Whether you want to party all night long in Powerhouse or prefer to sit down and chat over coffee, the LGBTa has socials for everyone. Our regular Monday night socials at the Riverside Café in the DSU are very well attended and a great way to meet LGBT people. And if you’re in the party mood, there’s bound to be a group heading out to a club somewhere afterwardsl!

As well as Monday night socials, we frequently organise association trips to Newcastle, which has a thriving gay scene in an area known as the Pink Triangle. For more information on this, see our Scene Guide to the back of the handbook. And there are a number of larger LGBT events planned into our annual calendar!

Shipwrecked is our annual party on a boat: the wind in your hair, the smell of a BBQ and plenty of gays is not something to be missed. And since we invite Newcastle and Northumbria unis to take part as well, it’s the first chance of the year you’ll get to meet LGBT people from further afield.

We hold a university­wide awareness week in February, to coincide with LGBT history month. This year, Pride Week will be held from the 20th to the 26th February. This exhilarating week of events ranges from talks to parties and from coffee to gay film nights, definitely a week to set aside as you’ll not want to miss out!

We also host the largest LGBT ball in the North East with our annual Q Ball! This event, held in summer term, is a fantastic way to unwind after exams and capture some fantastic memories with your fellow LGBT members. Last year saw us eating blue candy floss and having our faces painted with glitter, before going on to dance the night away in Newcastle. This is another event that other universities are invited to, making the night even more special!

We hope we’ve given you a small taste of some of the things that we do socially as an organisation but there are far more things organised throughout the year, like boys’ socials and girls’ socials, to keep you socialising all year round!