The Soho element of London Pride 2010 has been cancelled, organisers announced today.

Roadworks around north Soho and Soho Square meant the Fire Brigade raised concerns that a large number of people in the area would not be safe. Many of the surrounding roads are closed while Crossrail and Thames Water works take place.

Soho is considered the gay heart of London, with dozens of gay bars, pubs and shops. The decision means there will be no official Pride celebrations in Soho. Gay businesses were told this week that there would be no stage in Soho Square and the only other option was to restrict just 7,000 people at a time to the area.

Bars were told a small street party could be held but they would have to compensate Pride London for its loss of sponsorship.

Pride is to take place on July 3rd and around 800,000 people are expected to join the celebrations.

Paul Birrell, chairman of Pride London, said today he was "deeply disappointed" at the news.

He said: "We have investigated every option with our colleagues at Westminster city council but the extended roadworks are an insurmountable problem. We planned to put significant extra security into the area and as recently as two weeks ago, that looked to have got the green light, but even this proved not to be enough.

"Restricting the crowd to just 7,000 people in an area that usually has the same capacity as Wembley Stadium would make for a very lonely party whilst alienating many local businesses.

"We do not feel it is fair to the businesses to stop their customers and even were we to attempt that, the cost of doing so is just astronomical and not something we can afford without some assistance.

"That we have only just had such a capacity put on the event makes it incredibly difficult for Pride London to mitigate this further.

"It has been a hard call but I believe we have taken the only decision we could. It would be fair to say I'm not a big fan of Crossrail at the moment."

Soho was due to host the dance stage and Pride officials are working out the details of what will happen to acts, who may be squeezed on to the other stages in Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square.

Pride media director Colm Howard-Lloyd  said that the festival will be obliged to make clear on publicity that no Pride events will be held in Soho on the day.

Yesterday, Michele Cremona, who represents KU Bars and is the co-chair of the Westminster LGBT Business Forum, said the issue had risen at "terribly short notice". She said many business owners were currently on holiday and were not able to make decisions about paying out money to compensate Pride.

Ms Cremona also suggested that with the day held on the semi-finals of the World Cup, the area could descend into chaos if fans and gay revellers were not allowed into one of the most popular drinking areas in the city. She said: "There would be a real danger if that happened. It would be a risky step to take."

A Westminster council spokeswoman said yesterday the council had "bent over backwards" to make Pride London aware of the security measures it needed to take.

She said: "We've said we welcome Pride, we're happy for it to take place, but ultimately safety comes first. If something was to happen, we'd want to evacuate the area as soon as possible. We are acting on the fire service's advice."

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: “London Fire Brigade plays an active role in Pride and our firefighters take part in the parade every year. We also take public safety very seriously.

"Pride is a popular annual event and attracts huge crowds, however this year due to Crossrail and other construction works in the Soho area, the Safety Advisory Group which includes LFB, Westminster City Council and Metropolitan police, have advised organisers that a large number of people in Soho Square will lead to emergency evacuation and access problems unless adequate controls are put in place.”

From today MIRRORBALLS readers can get their favourite monthly magazine on their iPhone or iPad. 

Cut and past this link:  http://bit.ly/9oR9kQ  into your phone's browser and it will automatically begin loading the MIRRORBALLS iPhone App.

Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the install and enjoy.

Each month the App will automatically update with the very latest edition of MIRRORBALLS, delivered directly to your iPhone, wherever you are.

Super 8 is an upcoming 2011 science fiction film written and directed by filmmaker J. J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, Abrams, and Bryan Burk.

For years it sat as empty office space, but now a prime location in downtown Albuquerque is set to become the city's largest gay nightclub. Some say it’s a sign the economy is turning around because it’s one of many new businesses.

Effex Nightclub, at 4th and Central above Schlotzsky's, is set to open Thursday night in time for gay pride weekend. The club can fit 750 customers.

"The gay community seems to anchor downtown revitalization and that's just one of the things we hope to bring here," says Effex co-owner Kris McNeil. He says the gay and lesbian community is in need of a place to feel comfortable, and that they contribute a lot to the economy.

"When they move into a space, they also bring business to the space, and businesses to support stores, grocery stores-- in my opinion, things that a downtown needs to grow and flourish," says McNeil.

As far as new Albuquerque businesses go, Effex is not alone:

• Slate Street Cafe just expanded, opening a new location in the Albuquerque Museum
• Southwest Grape and Grain, a homebrewing and winemaking shop opened this past month
• La Cumbre Brewing, a new microbrewery is opening in the Fall
• Brivea, a new I.T. company has set up shop on northeast Broadway
• Zombie Doughnuts just opened in the South Valley

Also, American Furniture Warehouse off I-25 is set for its grand re-opening, and Lowe's and Defined Fitness are set to break ground at the new retail complex at Central and Coors.

 

City Council President Ken Sanchez says the new businesses and the latest gross receipts tax revenue, which showed a slight increase in March, is a good sign overall.

"The retail market has been so flat in the last two years," says Sanchez. "Any type of activity is a positive sign for this community that the economy is starting to make a turnaround."

Wednesday morning, the city's Safe City Strike Force will be taking a tour of Effex Nightclub to make sure all of the necessary safety measures are in place for the grand opening.

Over half of gay men are uncomfortable displaying affection for another man in public, according to a survey.

Out of the 3,200 men who took part in the survey conducted by free gay dating website ManCentral.com, 23% of gay and bisexual men said that felt uncomfortable displaying affection in public, and 38% of those asked stated that they would only be brave enough to do so within a specifically gay-friendly environment.   

The survey found that the age group who said they felt the most uncomfortable with public displays of affection were men aged 18-24, and those aged 61 and over who felt the same way totaled only 19%.

A spokesman for ManCentral.com said: "It is worth noting than men now aged over 60 would have been in their late teens and early twenties when homosexuality was illegal in the UK, yet the statistics indicate they feel less repressed than those aged 18-24 in today's society.

"There remains a sense that homosexual displays of affection are at worst, unacceptable, or at best, somewhat taboo."

A new radio station dedicated to LGBT listeners is to be launched later this month.

Gaydio will be broadcasted online and on 88.4FM in Greater Manchester, and will become the UK’s first dedicated LGBT FM station.

Gaydio’s afternoon shows will be presented by former Galaxy breakfast host Nicksy, and former Happy Mondays singer Rowetta will host the evening shows.

The station was originally created by Toby Whitehouse and Gaydio’s business director Ian Wallace to coincide with the Manchester Pride Festival.  After four broadcast pilots the station successful obtained a license to broadcast all year round.  Gaydio plan to broadcast "a mixture of upbeat music and targeted speech. . . 24 hours a day."

Gaydio will launch on Friday 18th June.

This is a short film that was directed by the French animation collective H5, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy + Ludovic Houplain. It was presented at the Cannes Film Festival 2009. It opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won a 2010 academy award under the category of animated short. 

In this film there are two pieces of licensed music, in the beginning and in the end. All the other music and sound design are original. The opening track (Dean Martin "Good Morning Life") and closing track (The Ink Spots "I don't want to send the world on fire") songs are licensed pre-existing tracks. All original music and sound design is by, human (www.humanworldwide.com)

The screen is sensational -- four times the resolution of the display on the iPhone 3GS, it has a sharpness and clarity you would normally only find on a phone with an OLED screen. And Apple's lightning-fast A4 processor ensures everything runs incredibly quickly.

The long-awaited arrival of multi-tasking does not disappoint -- a quick double-tap on the iPhone's Home button brings up a floating dock, allowing you to whiz between applications and select the ones you want to open.

FaceTime, the iPhone 4's video-calling app, is brilliantly executed. It only works over WiFi for the moment (Steve Jobs, APple's chief executive, said they needed to thrash out some issues with network operators before they could roll it out across the 3G network too), but it could prove to be the technology that makes video calling come of age. It's immersive, easy to use and incredibly slick.

It would have been nice to see more integration of social networking features in iPhone 4, and the new operating system, iOS4. HTC's Android phones pull in messages from a variety of sites, such as Flickr, Twitter and Facebook, in to a single real-time stream, and it would have been good to see something similar in iPhone 4.

Overall though, iPhone 4 is a fantastically well-balanced device, combining form and functionality in to something that feels fresh and innovative. That it's evolution rather than revolution is neither here nor there; what's important is that Apple continues to turn out the goods, time and again.