Thursday, July 24, 2008

northernPRIDE 2008 - the PICNIC



The parade ended at Leazes Park, near Newcastle University. Leazez Park is the oldest public park in Newcastle. A little history of Leazes Park:

On the 23rd of Dec 1873 Leazes Park was officially opened by Alderman Sir Charles Hamond. It became the first public or peoples park created on Tyneside for the purposes of exercise and recreation. The Council minutes show that the park was laid out over a number of years and could not be appreciated as 'complete' until the 1890's. Various designers John Hancock, John Laing and finally John Fulton the Town Surveyor produced designs, some of which were rejected as being too expensive or extravagant. The final layout was very much in keeping with other public parks established elsewhere in Britain and centres around the lake which was created on the line of the Lort Burn. The Bandstand and Terrace were added and later the area surrounded with metal railings. 

The grand Jubilee gates were added to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria and a Palm House was built. In 1905 a bust of Alderman Sir Charles Hamond was erected as the centrepiece to the Terrace and the park was then complete. The parks history continues through various crazes for deer, tennis, croquet, until the late 1980’s when major development fever took over and various controversial schemes were proposed. Thankfully due to the support of the people of Newcastle Leazes Park has been retained for public relaxation and recreation. In 1996 the first round of Heritage Lottery Bid proposals were started and on the 19th April 2001 the Heritage Lottery Fund approved the Leazes Park Restoration Project and provided a grant of £3.7 million to restore the park. (excerpt: http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/leazes.nsf/a/home?opendocument)






...the drum ladies continued playing at the park...

...free refreshment and pamphlets...


...and free condoms with various packaging, colours and flavours, fridge magnets telling people to have a safe sex, pens and other goodies for free...

...some of the stalls selling LGBT souvenirs...


...more LGBT info stall...

...free LGBT cake...i ate one and i felt so 'gay'...hehehehe...





...the parade ended with a concert and picnic...

...picnic on the green grass...



...a happy loner picnicker...




...a loud singer with a silent singer assistant...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

my goodness. the parade was definitely mind-blowing. I think it was a huge success for LGBT community, wasn't it?

Great shots, danial!

[danial][ma] said...

hej! hilmi...yeah! and a great day out too...:)

Unknown said...

hmm i hope the parade was a G rate parade. So often you see people skankly dresses or flashing off their private parts in public in these kind of celebration..

or is there but you just prefer not showing it :p

[danial][ma] said...

hej! budleee...everybody behaved and no flasher...all 'bersopan santun' hehehehe...if any, i will show it here, no censorship except my pic...:)

azizi said...

...a happy loner picnicker...
why you did not join her :-)

[danial][ma] said...

hej! azizi...hehehehe...thought wanna join her but the umbrella is too small for two...:)

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