof needed that back up what the committee are saying.

 

However I still question if enough is being done to gain funding. There are thousands of business in Sheffield and I am sure the big nationals would be interested in getting a little coverage for a few quid too. I spoke with two large businesses in Sheffield & they said they would be interested in sponsoring or some advertising at Pride. I would be pretty confident that one of the two would put up between £1-£5k to be involved with Pride. So is enough being done?

 

It is too late for this year to get that funding, but maybe next year.

[No User Name 10]

So is Aaron still banned then, Adam?

 

Well??????