London gay pride: Scaled back event begins - BBC News
BBC London's Nick Beake says there's been disappointment at the pared down event
A pared down version of London's gay World Pride event has taken place without the traditional floats.
Organisers said about 25,000 people took part in the march through central London.
There was a party in Trafalgar Square with performances from Boy George and R&B singer Deborah Cox.
Due to a funding shortage, the event did not include floats or a party in Soho. It is the 41st year there has been a gay pride march in London.
The procession started from Baker Street and followed the traditional route via Oxford Street and Regent Street to Whitehall.
Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who helped organise the first Gay Pride in Britain in 1972, said despite the setbacks surrounding this year's event, there had been a great atmosphere.
Pride London spokesman Uwern Jong said the procession was for the global advancement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
He said: "Forty-four members of the Commonwealth still criminalise homosexuality."
Board resignationLast week, Pride London, said it had been hard to secure money because of the economic climate.
On Wednesday, Tony Hughes, a long-standing board member, was announced as the organisation's new chairman, following the resignation of Patrick Williams.
A statement from Pride London said: "Dr Williams resigned from his position following criticism of the board's handling of World Pride 2012.
"The rest of the board remains unchanged and committed to delivering an event London can be proud of."
The hashtag #BorisSavePride had been created on Twitter to campaign for the mayor of London's support.
The mayor's office has provided funding of £100,000 for the event.
A spokesman said Boris Johnson would not be attending the event this year because of other commitments.
London's Bloc festival shut down over crowd safety fears - NME
July 7, 2012 12:13
The festival site was evacuated in the early hours of this morning and today's events will not go ahead
Photo: PA Photos
Bloc 2012 was shut down in the early hours of this morning (July 7) over fears for crowd safety - before a headline set from Snoop Dogg could take place.
The electronic music festival, which had been taking place at the London Pleasure Gardens, will not go ahead today (July 7). A statement on the Bloc website reads: "By now everyone will have heard that Bloc 2012 was closed due to crowd safety concerns. We are all absolutely devastated that this happened, but the safety of everyone on site was paramount. Given the situation on the ground, we feel that it was the right decision to end the show early. Bloc will not open on Saturday 7th July so please don't come to the site. Stand by for full information on refunds."
In an earlier statement, London Pleasure Gardens confirmed that they acted on the advice of the Metropolitan Police and began a "controlled shut down" of the site at 00.45am this morning (July 7). Explaining their decision to evacuate the festival, organisers said: "Our number one concern is always public safety, and sometimes tough decisions need to be made by on-site security, but we always act as we believe is necessary at the time to best protect visitors."
He reported that, upon his arrival at the East London festival around 8pm, "There were plainly too many people and not enough security", which led to queues of up to two hours just to enter the site.
Inside the London Pleasure Gardens, scenes were even more chaotic. By around 9pm, every venue on the 60,000 square-metre site was surrounded by a huge queue. Two hours later, Pattison described the situation outside the Resident Advisor stage as "like a stampede". Around this time, the festival's main stage was shut down and word spread that a headline set from Snoop Dogg had been cancelled - although there was no official announcement from Bloc's organisers.
The other stages began closing down shortly afterwards, but in spite of the disappointment, Pattison reported that the crowd's reaction was "amazingly good-natured, considering". He witnessed a few angry exchanges with staff, but on the whole people were "pretty positive" and began to vacate the site as requested.
Today's second and final day of Bloc 2012 was due to include performances from Battles, Gary Numan, Ellen Allien and a headline set from Orbital. The annual festival, devoted to electronic music of all genres, began in 2007, but this is the first year that it has taken place in London.
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Car crash leaves toddler and man dead - Daily Telegraph
Paul Netherton, Assistant Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, described the incident as "extremely traumatic".
He said: "It was a head-on collision at speed. The black Vectra was coming down the hill and appears to have swerved into the path of the oncoming car. The members of the family are in a critical life-threatening condition in Derriford and Torbay hospitals.
"We are trying to identify their next of kin in southern Ireland to inform them, and the next of kin for the gentleman who has died have been informed and our thoughts are obviously with the families involved at this time.
Mr Netherton said because the driver of a police car witnessed the crash, the force has referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission as a matter of course. The officer's police car had not been pursuing the vehicles.
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