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 Typical! The wettest weekend of the summer, and perhaps even the year, was always going to coincide with the height of the outdoor festival season, the weekend when two festivals took place, the Godskitchen Global Gathering in Stratford Upon Avon and the 2003 Pride In The Park event in London. But it seems that with the rain came that spirit-of-the-blitz attitude that may well have made Britain great, at one time at least. While the assembled mass celebrated Pride, held for the first time in London’s Hyde Park, the heavens truly opened. And as Judge Jules so rightly surmised from the relative protection of the Radio 1 outdoor stage: "I am completely soaked, but no one else seems to care, so I won’t either!" Or words to that effect, at least. Things are still a little hazy. Jules was joined on the decks by both Boy George and Sonique, who not only provided tunes but had the good grace to wail over the top of them on the mic, with varying degrees of success. The ever-pumping Sharp Boys also joined the party with Jules, performing a marathon four-hour set. But the main stage provided the biggest draw, with its A, B and indeed C-list range of performers. Quite when Blue, the Cheeky Girls and Matt Goss will perform again on the same stage again is not known, but ‘no time soon’ is the most likely answer. Elsewhere, blistering performances came from chart-busters Junior Senior, the superb Liberty X and Mis-Teeq, along with veterans Soft Cell. Meanwhile the Club World arena saw the joining together of top London clubs like DTPM, Trade and Friction under one canvas roof, with Tom Stephan closing the proceedings in fine style before being whisked off to join Antoine 909 later that night at Crash. Despite a hiccup at The Strongbow Rooms which prevented the whole experience being opened, Popstarz just turned the speakers round and had the party faithful dancing in the rain and lovin’ it. According to one beaming punter, Simon H’s choice of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights as the closing track was the "perfect ending" to a brilliant day. As usual, Pride was an enigma in that it was the most colourful, vibrant and good-natured of festivals, but highly deviant all the same. The Pride organizers wouldn’t have it any other way. In conclusion, this year’s Pride was more than a little damp. Raining men, however, it wasn’t. |
