A buzzing Cambridge Pride had a community marquee full of local public service and health organisations with outreach stalls – alongside stalls from Labour, Liberal Democrats, and The Greens. How can other free events in our city learn from Pride in getting such a large number of organisations participating?
“Was it really over a decade ago since we saw Josie Long and Grace Petrie at The Junction?”
…asked Ceri who I had not seen for a couple of years. Turns out it was – we were both at The Junction when the two rocked up for their Alternative Reality Tour in 2011. With fatigue kicking in I was about to head home until I heard Grace’s familiar voice on a distant loudspeaker. So I followed the music.
And didn’t regret it. Not that I was seeing an unknown artist and musician. Grace has this rare talent of combining upbeat melodies and rhythms with hard-hitting lyrics that somehow teach you something at the same time. Take Black Tie from 2018 here. (I filmed a couple of numbers but armed with only a mobile and standing at the back hardly did her justice).
I felt a strange sort of paralysis in the art tent with Hilary Cox Condron knowing that 30 years ago our city wouldn’t have dared host an event like this – chances are the local council would have come under huge pressure not to grant a licence at all
I mentioned to a couple of people earlier that for a future event we should have a display about the campaigns against Section 28 (of the Local Government Act 1988). Because for those of us at secondary school between 1988-2003, we were taught nothing outside of what was a very narrow, religious-based curriculum on SexEd and as a result went out into the wider world ignorant of the diversity and variety of people and their lifestyles. I still use the phrase: “our generation was educated to be ignorant” to describe a system that prioritised being taught to the test rather than inspiring us to explore the wider world beyond the narrow boundaries of the curriculums micromanaged by ministers.
What was also striking was that just before I headed out today, I spotted this RT’d onto my Twitterfeed (which seems to be missing off more and more people I’m listed as following these days!)
It was through that prism of seeing younger generations at ease with the concept of equal rights vs my generation of the early-mid-90s having none of that because religious institutions were far more influential even back then than they are today. It’s also one of the reasons why I feel we need to have a major public health campaign for the generation of us affected by the Section 28 law.
“I want the children I teach to have a better education than I had.”
BBC Three 01 Nov 2019
It could have been so much better for my generation. It should have been so much better for my generation. The fact that it wasn’t is one of the things that drives me to strive for something better for future generations – even though as a single male I’ve not got anyone to be directly responsible for other than myself. Hence in part following Eglantyne Jebb’s example and going after the institutions in a way that people with parental and caring responsibilities seldom have time for.
The free civic events matter for those parents and people who are struggling with the cost of living crisis and who cannot afford paid-for activities on a regular basis.
The debate around the cancellation of The Big Weekend was a wake-up call on the inequalities in Cambridge. In one sense Cambridge Pride 2023 sort of made up for it when you look at the size of the event alone. It was significantly larger than I thought it was going to be, and had a very easy going atmosphere to it for the start of the event that I was there for. And pleasantly so. People could rock up and simply ‘be’.
A month ago, I asked about how we could get more public service organisations booking stalls at large community events, and running activities that involved finding out what people’s experiences and opinions were on a range of different things. So I was pleasantly surprised to see this in action four weeks later on the Green next door to Midsummer Common! It was like someone had read that blogpost and said: “Right everyone, this is what we need to do!”
Actually, it involved far more work than that – not least a significant amount of targeted work persuading commercial sponsors, an activity not without risk
You can read the Cambridge Pride 2023 sponsorship brochure here. Now compare that one to the Cambridge Folk Festival 2023. Or that of The Big Weekend and City Council events. Whoever was running the Pride sponsorship and marketing side seemed to have far more expertise & experience than the local council’s team. Perhaps not surprising given 13 years of austerity that the local council has been hit by. But when you compare page numbers and how each different tier of sponsorship and each type of sponsorship opportunity is set out in Pride’s document, it’s hard not to notice the difference between the two.
Corporations are expected to demonstrate at least a token commitment to diversity and equality – sponsoring such an event like Pride is an opportunity to demonstrate this.
The same is not the case when it comes to demonstrating support for the wellbeing of an entire city. Maybe that’s the culture change we need to push for as the people who make up our city; that we have higher expectations of civic responsibility from firms that establish themselves or relocate to Cambridge.
It’s worth noting that corporate sponsorship is always a double-edged sword. There were protests against some of the activities of some of the sponsors – especially those whose business activities are linked to environmentally destructive actions.
And just as there were a couple of property industries with tents at the event, so too were Cambridge Acorn (of whom I am a member) raising awareness of Cambridge’s housing crisis.
I don’t have an answer to that conundrum. Big free events cost a lot of money to put on and need sponsors, philanthropists or local councils to finance them. Central government has effectively cut off the funding streams from the latter.
Above – where funding came from for Cambridge Pride 2023
The organisation of Cambridge Pride (or the Cambridge Strawberry Fair for that matter) would make for an interesting extended project for any teenagers starting further education courses in September. Learn from the experts how to put on an event and make the contacts with the relevant public authorities whose permissions and support is needed to make things happen. Find out which organisations to target and how when it comes to raising sponsorship funding. Because if we can get a critical mass of people from younger generations to familiarise themselves with putting on such events, Cambridge Pride could follow in the footsteps of the Strawberry Fair and Cambridge Folk Festival as becoming part of the fabric of our city, and an annual event on the civic calendar. Furthermore, if people there to make good things happen, they stop happening. Like the old Cambridge Festival that was a regular arts and music festival in the 1980s.
Below – from the Cambridgeshire Collection: Look at the line up from 1986. By the mid-1990s following the departure of the longtime main organiser, it vanished from the calendar.
Above – the Cambridge Festival 1986 – two weeks of arts, drama, music and fun from late July to early August.
Which has also got me thinking: if/when we get a new system of local governance for our city, can we co-ordinate (or at least try to) the events that are organised in and around our city, and have them displayed in a manner that the Isle of Wight has been doing brilliantly for years? (See https://events.onthewight.com/).
Food for thought?
(Also, don’t forget Open Cambridge this September – which I’m still sounding ideas for)
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The Cambridge Town Owl 