Manchester Pride has announced that it will deliver three days of celebrations for LGBTQ+ people in Greater Manchester over the August bank holiday weekend.
With the safety of everyone who is involved with or attends the event in mind, the festival, which generates over £34m of economic benefit for the city, has been moved to 2021 to ensure that it is safe to hold large-scale gatherings again.
The Alternative Manchester Pride Festival 2020 will feature FREE content that can be enjoyed by those who wish to celebrate from the safety of their own homes.
Saturday will see a day of content inspired by the Festival’s Manchester Pride Live delivered online in partnership with United We Stream Greater Manchester. It’ll see a series of live performances and DJ sets with a number of special guests and partners alongside some legacy performances from previous events and a very special presentation of the Manchester Pride Parade for 2020.
Sunday will see the activity move to YouTube with a programme curated by the charity’s Superbia and Youth Pride MCR teams. Viewers can expect arts and cultural content alongside content designed by 14+ young people for 14+ young people as a result of the Youth Pride MCR workshops which launched in April.
Monday will close the festival as always with a moment of reflection at the Candlelit Vigil. Manchester Pride will stream the vigil online so that as many people as possible can be part of it. It will also be broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester and Gaydio.
A new element to the festival, at a time when it is more important than ever to keep certain conversations going, the charity is introducing a Human Rights Forum to explore some of the vital issues at the moment such as Trans Rights and BAME issues.
Mark Fletcher, chief executive for Manchester Pride, said; “We have had an unbelievably tough four months as I know many other organisations both commercial and otherwise have and I am very proud that we are still in a position to deliver this much needed celebration of LGBTQ+ life. The country is still in shock and many members of our community have been adversely affected by the pandemic, whilst also our Trans and BAME families have faced further challenges. It is more important than ever that we keep conversations around equality and inclusion heard whilst also providing much needed entertainment.
“We remain unable to provide a large scale physical festival but we very much want Manchester’s Gay Village to remain at the heart of what we do. We are working to host a safe and distanced Vigil gathering in Sackville Gardens on Monday 31 August. We will also support the Gay Village businesses in whatever they are able to offer customers over the weekend and every other day too.
“I want to thank all of our partners and supporters that are pulling together to help us deliver this year’s alternative festival. From community groups to partners such as Gaydio, Hits Radio, BBC Radio Manchester, United We Stream, Manchester City Council, GMCA and a special thanks to Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays and each of our other sponsors who are supporting this vital activity.
“Our Festival enables us to help LGBTQ+ people, organisations and charities and without the support of ticket buyers and sponsors we will not be able to continue this work. I ask that over the weekend anyone who can, does donate, because we must continue our work in supporting LGBTQ+ people across Greater Manchester. The conversation must, and will, continue…”
For more information visit manchesterpride.com
