CityLife

Village clubs battle for Pride

JAM-PACKED SCHEDULE: Big Weekend in the Village

THE mildly troubling news? Guetta-backed When Love Takes Over warbler Kelly Rowland has pulled out of Pride’s Big Weekend (Aug 28-31). The amazing news? You’ll just have to make do with Little Boots, Freemasons, Frankmusik, Booty Luv, The Whip and Celebrity Wife Split star Peter Andre instead.

In addition, Scandi-pop tykes Alphabeat (currently gearing up to launch their second album) will be spinning a few remixed classics from the main stage DJ booth on Friday night.

Away from the arms aloft action of the arena, the Village’s bars and clubs will be looking to fill their respective dancefloors with a packed line-up that comprises approximately 3,475 events.

Allow us to take a deep breath and talk you through some of the highlights.

Things kick off on Friday night with a Retro Pride Special (10pm-4am, AXM), while an hour later Big Gay Friday (Cruz, until 6am) rumbles into life with able host Miss Cara.

Before that, and on every day throughout the festival, Queer Bar will have DJs from 2pm, breaking out the floorfillers later on. When all that gets too much (probably around 4am) Mornin Glory take over the venue, propping you up ‘til breakfast with upfront house.

Girls are catered for all weekend at Vanilla, who are also pushing two other parties: Fussy Pussy (Sat) at the Overdraught – which features a PA from Clubland and Dance Nation tour star Karen Danzig – and Climax (Sun) at Pure Space.

Fans of kitsch can check out Toni Lee’s Stars In Their Eyes (Sat, 9pm-2am, AXM), View's Winehouse tribute act (Sat, 10pm) or Kriss Knight’s tongue-in-cheek Sextoy (Sun, 2am-7am, AXM).

Monday night sees Cruz and Essential battling it out with rival closing parties, but the best-named – Out With A Bang – is at Eden, where you can catch live sets from quirky duos Sappho’s Apostles and Do Nothing.

After all of which you’ll probably need to go for a bit of a lie down. 

Village clubs and bars will be hosting events throughout the duration of the festival. Click the link to the right for all the details.