Channel Islands Pride is giving people a chance to take part in this Saturday’s celebrations, while avoiding the crowds.
The ‘Queer Nature Trail’ follows a path through the Bluebell Woods and along the cliff paths to St Peter Port’s Bathing Pools, giving people a quieter way to get involved while showcasing how “queer the natural world really is”.
Beginning near the German Cemetery War Memorial, the route takes walkers through the Bluebell Woods and onto the cliff paths before bring them ot the Cow Horn Steps leading to the La Vallette Bathing Pools – Pride’s venue for this year.
Ellie Jones, Liberate CEO and Channel Islands Pride Director, said: “We spend an extraordinary amount of time hearing that LGBTQ+ people are somehow ‘unnatural’, when nature itself appears to have missed that completely.
“Once you start looking, the natural world is gloriously queer.
“Animals have same-sex relationships, fish change sex, plants switch reproductive roles and nature generally refuses to fit into the tidy little boxes humans like to create.
“The Queer Nature Trail is a fun way of exploring some of that while giving people another way to make their journey to Pride.”
Choose your own adventure
It’s part of Pride’s ‘Choose Your Journey’ approach.
People can choose the full Pride experience, gathering at the Rainbow Steps and Market Square at 13:00, before joining the March at 14:00.
For a calmer approach to the Pride Village, the Queer Nature Trail is a neat solution.
However, it is not wheelchair accessible owing to it passing through uneven woodland and cliff paths.
The Pride Village at La Vallette Bathing Pools opens at 15:00 un 21:00 this Saturday, 12 September.
Live music, drag, DJs, food and drink, community activities, a Silent Disco, Quiet Zone and Family Area will provide plenty of fun for the whole family.
Expected to be busy
Pride’s organisers are also keen to stress that it would not be wise for those not attending Pride to travel along St Peter Port’s seafront between 14:00 and 15:00, wherever possible.
Ms Jones added: “If you’re coming to Pride, come and join us – we’d love to have you.
“But if you’re just trying to get from one end of Town to the other at 14:30, we’d strongly recommend finding another route!
“There will be a few thousand people, a samba band and a 50-metre rainbow flag making their way along the seafront, and they are not particularly easy to overtake.
“If people can avoid the area between 14:00 and 15:00, it will make things much easier for everyone, including the Police and traffic teams helping us get the march safely to the Bathing Pools.”
