Manchester Pride

Tens of thousands of people from Manchester, Europe and beyond came to Manchester in August to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender life at the city’s annual Pride festival. Will you be there?

The ten-day festival started on Friday 17th, ended on Monday 27th August and featured an exciting programme of art, literature, political, sporting and party events in the lead up to the 78 hour Big Weekend celebrations.

The Big Weekend

The heart of Manchester Pride is the Big Weekend - 78 hours of celebrations from 6pm on Friday 24 August until midnight on Monday 27 August. Thousands of tickets were sold initially with queues stretching from one end of the village to the other to buy more. People from all over the world descended on Manchester to enjoy the many festivities, which included an all star stage line-up. Where else would you get the chance to sample 78 hours of non stop partying, revelling and general bawdiness, safe in the knowledge that when you wake up with a hangover it was all in the name of a good cause?

The market

The market once again provided the perfect shopping retreat for party-goers. Bargain hunters were able to find stalls selling all that is weird and wonderful including classic pride/rainbow memorabilia, clothing, craft items and ‘toys’.

The Candlelit Vigil

The closing event of the Big Weekend and a chance to remember and celebrate the lives of those affected by HIV. The Vigil, a huge event in itself, was held in Sackville Park and was the biggest yet. Hosted by Jonathan Mayor and featuring the Manchester Lesbian & Gay Chorus, around 4000 candles were given out for a small donation to be lit during the minute of silence. An emotive end to a month of festivities, the Candlelit Vigil closed with an amazing fireworks display. You can see some of the powerful imagery captured for the LGF on our gallery right now.

Debating

Robert Mills, a lecturer at King's College London was the first author to appear at Manchester Pride where he talked about his book A Gay History of Britain at Canal Street’s Taurus Bar.

Jenny Roberts, author of the popular Cameron McGill Mystery series and whose latest book, Dead Reckoning, involves a murder on Manchester's Canal Street together with Ellen Dean, author of Beautiful Strangers gave free readings from their novels, again at Taurus Bar.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell will speak at an event entitled: 'Queer Human Rights - What next?' at The University of Manchester.

A Haçienda Flesh Nights discussion with legendary club creative Paul Cons at The Urbis, Cathedral Gardens was an extremely popular event to pay homage to a night that put Manchester’s gay scene on the map.

Continue coming back to this site for updates on the money raised over the mega-event or pick up issue 73 of outnorthwest from the usual outlets.