Among the more random events in my life was my introduction to Whitby Gothic Weekend, two years ago. I had planned a sunny spring break in that atmospheric Yorkshire resort where Bram Stoker imagined Dracula unsheathing his fangs for the first time on British soil. But a thick mist rolled in from the North Sea and covered the town - cliffs, harbour, ruined abbey, infamous graveyard, everything - in a swirling murk.

Out of which, suddenly, I caught sight of hundreds of ghoulish figures dressed in black or funereal purple, their faces as fey as yoghurt, their hair as black as Whitby jet, their garb impeccably Victorian but with lashings (I use the word advisedly) of bondage-related accessories. “What are you?” I cried. “We are Goths,” one replied, with a proud swish of his M&S cape. I became intrigued by the whole scene. Goths, it seems, gather in Whitby twice each year for a celebratory weekend of sepulchral bring-and-buy sales and doomladen music, played by bands with spine-shivering names like Clan of Xymox or Screaming Banshee Aircrew. They are an endearing bunch. In spite of their strenuous efforts to project themselves as Satanic ghouls, corpse-botherers and insatiable transsexual deviants, it's quite clear that none would harm a fly. Indeed, one main function of Whitby Gothic Weekend is to be a confidence-boosting tribal gathering for people who are often targets of abuse or worse in their own towns.

That mutual support is needed, after the murder last year of Sophie Lancaster. She was the 20-year-old kicked to death by teenagers when she came to the aid of her boyfriend, who was being beaten up. The thugs, it seems, picked on them just because they were dressed as Goths. By all accounts Sophie was a caring girl who simply wanted to express her individuality by dressing the way she did - a quintessential Goth, in other words. Unfortunately she ran into a different sort of tribe: a gang of feral youths, bereft of morality or conscience, who inflicted violence for fun - and whose supporters sniggered at the dead girl's mother in the subsequent court proceedings.

So in Whitby at 11.30am today, as the centrepiece of Gothic Weekend, a memorial bench will be dedicated to Sophie, who attended several Whitby gatherings. Donations from Goths have paid for it. But I'd like to commend a separate fund, set up by her family and friends. Called SOPHIE, meaning Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred and Intolerance Everywhere, it will use donations to further those laudable aims. See www.myspace.com/inmemoryofsophie for details.

We talk a lot, usually disapprovingly, about “tribal mentality”. But after 50,000 years it's probably too deeply ingrained in the human psyche to be erased. Instead, we should be encouraging young people to gravitate to tribes that bring joy to themselves without harming or antagonising others. The Whitby Gothic Weekend is the epitome of that. The Goths have fun and supply a bizarre three-day fashion parade, the townsfolk smile benignly, and the pubs do a roaring trade. That's Britain at its tolerant best.

www.wgw.topmum.co.uk

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