Two pride Cymru posts in a row, lucky you! This is also a week later than I intended because oh boy had life been busy lately, exciting but busy. I hope you guys like these life and event posts as well as my more sustainable posts, I know it's been a lot of "here's what I've been doing" but I will be doing more of a mix soon!

This year marked Pride Cymru's 20th anniversary, an amazing feat, and with that they had what was essentially a three day festival to celebrate. I am, in spirit, an old lady and cannot hack more than one night out in a row and so saved all of my energy just for the Saturday day and night, the main event! And it was also my 5th anniversary at pride, so it was a little bit special.



Though I'm here to talk about the event I am going to start talking sustainability! This year I really couldn't find the perfect pride t-shirt, or at least not one I liked that was products sustainably/ethically, so I decided to make my own! With a white shirt from a charity shop, some wonderful tassels by Pretty Moxie and some acrylic paint I got to work making my own pride tee and I'm so glad I did, it was so very me!
As tradition dictated, we came in to Cardiff and stood outside Mary's for the Parade, only for once in our lives we were actually early for it! And our usual spot was a lot busier than it had been previously.

The parade was massive, I mean massive, I counted like 6 different ambulances as part of it, I saw some groups more than once, there were so many dogs! It was mad. I mean I'm not complaining because I love people watching and I had plenty to photograph, oh and there were so many dogs! But towards the end I was getting hungry and a little worried that I was getting rather sunburnt -all was ok I only got a little sunburnt and lunch afterwards was much appreciated.
The event itself was seriously busy this year, walking through the stalls made me feel just a little bit anxious with the amount of people coupled with heat and people with horns that kept going off in my ear, I would have liked to look around a bit more but it just really wasn't the day for it for me! So as per last year we went out to sit in the semi-calm grassy area at the back and spend the afternoon lying in the shade. We caught a bit of the live performances before heading home for dinner and pre-drinks before the big pride night out.

Honestly there's not all that much do do during the day unless you want to just drink and sit in the sun watching the main stage which is lovely but it was 28 degrees on Saturday and my very pale self did not want heat stroke! So a nap in the shade and then a brief main stage stay suited me, though I think we may change our scheduling next year to make the most of the event in the evening.
Then there was the after party, but no street party! I can tell you I really missed the street party, and without it £15 was just a little bit over priced for Pulse, especially when they were not playing the music I really liked early on in the night. We actually ended up in non-gay bar Live Lounge for a bit to raise our spirits and have a dance before coming back to pulse for the much needed gay. We got overcharged for some drinks and then got talking about life in the smoking area, as you do. It must have been somewhat of an entertaining night though because suddenly it was 4:30am and I wanted my bed. Mixed emotions about that night. But I really hope there is a street party again next year because without it £15 is just too expensive for Pulse otherwise, and I missed spending my time stumbling between the dance floor and the bucking bulls, and spinning round on rides when my feet got too tired.

Again my outfit for the after party was a thrifty one, 100% second hand apart from the boots, with Bow tie and trousers from charity shops and a corset from depop. I had the pride during the day so the evening was for the Cymru! I am very happy with these purchases I have to say.
I can't say this is the best year of Pride I've ever been to, but it was still a pretty fun day. Might have to mix up the way we do things next year to get the most of it though. Have you been to any Pride parades this summer?