MANBEARS

In The Beginning…

The Great British Bear Bash was born in 1998, but has its origins way back in 1998, and was organised by Manchester bear group ‘Paws’. This group was formed by Seamus McAteer, Gerard Hall, and Chris Blunt.

Seamus writes…

Around 1995 there were only two bear groups in the country (that I knew of) - BearHug in London, and BCUK for the rest of the country.

BCUK ran a series of local meetings in various cities (I remember Sheffield and Warwick, but there were others), and eventually a monthly bear night run by them was established in the basement bar of Napoleons, in Manchester.Gerald Hall and I took over as the local BCUK reps in Autumn 1996.

Early in 1997, we took a decision to split with BCUK, and along with Chris Blunt, set up PAWS and moved the monthly night to Chains nightclub (now Legends).

PAWS was a membership group which charged an annual fee, but allowed members cheaper entry to the club nights. The club nights grew slowly and began to attract 100+ bears, cubs and admirers.

In the summer of 1997, I went on holiday to the US and Canada and took in 2 very different 'bear runs' while I was there. One was held in a barn and campground in the Pennsylvania countryside and the other in the city of Toronto.

At that time there was only really one bear event in the UK, (i.e. in the country!) the Mr Bear UK final held at Ilam Hall in Derbyshire, run by BearHug. But I came back from holiday with the idea to run a city based bear event - and the idea for the Great British Bear Bash was born.

The first Great British Bear Bash

We decided to run it on the first weekend in May in 1998 to

1. try to get some sort of reasonable weather
2. not to clash with any Pride events and
3. to be at a different time of year to Ilam Hall which was September (I think!).

The first few GBBB's had a series of events for the weekend including

• a sit down meal
• sauna (rare at the time!)
• two club nights including a fixed fee night where drinks were free
• Mr Bear Manchester competition
• canal boat trip

We even hired a cinema for private screenings,everyone also got a badge and a T-shirt.

The biggest difference from today was that we included an option for a hotel in the costs. The full event (*including* hotel) was a massive £50 for the weekend!

Mr Bear UK

The winner of Mr Bear UK (held at Ilam Hall) was traditionally sent to San Francisco to participate in the Mr International Bear competition at IBR.

BearHug and PAWS had previously raised money for this to happen, but in 1998 the PAWS team came up with the idea to hold a fund raising night to help with this. We invited BearHug and the newly formed Bears of the North East (BONE) to a club night in November which we imaginitively called 'PAWS BONE BearHug'. This is the forerunner to what is now Pre-HiBearNation.

PAWS kept going till around 2003 when Manbears took over...

Manbears was formed in 2003 by Gerard Gudgion, Paul Atherton, Scott Owens and Chris Blunt, and took over from Paws to run The Great British Bear Bash, PrehiBEARnation, and the monthly Bear nights which were, and still are, held on the second Saturday of the month in The Outpost and Legends nightclub.

The two main events we organise, have gained in numbers attending each year, and in 2007, we held a 10th Anniversary Bash, where well over a thousand guys from all over the world, attended the weekend.

In 2007, Manbears moved the Sunday afternoon event, including the Mr Bear Bash Competition and hosted by the fabulous Jonathan Mayor out of the gay village to The Birdcage on Withy Grove.

This was due to increased numbers wishing to attend, making it necessary to find a venue large enough to hold getting on for a thousand partying bears and cubs! This has been the most successful of the daytime events, and was greatly enjoyed by all who attended.

GBBB Today

Whilst the primary of the GBBB remains the same, to bring together Bears, Cubs, Chasers and Daddies together for a weekend of fun and frolics, the GBBB weekends have developed and continue to grow every year. We now hold a well attended Bear Sauna session. The Funbears and the Pool Party on the Saturday afternoon are firm favourites and we try to introduce something new every year.

Booking takes place on-line, and GBBB registration pick up now starts on the Thursday evening at the Early Bird reception, this is due to the ever increasing number of guys wanting to start their GBBB weekend early!

Each GBBB weekend now has a main theme, where fancy dress costumes are encouraged, should guys wish to participate. British Bearways, Bear Olympics to name a couple.

And new for 2009, we are now holding a bear clubnight ‘HAIRY!’  held bi-monthly on the second Saturday of the month, click on the HAIRY! link on the main menu for more details.

The Core Group of guys that organise and run these events, has changed over the years as have the volunteers. If you want to put names to the faces click on the ‘Who We Are’ link from the About Manbears main menu.