I was asked by Diva magazine to contribute to an article about the changing lesbian scene across Britain. Here are my thoughts about the changing trend in Brighton.
Venturing out in the South-East has never offered such diversity and choice. Pubs, bars and clubs are providing an abundance of music, theme nights, events, entertainment and atmosphere for you to choose from and meet like-minded women into the same thing as you.
A changing trend is that ladies no longer necessarily want spaces exclusively for themselves, and venues are embracing this shift.
In Brighton, Charles Street Bar is seen as a popular mixed pre-club venue with the young crowd, gay and lesbian alike. The most successful club night in Brighton is Girls On Top at Revenge with local DJ Dulcie Danger. A mix of chart/pop/trash/r’n’b and party tunes has brought everyone together onto one pumping jam-packed dance floor every Thursday, for a girls night that's just as popular with the boys.
The Candy Bar and Wet Pussy Club night were the first to feel this changing shift. Launching in Brighton in 2000, their initial growth was spurred by the need for a women-only bar and club space to cater for girls who wanted a place to call their own. Their demise in 2008 in Brighton followed on from a period in which the Candy Bar struggled with erratic and dwindling attendance. It began diversifying to become a mixed alternative space to counteract this, but eventually sold to Popstarz. Renamed, the Ghetto took up where Candy Bar left, but this has now closed too.
The Three Graces and The Grosvenor are two new emerging mixed pubs in Brighton and Hove where women like to hang out, and two established women-centred pubs are thriving. The Marlborough has a long history of catering for the girls, and new pub manager Rebecca is eager to continue promoting and supporting women at the venue. Embracing the new trend, she describes it as 'an open minded queer space where all feel comfortable and all sexualities and genders are encompassed'. The Theatre upstairs provides alternative queer performance space throughout the week, Friday nights offer a different DJ each week so everyone feels catered for and Sundays offer a Big Gay Quiz.
Equally, Nicki pub manager of The Princess Victoria (PV), which celebrated it's sixth birthday in November, has also noticed the scene is changing. 'The main change is that the scene has become more mixed which is great to see. Girls still want their female nights but are happy to have a generally more inclusive feel to their week'. The PV provides a popular quiz every Wednesday, live music on Saturday afternoons with female singer-songwriters from Brighton and live DJs every Saturday night.
As Rebecca from The Marlborough summed up, 'Segregation is becoming passé.'
