oasis norfolk

It’s Saturday morning and Dee and I on the road heading for deepest darkness Norfolk; King’s Lynn to you folk not from Suffolk, With a sense of anticipation, we motored towards Pride Part Two. 

Oasis on tour; our Pride Team with our own ‘Rock’ N’ Roll Starr’ and definitely not those two horrible brothers from Manchester. 

“Dee did you remember to pack the tour tee shirts?”, “No!“. Well that was amazing, because Dee had packed just about everything else. The ‘piece de resistance’, was her generator and a kettle! Hurrah, tea and coffee on tap. ‘Some Might Say’, Dee you are an angel.

On a beautiful clear morning, ‘A Sunshine Supernova’, we arrived at the appointed hour to set up camp. Our roadies Serena, Rachel, Lorraine, Theresa and not forgotting Penny, were there to greet us. Amy was busy parking the tour bus, whilst grappling with the KL oneway system. 

Nobody could miss our pink, blue and white encampment, Dee’s gazebo resplendent in the Trans Pride colours and Dee’s massive Oasis Trans flag fluttering in the light breeze. Our new display panels looking perfect in this setting, a true ‘Wonderwall’ . After six cups of Dee’s coffee were ready to hit the stage!

I really recommend King’s Lynn Pride. It is more relaxed than Norwich, and here Pride starts with the parade through the town, followed by a carnival in the Park throughout the afternoon. Absolutely perfect. 

Amy, Theresa and I went parading, waving our placards and Theresa waving her Trans flag, whilst occasionally getting caught up in the low hanging trees but luckily not low hanging cables. Theresa was interviewed and photographed, but fortunately not electrocuted! She’s Electric’, well luckily not. 

Once we made it back to the park, we all had a fab afternoon talking to so many  people of all persuasions. Some we were able to encourage them to come to Oasis (Hi Jacqueline!) and with others, we spread the Oasis word. We spoke to many young people, with lots of them identifying as Trans Boys and young Trans Men. Oasis is not the right place for them (not yet) and on occasions, it was heart breaking to see how young they were, and often incredibly shy. We hope by meeting and chatting to us older ones, they can see a bright future.

Consequently It was important to meet some of the resources available to young people in the area. Next to our stand we met Dan, who is a MAP person based in KL, and two stands up were the folk from the Steam Cafe in KL, who provide a drop in centre for counselling service and other support. 

Sadly all good things come to an end, and as we broke camp and prepared to head to our August Oasis (it was a busy day!), we started to talk about next year. 

Dee said, ‘We need to go bigger! I’ve got a marquee!` I replied,’ Great, that means I can have my own VIP area, with a decent mirror!“ and “We need more dates, how about Great Yarmouth? How about Trans Pride?”. 

“Amy!” we cried, “We’re going to need a bigger Bus!”

A special thanks to our KL team, especially Theresa who worked with the KL Pride organisers and Dee, well for being Dee. 

We’ll be publishing our 2023 tour dates very soon, so don’t forget to pop them in your diaries, don’t miss out, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger!’ 

Love

Lilly

x