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Pride, Etc Top Tips for Running a Bi Stall at Pride Pride, Etc Top Tips for Running a Bi Stall

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Pride, Etc Top Tips for Running a Bi Stall at Pride Pride, Etc Top Tips for Running a Bi Stall Pride, etc Top Tips for Running a Bi Stall at Pride Pride, etc Top Tips for Running a Bi Stall By Jen Yockney Welcome! Thinking of running a bi stall at a local Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Pride event? This guide aims to take you through the key issues you’ll need to consider in advance. Advance Preparation People Literature Stall Appearance Media Parade Followup Money Feedback on this guide and suggestions of improvements would be very welcome indeed. Advance Preparation No matter how far off your Pride Don’t panic, do ask for ideas and advice event is, the best time to start via the activists network and Livejournal. preparing is now. Life will get in the (see glossary for details!) way if you put it off, and there’s nothing quite like being three days Get in touch with the Pride team - there out from the event and knowing the will normally be a contact number or plan is all in place and the box of bi email address on the website - and ask Pride materials is packed and ready about getting a stall for a local LGBT to be picked up as you leave the community group, and about joining the house on Saturday morning. parade with a banner. There may be a form they want to send to you to If it was Pride yesterday, what better complete and you can check on the moment for writing up what worked well prices they will be charging. or badly on the bi stall, if any, and what things you found attracted you to others. Make sure you get your stall booking form submitted in plenty of time - at If it’s Pride next weekend, you can still some events space is limited and stalls pull something off. will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. People Perfectly good Pride presences have been done with just three people, but you would really like more. If you have a couple of months before the event, get flyers or a news item in BCN. Also advertise your plans on Livejournal. Remember – people will want a date, time, meeting place and phone number. Even the day before the event you can advertise online, again with a meeting place, time and mobile number for late arrivals to call so they Tell BCN you’re planning a can find you. Livejournal is the best place at the moment, though you stall - and advertise in may also want to post to any Facebook event page for the Pride their pages for helpers! festival, and major Facebook bi groups like the ones for BCN and the B*R*A. If you have a stall, try to set up a rota with e.g. two-hour long slots and keep a copy of the rota taped to the table on the day. Get the mobile numbers of helpers so if they don’t show up on time you can text / call to remind them they should be there. Stall helpers, especially the more committed helpers, will be there for some time. So you need to look after them! It helps if you plan in advance to have food and drink for the helpers on the stall - flapjacks, fruit etc. If on the day you realise you have forgotten about these it’s worth looking at other stalls which may be giving away snacks or bottled water. Make sure you get some good photos of the stall at the less busy times of day, with a variety of your helpers in the photo. When they post their photos on Facebook later your group gets an extra publicity hit! Stall Appearance The shape and size of the stall may be limiting factors here, but try to consider the experience of finding your stall from the point of view of a visitor to it. Is it clear what the stall is about? Does it look professional? Are you drawn in and welcomed? This also raises an important issue for anyone helping out on the stall. Chances are they will meet friends, or after the parade ends people will want to meet up back at the Ten people behind a stall: great for stall. They should be reminded not to ‘crowd out’ the stall such that a photo, but scary for new people potential visitors have to fight their way to the leaflets, and also that while approaching it to find out more! helping on the stall the most important thing is the stranger visiting - not their knitting, their newspaper or friend who they want to chat to. A crib sheet taped to the table may help, with reminders such as SMILE and make eye contact Say hello Offer stickers and leaflets Ask if they are bi - and if so, would they like to sign up for the mailing list If they have a question you don’t know the answer to, suggest when someone else will be on the stall or other sources of info e.g Pride info points, BCN. Keep the front of the stall clear of friends / group members so new people can approach Literature Things that are across the whole festival. Print your group web useful to have on address in small letters underneath. your stall include: A campaign or petition on bi inclusion - if there is A ‘signup’ sheet a local LGB organisation for example that is weak to be kept in touch on bi issues and you feel needs pressure, or – name, email something in the media recently such as negative address, and where portrayal on TV. Some pride goers want to party from (so you can separate out ‘locals’ from those but others will welcome a political ‘edge’ to the from further afield). You may get anything from stall. half a dozen to a couple of hundred signups depending on the event, the stall, and sheer luck! You will have several target audiences for your Pride Leaflets about the local bi group, and other groups literature, and after a while on the stall you learn nearby (so for example a Birmingham stall might which of your selection of leaflets is most useful to carry flyers about Manchester and the East each! Midlands) Bi local people who come to the stall Copies of the ‘Both Directions’ guide to the UK bi Bi people from further away who come to the scene stall Copies of BCN or subscription flyers for it (or Other people who come to the stall both!) Other organisations who are exhibiting e.g. youth Stickers with “bi” or “bifriendly” printed on them projects, trades unions, political parties, local to sticker stall visitors and thus raise visibility council, police. The Parade Many Prides have a parade or march, and this will have a different audience from a stall. You’ll want a banner and three poles – you’d be surprised how much even a lightweight banner can sag in the middle without a horizontal pole across the top, and you want your group name or message to be readable. Be aware that parade routes will take a lot longer as part of a march than they would to walk ordinarily so not all group members may be eager, or physically be able to do the march. Such people can still be very helpful and part of the team either by preparing the stall while you are marching, or getting a good vantage point along the route to get photos of your group on parade. If you have the time and the collective enthusiasm, you may want a ‘theme’ or group image for your march entry. For example London’s Bisexual Underground group have often had a ‘wear purple for Pride’ theme with colour co-ordinated marchers, while Manchester’s BiPhoria have entered as the “Bisexual Recruitment Army” carrying bubble-guns and wearing camo print. This is not essential though - the main thing is having a clear readable banner that makes sure the bis are a visible part of the parade. Encourage anyone taking part to bring a bottle of water and – as this is Britain – a brolly. Clever shopping around may find you some cheap pink brollies, blue ones and purple ones, giving a bi flag effect as long as marchers manage to stay in line in the right order! If you can’t get or can’t afford a stall, joining in a Pride parade is usually free or under £20 for a walking entry, is an easy ‘hit’ for visibility, and you can then try to get bi flyers onto other organi- Below: an example bi stall email sign-up sation stalls. sheet - write a dummy entry at the top so people don’t feel they are the first to sign up! Bi Info By Email! Sign Up To Keep In Touch Note: We will not share your details with any commercial organisations and will only use them to let you know about bi community groups and resources. Name Email Address Where from e.g Manchester, Leeds Jen [email protected] Swindon It would be a shame to organise the first ever You may also get unplanned attention, as some bi stall at Bloggstown Pride without anyone Prides will have local or internet radio or TV ever getting to know about it. There are two stations touring the stalls looking for people to ways that will happen: proactively through interview. The first thing to remember is that your work, and reactively if the media take an you can say ‘no’ to taking part. However, if you interest.
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