CAGS - Croydon Area Gay Society

Mardi on the Grass 2011

More guests than ever attended the annual garden party (“Mardi on the Grass”) organised by Croydon Area Gay Society (CAGS) on Sunday the 7th of August. The 71 guests included Ray Gosling, the distinguished journalist and broadcaster.
The event in Purley started with lunch, followed by the annual presentation of the SLAGO Cup for 2010–11. CAGS and the other groups within SLAGO (Surrey and London Association of Gay Organisations) compete every year in events such as table tennis, ten-pin bowling, and quizzes
CAGS had come out on top this season, and Ray Gosling presented the Cup to David Page, Chair of CAGS, and the runners-up Shield to Terry Murphy, Secretary of Clapham-based South London Gays (SLG).
After the presentation, there was entertainment by AGLOW (Association of Greater London Older Women) with sketches about fighting back against council cuts to services for older women, and their own version – “Keep Old and Beautiful” – of a well-known song.
There followed an “open mike” session, with members of the local lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) communities singing, reciting, telling jokes, and doing impressions.

40th Anniversary

Croydon Area Gay Society (CAGS) held a party on Saturday afternoon (14th May) to celebrate its 40th anniversary. About 60 members and friends enjoyed the event at the Bird in Hand, Sydenham Road.

CAGS was founded in 1971, as “London Group Seven” of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) but was always based in the Croydon area. It became an independent society when CHE nationally took the decision to concentrate on national campaigning and shed its local groups.

Mardi on the Grass 2010

We held our annual garden party (“Mardi on the Grass”) in Purley on Sunday 22nd August, 2010. The event, organised in conjunction with the Surrey and London Association of Gay Organisations (SLAGO), was open to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community of Croydon and South London, and an estimated 60 guests turned up. The highlight of the party was music by the London Gay Symphonic Winds.

CAGS at Pride 2009

CAGS had a stall in Trafalgar Square for the 2009 Pride festival.

Lots of people visited the stall, and took leaflets, left their contact details, or just chatted about CAGS and the other local gay organisations to our volunteers, who were all wearing the special CAGS t-shirts, printed for the occasion.