June 16th saw Harrogate’s Pride In Diversity event — I went along to support some good friends. This had been the first time I had been to a Pride and I was very impressed with the friendliness of everyone there. There were no lager louts or scary people — just well-mannered fun; I enjoyed myself and it was a pleasure to be there.
I went to support my friends and to put my foot on a road to state that love is a Human Right. The Love should not be discriminated against. I was there so that one day people the world over could be free to take a consenting partner of any persuasion.
I managed to get some audio recording of the event — using some new gear purchased through Allan Smyth Audio Visual. I have tried to record sections of random crowd noise where there were no distinct voices.
This has proved a bit of a problem, but I am happy with how the recordings have turned out. If you want to listen back to them I recommend listening back to the recordings on Headphones as the microphones were situated in my ears. This is a binaural recording — it allows the 3D Soundscape of the recording to be reproduced when listened back on Headphones.
Here is the launch of Pride in Diversity 2018 (best listened back on Headphones).
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As ever, I have tried to leave out any distinctive conversation and just grab a snapshot — However, if you want me to take the recording down because you are in it and do not want to have this recording of Pride in Diversity on my blog then let me know by emailing me here.
Gripes
It was not too inclusive, Pride In Diversity — there were no Vegetarian options in the catering — seems meat is on the agenda.
Loved It
From my position of Hetero-Privilege, it seems Pride in Diversity 2018 was a way of ‘including’ people who feel marginalised due to their sexuality. Did it work? Pride has been working in Harrogate for two years now — Harrogate is not the most cosmopolitan area and people still say things are bad by describing them as ‘gay’. Whilst a lot of progress has been made over the decades to change opinion, there is still a lot of work to do. However, over 1000 people have watched the video showing the start of the march — and the march only started nine hours ago — I heard a pair of young girls walking past me and a friend; the young girls (11ish?) said “I haven’t had a smile on my face this big for a while!” Harrogate’s Pride In Diversity 2018 was a unique opportunity to bring together all that is great about the town I have come to love, Harrogate.
