Pride Or Profit?

IT'S SUPPOSED to be a public display of unity on the part of the gay community, but three months before taking to the streets, the inaugural Dublin Mardi Gras appears to be illustrating the growing rift between gay activists and those chasing the pink pound.
By his own admission, club promoter and Mardi Gras committee member John Pickering falls into the latter category. A heterosexual businessman who professes to having absolutely no interest in gay politics , he s dismissive of the criticism that s being levelled at the five-day festival.
I actually think it s very positive that, for the first time, you ve got the main six or seven gay businesses in Dublin coming together to organise what I believe will be a top-class event, Pickering comments. My job as a concert promoter is to put bums on seats. I have to provide the best possible entertainment at the lowest possible price. If I don t do that, I don t get the punters.
We ve decided we d like to run a Mardi Gras. We hope it s a financial success both for ourselves and the charities it ll benefit and that in future years it ll expand beyond the 2,000 or 3,000 people that we re hoping to attract first time out.
Rather than nominating selected charities beforehand, Pickering says that organisations will be able to apply to the committee for a donation after the Mardi Gras has taken place. The lack of precise amounts or percentages is one of the reasons why the man behind the Kitsch night at The Kitchen, Elliot Brown, won t be rowing in with his fellow promoter.
I was there for the first couple of steering committee meetings, and the attitude was very much that charity begins at home , Brown claims. I m not a complete hippie people have a right to make money but there s got to be a balance struck between commercial and community interests. They can dress it up whatever way they like but, in my opinion, the Dublin Mardi Gras is nothing more than a pocket-lining exercise for the businessmen involved.
Pickering and his colleagues have also stirred up a hornet s nest by claiming in a press release that Temple Bar Properties, The Irish Film Centre, The Arthouse and Dublin Corporation have all given their full backing to the project and will be actively involved in the events.
However, when contacted this week by Hot Press, Una Carmody of Temple Bar Properties was adamant that no arrangement has been entered into.
They re saying we ve given them the go-ahead to use Meeting House Square for their showpiece outdoor event but that s not the case, she says. I m still waiting to hear from the Mardi Gras people what it is they re proposing, so the announcement, to put it mildly, is premature.
Also angered by the press release is Arthouse director Niall Sweeney, who accuses the Mardi Gras organisers of completely misrepresenting our position.
Pride would be the movement I d support, he explains. The Mardi Gras seems to be a commercial venture which is fine in itself but I don t think it does anything for the community. There s nothing original about the concept and running a month before Pride smacks of trying to steal its thunder. For the Mardi Gras committee to say that we re giving them our full backing , when they know that isn t the case, is extremely annoying.
Pickering insists that Sweeney gave him a verbal undertaking to stage some sort of event and adds that this thing about us trying to take on Pride is complete nonsense. The Mardi Gras is a different type of event which is intended to complement, not replace, what already exists. The long weekend we ve chosen May 21st to 25th coincides with the Bank Holidays in the UK and Northern Ireland which means extra bodies and extra money coming into the Temple Bar area.
The Pride people didn t have a problem with me last year, when I gave them #600 to become an official patron, but since then it appears I ve put a few noses out of joint. I ve done nothing wrong so, really, it s their problem, not mine.
Those sentiments are echoed by his Mardi Gras colleague Clem Clancy, the co-founder of the Irish Gay Rights Movement, who says that, 10 years ago an event like this would have needed a hard political edge but most of the battles that were being fought then have since been won. Sure, there are important issues like health that still need to be addressed, but what matters now is quality of life. I would be of the opinion that the clubs, pubs, hotels and saunas that are involved in the Mardi Gras are providing services which benefit the community as a whole. If they weren t, no-one would go to them and they d have to close down.
I don t see why this huge distinction has to be made between gay and straight business, John Pickering resumes. Imagine if somebody said right, Denis Desmond has been staging the Fiile for the past however many years, so he s the only person in Ireland who s allowed to run gigs . That s what s being implied and it s ridiculous.
However, Elliot Brown feels that the argument against the Mardi Gras is more complex than that.
The Mardi Gras people talk of battles being won , but who do they think did the fighting? Not someone like John Pickering who only got involved with the scene because he saw there was money to be made from it. They cite the Manchester Mardi Gras as their role model without understanding that it s taken ten years of meticulous planning, and the involvement of dozens of different groups, to get it to where it is today.
Let s just take one area that they haven t thought of cruising. A big part of the Mardi Gras, and the scene as a whole in Manchester, is that people are encouraged for safety reasons to pick up in The Village, which is a sort of gay Temple Bar. This is done with the full support and co-operation of the police. Do they seriously expect the Gardam to do the same here?
Clem Clancy agrees that there has been a certain amount of looking to Manchester, another potential stumbling block given the report which recently appeared in Gay Times.
The Village Charity in Manchester, it reads, has announced its closure. It will no longer organise Manchester Mardi Gras, the successful HIV/AIDS fund-raising festival. Gay businesses and profiteers are being blamed. The charity said it hoped the event could continue to grow if it were organised by a community-led organisation, otherwise it would just be another way to increase profits.
John Pickering remains unrepentant, though.
The Dublin Mardi Gras will go ahead and, in my humble opinion, be a big success.
Politics or profit? The battle-lines have been drawn. n