Author: Matt

We are very happy to welcome two new members to the Brighton Bear committee: Chris Cooke (pictured left, below) and Oli Halliwell (right).

You can read their personal statements and find out more about them in this Gscene article.

Get your thinking caps on for this year’s big Christmas Quiz on the night of Thursday 22 December at the Camelford Arms. The quiz starts at 9:00pm, but arrive early (or have dinner there first) to be sure of getting a table – this event is always packed! It’s £2 a head to play, with all proceeds going to the Rainbow Fund as always. The winners will have a chance to win £300 cash or one of many other wonderful prizes.

Check out the Facebook event page, this Gscene article about the quiz, and our own Graham talking about it on Radio Reverb recently (segment begins at 9’30”). See you there!

Stuck for Christmas gift ideas? There are now special deals on our fabulous Brighton Bear Weekend clothing at Prowler (112-113 St. James’s Street, Brighton, BN2 1TH). Our t-shirts and vests are now £8, and our polo shirts are £10. Stock is limited, so get down there before they run out!

We had another great Halloween party at Subline on 29 October 2016, raising a marvellous £503.55 for the Rainbow Fund. Ghoulies could be seen in every dark corner … we certainly got the willies! You can read about the night in this Gscene article.

Click the photo below to open a gallery of pictures from the night. Thanks to Jack Lynn for taking these excellent photos!

Check out this Gscene article announcing the dates for next year’s big Brighton Bear Weekend: Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 June, 2017.

As the article states, be sure to book your accommodation early, as Brighton gets extremely busy in the summer!

The online shop is now closed. Thank you for your custom in 2016!

All remaining stock (t-shirts, vests and mugs) is now on sale at the Prowler store at 12-113 St. James’s Street, Brighton. With each purchase of Brighton Bear Weekend merchandise, Prowler will give you a 20% discount card which can be used on your next purchase. For more information, see this Gscene article.

The sums have been tallied, and we are extremely happy to announce that Brighton Bear Weekend 2016 has raised the following amount for the Rainbow Fund:

£7,752

We knew the weekend was busy, but this has exceeded all our expectations. We couldn’t have done it without the help of all our volunteers and partners around Brighton and beyond … and above all, we couldn’t have done it without you, the marvellous bears and friends who came to our events, bought raffle tickets and t-shirts, and brought so much fun and energy with you! We cannot thank you enough, and we hope to see you all again next year!

We presented the cheque to the Rainbow Fund on 11 July at the Camelford Arms. Read all about it here.

Check out this video from Latest TV about Brighton Bear Weekend:

There are also two fresh news items from Gscene magazine on the Press page:

• It’s a Bear’s World: a review of the Bear-B-Q Picnic on Saturday 18 June, with photos.
• Bear’s quiz night raises £320 for Rainbow Fund: the results of our big quiz at the Camelford Arms on the first night of Brighton Bear Weekend 2016.

Well, what a weekend that was! Brighton Bear Weekend 2016 was a total blast, with hundreds of visitors from the UK and around the world enjoying a great weekend of parties, food and drinks, music and dancing. We’re still recovering after all that fun, but check back here soon for loads of updates. In the meantime, look at our Facebook page for the latest news and photos!

Also, please note that our online shop is down for maintenance while we restock, but limited quantities of our t-shirts, polo shirts and (new!) vests will be available there soon. We’ll let you know when!

Brighton Bear Weekend won a special Community Fundraiser Award at the city’s annual Golden Handbag awards on Sunday 12 June. We really had no idea it was coming, and were stunned but very happy when it was announced!

The award was presented by James Ledward, founder of Gscene magazine and long-time LGBT campaigner in Brighton and Hove. We asked James about his life, his work, and his thoughts on Brighton Bear Weekend … you can read the full interview here.