Great Yarmouth Pride 2022
- Katherine Nicholls
- Sep 11, 2022
- 3 min read
Last weekend, Great Yarmouth & Waveney Pride brought together performers and Great Yarmouth residents to celebrate the 'One World, One Heart, One Pride' event.
After years of setbacks, it was finally time again for Yarmouth to celebrate and raise awareness of the wonderful diversity within our community.
The event started with a colourful parade down the seafront led by Yarmouth born Bimini Bon Boulash (a finalist on Drag Race UK) on a Joyland snail. They briefly stopped at the new Marina Leisure Centre to present them with a locally designed torch as part of the grand opening ceremony.
The parade then made it's way back to the outdoor events stage next to the Duke's Head pub and the celebrations truly began!
Although Pride is about celebration, it is important to also remember it is a tribute to those loved and lost. In honour of this, the outdoor events stage was called 'The Alexis St Clair Memorial Stage' in memory of Alexis St Clair, a dear friend of Great Yarmouth & Waveney Pride who sadly passed away earlier this year.
The first act of the day was 'Ginni Tonix', a popular drag act who entertained the crowds with classic pop songs and soon had the crowd dancing! I caught up with Ginni Tonix after her performance and she said it was "Amazing to see the LGBTQ+ space available for the youth of Great Yarmouth", an important point which was echoed throughout the day.
Eva Jenna-Talia, the Lead Chair Person of Great Yarmouth & Waveney Pride was delighted with the turn out "This year is epic. I am really pleased to bring an event like this to Great Yarmouth". After not being able to host Great Yarmouth Pride in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid restrictions, they managed to sell thousands of tickets in the days leading up to the 2022 event and it was clear to see the happiness and positive energy in the crowd.
Throughout the event, the incredible drag artist Linda Bacardi was onstage as a BSL interpreter making sure that "everybody enjoys themselves". Linda Bacardi has been performing drag for over fifteen years and is one of only two BSL drag artists in the UK so it was incredible to see her translating for the audience. Alongside interpreting, Linda Bacardi also performed a set and as a special addition, taught the crowd the sign for 'Pride' during her performance.
The night ended with an incredible performance by the headliner Bimini who performed original content and used her platform to raise awareness of their collaboration with Great Yarmouth Council for a future creative centre in Great Yarmouth to encourage creativity within the area and provide a space for LGBTQ+ residents.
Other performers included the wonderful drag king Terry D’Actyl, Bigg Tastyee, PrinceyJay, The Squirrels, the HoneyB's and many more.
Unfortunately after Bimini's performance, we found out that a thirteen year old boy had been attacked after attending the parade and a young girl had been verbally attacked with homophobic comments.
Since then, Great Yarmouth & Waveney Pride have been in communications with the Norfolk police about the attacks last Saturday and are now urging the public to show support for the LGBTQ+ community by displaying a printed sign in their homes, businesses and car windows.
A link to this poster can be found here:
Now more than ever we need to support each other and displaying this poster would be a great way to start.
If you would like to support Great Yarmouth & Waveney Pride, you can do so here
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