Another First for Bristol’s Leather Community!

The New Year sees BLUF@Bristol being nominated for a Best Men’s Night award, the first time ever a leathermen’s event has been recognised in the West, reports Sam Benger.

Shout Out Radio, Bristol’s own on-line LGBT radio station, holds its very own listener awards which have become an annual affair. During the year, ShoutOut covers, interviews and highlights many segments of the diverse LGBT community: “We liaise with a lot of people who put a lot of hard work into what they do and quite often with little recompense for doing so. That’s what the awards are for - they are YOUR chance, as our listener, to tell us who you think deserves that bit of recognition for the work they do.”

This year sees BLUF@Bristol short-listed after a “open primary” round where listeners could nominate. Only the top nominees make into the final voting round for the award.

[jbutton color=”blue” icon = “yes” size=”large” link= “http://www.shoutoutradio.org.uk/awards/2014″ newpage=”yes”] Cast Your Vote Here [/jbutton]

Announced on their show, Shout Out presenter Andy said when announcing the nominees for Best Men’s Event: “…and…BLUF, is a new one”. A co-presenter asked, “What’s BLUF?” “It’s a men’s…..leather, uniform…” “Ooooooo,” said the co-presenter, with a ripple of a excitement in the studio evident! You can here the latest show on-line via their podcast.

BLUF Bristol said they were “gob smacked” that their night had been nominated on hearing the news via their Twitter stream. “It was totally unexpected,” said Tim Black Arrow, one of the team who organises the event.

BLUF@Bristol Logo WoB

BLUF@Bristol recognised by LGBT Radio listeners.

BLUF Bristol is about to holds its fifth outing in the city. Attracting full-on tip-to-toe leathermen in the finest Tom of Finland tradition: from London, the Midlands, Birmingham and with occasional visitors flying in from Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Belgium, swelling the growing ranks of BLUF men in the west. So, with the increasingly popularity of BLUF events in Bristol, it is timely that the they have received recognition.

There are only a few active BLUF chapters around the globe: London, Hamburg, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Antwerp and Copenhagen. The Bristol group is certainly punches above its weight, with larger cities with large gay leathermen’s communities absent such as Brighton, New York, Amsterdam, Paris.

Other nominees included, Bristol Bear Bar (BBB) for Best Bar, Steve Keating at BBB for Best Bar Person, Vladimir Putin as Biogot of the Year (no surprise there) and Claire Balding as LGBT Role Model of the Year (no last minute divers or football players made it in the list!). To vote, follow the link here. Of course, the team at LeatherWest have already voted. And yes, we’re backing a leathermen’s event to win!

 

[jbutton color=”blue” icon = “yes” size=”xlarge” link= “http://www.shoutoutradio.org.uk/awards/2014″ newpage=”yes”] Cast Your Vote Here [/jbutton]