As the rain bounces off of the London streets, I am beginning to reach for those thicker jumpers and those longer jackets, yet am reminded that it is still Summer here and there is much on the calendar to do.  Over the coming weeks, the GYC staff will be out and about making sure that we take in that final opportunity to see blue skies over good old Blighty.  

This weekend it is Manchester Pride, now a permanent fixture with the GYC and certainly a much anticipated occasion on our calendars and 2010 is set to be as big and bold as all of the previous Pride events in Manchester.  Check back next week for comment and pictures and share your own Pride stories with us. 

Then next weekend is our annual trip to our favourite festival, yes the GYC is decamping quite literally to our glitter encrusted tent on the Isle of Wight for Bestival.  The music festival at the beginning of September has been a permanent feature of our Summer activities and remains one of the most diverse, eclectic, inclusive and down right glamorous festival offerings of the now numerous options both in the UK and abroad.  

This year, the year of the FANTASTIC couldn't provide more of an opportunity for us to pack the spandex, the glasses, the glitter and the jewel encrusted props into our rugged and wonderfully masculine backpacks.  Are you heading over on the ferry, risking life and limb on the open top buses and unfurling your sleeping bag this year?  We would love to hear from you and especially to get the story of your Bestival experience up on the site.  

There will be full festival coverage appearing on the site and photos of our weekend of being more fantastic than we have ever been.  The line up is keeping us busy as we try and get through playlist after playlist on our ipods in order to spot the best undiscovered the clearly unmissable and the slightly left field, we'll keep you posted but here is a sample of the line up:

Dizzee Rascal///The Flaming Lips///The Prodigy///Hot Chip///Simian Mobile Disco///Roxy Music///Mumford and Sons///Ellie Goulding///Marc Almond and the simply fantastic Rolf Harris.

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Bestival 2010 is now sold out.

However, tickets for 2011 will be on sale in a matter of weeks.  Check here http://www.bestival.net/ for more (including full line up)