Pride (the festival)

[JellySlice]

15yo dd wants to go with friends to Reading Pride. No idea whether to let her. Thoughts?

Dd went to Manchester Pride last year age 15. Only to the parade though which is daytime. No issues at all. Very safe and friendly. They had a great time.

See I don't even know this much! It's more than just a parade?

Well I don't know anything about Reading. Manchester has a parade on the Saturday lunchtime but it's also a weekend-long event where a few streets around the gay village are fenced off and you need a wrist band to get in. There are stages with quite big name acts performing and it all goes on quite late.

I don't know if there are age restrictions on who can buy tickets but I didn't really want her to go anyway last year. It's quite a club scene. Lots of booze and more. I might have agreed this year but we are away so she can't go.

Just had a quick look at reading and it's nothing on that scale. Looks really friendly and there will probably be lots of families there.

If you're still worried you could always offer to go along. I went the previous year (dd was 14) and I had a great time

Reading pride is normally good spirited and don’t believe there’s much at night. It’s well policed and marshalled

Interesting Kick. DD wants to go to Manchester pride this Saturday. I've said no because she's only just 15 and I'm concerned about crowds and low level crime, and her getting back on the tram.

Pride events are very well policed and safe. I'd let her go.

Whiterose for me it wasn't much different to letting her go into town on a Saturday with her friends. She had done that a few times by then. Also I knew her friends well and trusted them not to desert each other.

It's a very friendly event with lots of police, kids around and everyone looking out for each other. Sensible precautions against pickpockets and a plan for if she gets separated from friends are a good idea.

When we went 2 years ago we stood about half way up Portland street. I hate crowds but it wasn't that bad there. Probably only about 3 deep and there were steps behind us to stand on with no one too close to you. We moved down a bit away from Piccadilly to where it was a bit quieter because we couldn't see very well at the top end.

Agree with kick my dd (16) went to London Pride this year with a friend (16), I also had a few reservations but she had an enjoyable day - but it was crowded (very)...so again like kick said ensure they have contingency plans to meet up - I think Reading will probably be a smaller event - but the events tend to be well policed etc.

We happened to be staying one street over from Vancouver pride a couple of weeks ago. Watched a good portion of the parade (including prime minister Trudeau) but the children got bored after an hour and a half.

Quite an unimpressive parade, all very calm and good spirited although a few of the outfits were a little eye opening! It was very busy and some routes were blocked so had to walk along way around. Wouldn't worry about my teens watching similar in future if they wanted to as it was a comfortable atmosphere.

Imagine Reading would be much smaller. It was a massive city wide event with lots of build up in Vancouver.