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Pride Day Galleries
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It was the biggest, wildest and most exciting nude party Toronto has ever seen! Three hundred and seventy five men crowded into The Barn for TNT!MEN's "Show Your Pride" party on Saturday, 26 June. They started arriving as soon as the door opened at 1 pm, and kept on coming right through to the end at 8 pm. "It was incredible," said Bert Bik, organiser of the event. "We've never had a party this big before, but we didn't have any trouble fitting them all in."
Guests really seemed to like the "in and out privileges"; many guests who arrived early in the afternoon left for an hour to get a snack or a meal, and then returned for the big finish. "You need to give people a chance to take a break when you have an event this long," said Bik. "Seven hours is a long time for a party!"
The volunteers who managed the event and worked throughout the day at the clothes-check did a good job. "We depend on our volunteers," said Bik, "and we are always looking for more people to join us." Most of the staff were board members, and there is some concern that these hard-working gentlemen may be radidly approaching the burn-out stage. "It's important that more members come out and help," added Bik. "You can't always expect the same people to do all the work."
As for the party itself, I personally found it a great example of why I like TNT!MEN so much: the men are so great, and so much fun to party with. It's a very social atmosphere; the emphasis is always on communicating, on renewing acquaintances and building friendships. Away from the dance floor, you sometimes can hardly hear the music for the noise of the conversations around you.
There were a lot of out-of-towners visiting for this party. "About a third of the men were members," said Bik. The rest were visitors from all over world, including England and the USA, or local men who decided it was finally time to see what all the fuss is about.
It was a great party; I can hardly wait until next year! Of course, our parties at the Barn will continue, on the last Saturday of every month from 4-8:30 pm. The next is scheduled for July 31st.
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| See the Pride 1999
Gallery Tony and Peter on Pride Day, with Don in the background. Photo by Lewis H. |
Almost one million people joined in today's Pride festivities, and a bunch of them were nudists! The rain did nothing to dampen our spirits, but it did make some of our signs and costumes a little soggy!
This is the third year TNT!MEN has had a booth at Toronto's Pride Day festivities, and joined in its parade. And once again, both were very popular.
It started raining just as we were assembling our canopy this morning, so we quickly scrambled to get all of our paper posters, banners, flyers, calendars, newsletters, business cards, and costumes under cover. Unfortunately, our canopy isn't really waterproof, and it soon started leaking. Peter Simm, the lawyer who wrote the brief that won us Hanlan's Point beach, fetched us some plastic drop cloths, so with lots of manpower and tape we built a plastic-coated shell to hide within. It worked quite well. Compared to most of the other booths, we were well protected.
We were also one of the few booths with something interesting to offer other than goods for sale, and that was our Photo Gallery. Featuring colour enlargments of the best of the photos in my collection, the show documents some of our history and the fun we have at our events. I know that people enjoyed the photos, because one fellow was caught trying to steal a handful of them!
We had a lot of people drop in and look around. Most of them were interested in what we do, and many recognised us as being the group responsible for making Hanlan's Point clothing-optional. Many others knew about the group from this web site, so I had a chance to meet some of my readers, which is always a pleasant experience.
The parade started at 3 pm, but TNT!MEN was number 95 out of 113, so we didn't rush over to the starting point. We finally started in the parade around 4 pm, and finished around 5 pm.
Last year we wore plastic leaves rather like fig leaves, as an ironic statement about being censored by the Pride committee. This year, our theme was "The Emperor's Nude Clothes", so we were festooned with ribbons and decorations. In the same style as last year, we wore postcard-sized "cock covers" (held in place with tape and elastics) and nothing else, so from behind we appeared totally naked. The cock covers were each labelled with a name, including: Prince Peter, Prince Roger, Prince Dick, Prince Willy, Prince Harry Dick, Prince John Thomas, Prince Wang, and Prince Dong. (For our foreign readers, these are all English-language euphemisms for "penis".)
There were ten of us to start with, and we were joined during the parade by three others, all non-members. We had delightful little costumes which just covered our "manly bits". Unfortunately, they were made of heavy paper. Since the weather during the parade was hot and sunny, this shouldn't have been a problem, except for one aspect of Pride Day: the water guns! There is a new breed of gun out there that seems to shoot several litres of water in a concentrated stream. Well I was hit by such a blast several times, and towards the end of the parade, my costume fell off and couldn't be repaired. I hadn't brought any clothes with me, but fortunately there was one extra costume.
The reaction from the crowd was very positive and very enthusiastic, ever more so than last year. A few of the non-members stripped completely naked, which got an ever louder reaction of laughter, cheers, and clapping from the crowd. It wasn't part of our agenda this year, but we decided to let each individual decide for himself what he wished to wear for the parade.
| See TNT!MEN's Statement on Nudity on Pride Day for info on the legal issues. |
There were no problems at all; once again the police made it perfectly clear that they have no problems with nudity in the context of the parade, although they also made it clear that they do not approve of it after the parade. However, they thought our rather minimalist coverings were fine, and were satisfied once the few bare boys donned their cock covers.
We finally tore down the booth at 6:30 pm, but even as we packed things up, we still had a lot of interested people stop by to chat and grab a calendar of events.
We had a lot of people helping us this year, starting at 10 am and working through until 7 pm. Thanks very much to all of you! Not only did you help us by the work you did, but your presence at our booth helped show people what a great group of members TNT!MEN has.
Thanks especially to Peter Gray (pictured above) who organised and planned our Pride Day effort. It was a great day, and I'm totally exhausted, but it was worth it!