Saturday, 13th March 10

Highlights:

• Brown, Cameron and Clegg send written messages of support
• Ronan Keating makes surprise appearance at club night
• Peter Tatchell, Caroline Lucas (Green Party Leader), Des Turner MP and Shadow Minister Nick Herbert MP participate in panel debates
• Live performances from Erik Hassle, Girls Can’t Catch and Chew Lips
• Around 1000 LGBT students from across the country participated in the pre-pride and main pride events

National Student Pride’s spectacular celebrations drew to a close in the early hours of Sunday morning with a post-pride event taking place in Revenge Nightclub. It marked the end of nearly ten months of planning and exhaustive work by a committee made up predominantly of student volunteers and a small professional advisory panel.

This year’s event, which again spanned two days, featured a pre-pride party at Brighton's Club Revenge which included a live performance by JLS support act, Stevie Hoang and the conclusion of the ‘Face of Student Pride 2011’ model campaign, which was hosted on stage by popular cabaret act Billi Lewis. 

The daytime event was held at Oceana Nightclub on Saturday 6th March and was officially opened by the Mayor of Brighton & Hove with written messages of support being read from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Leader of the Opposition David Cameron and the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg. Highlights of the day included a hugely successful Women’s Room (organised by the Women’s Tent at Brighton Pride and in association with DIVA magazine), film screenings sponsored by TLA Releasing, live comedy and cabaret and two discussion panels featuring participants such as Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas, Peter Tatchell, local Labour MP Des Turner and Shadow Minister Nick Herbert.

After the conclusion of daytime event, students benefited from a pub-crawl around the gay village in Brighton, which ended up at a big night event in Coalition on Brighton seafront. Live performances by Erik Hassle, Girls Can’t Catch and Chew Lips, stilt walkers, angle grinders and stage dancers kept guests partying until the early hours of Sunday morning and the audience went wild when Ronan Keating made a surprise stage appearance.

For the hardcore party animals the final part of the weekend was a post-pride chillout event at Revenge nightclub that finished around the time the first train left Brighton station!