Protesters rally against a non-existent drag event

Protesters stood outside an empty pub on Friday morning to rally against a non-existent drag event.

Turning Point UK had organised a demonstration at The Great Exhibition pub in East Dulwich for 11:00 GMT.

A counter protest was organised by Stand up to Racism South London, with local people and pro LGBT+ activists meeting at 10:00 GMT.

Turning Point UK said it was "very pleased with the result of our protests".

The protest was organised in response to an out of date event listing on the pub's website.

A spokesperson for CLIP, which hosted a Drag Storytime event at the venue in July 2022, told BBC London that the venue's website was still showing the event as running monthly because the listings had not been updated.

Around 200 people were seen outside the pub and Met Police officers were in attendance.

They added that CLIP had stopped running all Drag Storytime events "due to concerns over opposing protesters breaching their safeguarding policy".

Turning Point UK organised four speakers for its protest, including Lawrence Fox and Calvin Robertson, who attended another protest last month about a drag storytelling event at The Honor Oak pub in Forest Hill.

A spokesperson for The Great Exhibition pub confirmed that there had never been a Drag Storytime event booked for today.

They said that the pub is "committed to offering events that are magical, fun, inclusive and appropriate".

They added: "[Turning Point UK] appear to be opposing our Drag Storytime event for the under 5s, an event that took place in July 2022.

"Whilst the event was a huge success last year and brought great joy to parents and children alike, there is no event booked at the Great Exhibition next Friday, nor has there ever been."

The pub has an outdated advert on its website for Drag Storytime for Under 5s on 14 April describing it as a monthly event. The booking link redirects to the website for CLIP, which states that there are no events.

A spokesperson for CLIP said: "Drag as an artform is a time honoured cultural phenomenon in the British theatre lexicon, from early passion plays and Shakespeare, to Dame Edna Everage, drag performance has been part of our heritage since the 1500s, and just like all performance, there are, within the genre, different types of content that's created for different age groups, this is true of every artform."

In a statement, Turning Point said it is "very pleased with the result of our protests".

"Our protests are focused on awareness, not actually physically preventing adult performers from reading to children, as that is for the government to legislate, or for the police to act when necessary," the group said.

"While the session today had been cancelled, we were happy to still protest the venue as they have not committed to age-restricting future drag events they plan to host there, with other events still listed on their website."

The organisation added it was planning further protests.

A similar protest was held outside the Tate Britain last month.

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