24 Scene
Mr Brighton Bear competition So far there have been 12 entries for the contest, but Graham expects that may drop as people who have filled out the online entry “in the joys of alcohol may be not so keen in the light of a new day”. But for those brave enough to take to the stage there’s a plethora of goodies up for grabs. “The winner gets a lovely sash, a lovely crown made by Tom Bald, there’s prize money of £100 and the runner-up gets £25, and there’s a T-shirt, lanyard and other goodies, plus, the winner gets our love and admiration for a year. We just want people to have a good time and enjoy the night.” Voting this year takes place in the run-up to the big night online and again in person on the night, giving everyone a chance to vote twice for their favourite entrant. More details are available at www.brightonbearweekend.com
GAVIN BENNETT, MR BRIGHTON BEAR WINNER 2020. PIC BY JACK LYNN
“That does make us the biggest LGBTQ+ event in Brighton this year,” says Graham, with a certain incredulity, and still keeping everything crossed that the so-called roadmap doesn’t go off the rails, to mix a metaphor. But everything is fully planned for the big weekend – the marquee has been bought, licences from the council obtained, the police are onside and Graham and the rest of the team are “hoping that most people will be double vaccinated by then. A couple of weeks after the second vaccine, it’s as good as you get”.
THE BEARS ARE BACK!
After the lost year that was 2020 for major gatherings, Brighton Bear Weekend returns from July 22-25. Bear chair Graham Munday tells us what’s planned to raise money for the Brighton Rainbow Fund ) The writing was on the wall for Brighton
Bear Weekend in February, when the assembled committee agreed that what was going on in Italy and France was going to hit the UK soon. And when it did, they also agreed that the lockdown wasn’t going to last for the three months that Boris Johnson had claimed. “It’s a bit like how they claimed the war was going to be over by Christmas,” says Graham Munday, citing the oft-quoted popular British opinion of 1914. In fact, the end of the first 12 weeks would have been just in time for the Bear Weekend, but in common with festivals up and down the country, the decision had been made quite quickly to cancel the event in light of the pandemic.
From there the group went ahead with Mr Brighton Bear online – with Gavin Bennett winning the 2020 title to join 2019’s Taylor Leigh in the line-up of top bears to date – and managed to hold some online club nights, “then the rest of the year didn’t really happen”. But this year it’s full steam ahead again for the fun-loving fundraisers, although the Brighton Bear Weekend is taking place at a later date than its originally hoped-for June 25, with the committee knowing it needed to push the date back and not wanting to clash with other community events such as Trans Pride and Brighton & Hove Pride, both of which have sadly had to be cancelled as physical events.
The main event starts with a welcome party at the 500 people-capacity Dorset Gardens on the night of Friday, July 23, following the Thursday night quiz at the Camelford Arms, but there is still uncertainty around how many people might attend. “Are people going to decide never to go out again or are they going to go back to some semblance of what was beforehand?” asks Graham. “I don’t imagine there’s going to be a huge rush. Some people think there’s going to be some sort of explosion and everybody rushing out at once, but I think people will be a bit more timid about it.” And of course, the normal influx of European visitors won’t happen this year, while there is no knowing whether visitors from other UK countries will want to make the journey. “Looking at the bars the footfall is still down on previous years and it hasn’t really picked up as yet. A lot of the bars aren’t doing so many cabaret nights so they are still hedging their bets. But we believe by the time it gets to the weekend of July 22 they will be up again,” adds Graham. “In previous years we have had between 15 and 17 events over the weekend, but this year we are bringing it all back again to just being a bit more basic. “Having our welcome party in the marquee in Dorset Gardens allows us to bring in more
