Quote:
Originally Posted by JammyS
Sorry to see that the WNBR thread has been more limited this year. Hope that there'll be more in-ride posters again soon. Maybe that next year Mr FDooby will return to Brighton! Screw the angry, prude objectors.
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I can't see myself ever covering the Brighton ride again. A good few of what might be described as serious snappers gave it a miss this year because of the relentless paranoia. The obvious result was that there were significantly fewer decent quality sets knocking about. Despite the pretty good turnout down there, many of this years pictures show riders looking tense and not very happy. Compare that to the glorious 2014 ride. It's worth noting that in 2014 there was very little marshal intervention once the ride left The Level. Without draconian feminazis telling people what they should and shouldn't be doing, everyone relaxed, danced in the fountain, danced on Hove Lawns and whooped it up on the beach and generally had a fantastic time. 2016 and particularly last year, it just wasn't fun any more. I want to snap people enjoying themselves, not have a constant battle with ill informed idiots.
I considered it very telling that Ben Thomas, who accompanied Lucy Muse and filmed the documentary coverage of the London and Brighton rides this year, mentioned that it was the organisers that were more of problem than 'the pervs'. And this was despite him being an established film maker and having gained prior permission to cover WNBR Brighton. He's a straight man, was clothed at Brighton and had a camera, so he was going to get stick. He's not doing another one either. And that will be a trend. You'll never deter the pervs, but the people there to document the event will just not bother any more, so there will be less and less quality images/footage out there. The majority of the material will be fifth rate close ups of genitalia, which is hardly going to be a glowing advertisement for the WNBR cause.
Of course there are a few die hard pervs (many of them take part in the ride, as it's much easier to get dubious shots from within the group than from outside it and they can have unrestricted access to the painting area - for example, the notorious Mr Willy Scaffold). A small minority really do make a nuisance of themselves. But IMHO the vast majority of people with 'professional looking' equipment are there to cover the ride as they would any other event. There are numerous opportunities for pervs to snap naked people in any number of settings. I personally have never found anything that happened at a WNBR remotely erotic and remain surprised that there's such an interest in pictures from these events among pervs (no offence to any of the pervs here lol
).
On the up side, WNBR Folkestone was unexpectedly excellent this time. London was decent too, just a shame it took place on the same day as the Tommy Robinson protest. The organisers of non-Brighton rides seem to have things down to a fine art. The obvious pervs are given short shrift and the serious snappers are welcomed, which is the way it should be.