Manchester Pride 2024: “Three days of love, dancing and queer joy”

As the cloud of glitter settles across the city and the bank holiday weekend comes to a close, we’re looking back on the cathartic chaos that is Manchester Pride.

We’ll be exploring the hidden gems you may have missed and the highs and lows of the most colourful, inclusive and extravagant celebration Manchester has to offer.

Manchester Pride 2024

We’ve come a long way from our first pride celebration in 1985 outside Canal Street’s REM Bar, where drag queens played tug of war and the community hosted a jumble sale and the ‘gay Olympics’ to raise money for local charities.

The 2024 pride celebrations looked just a little different to this year, with huge events dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community being hosted across the weekend, but the cause remains the same.

Over 80 charities across the North West receive funding and support from the sale of Manchester Pride wristbands and tickets, and the events give a platform to smaller organisations in the community.

The main event

The main event kicked off at 5 pm on Friday with a rally on the aptly named Alan Turing stage in Sackville Gardens followed by Trans Filth & Joy on the main Village stage.

The streets had already started to fill up as the people of Manchester finished work, donned their gay apparel, glittered their faces and headed into the city for a night of celebration and entertainment.

We headed to Banksies Fashion Show on the Indoor stage, tucked away on Bloom Street.

There were only a handful of people in the audience in the large venue as the DJ played a remix of Charli XCX, but the crowd still gave plenty of applause, snaps and cheers as the icons stormed the runway.

Banksie looked very demure in a fitted dark-denim two-piece paired with knee-high black boots as she walked with her fellow fashionistas.

After grabbing our first drinks of the weekend, a £30 bottle of rosé wine to share, we headed over to the main stage.

Yes, you read that right, a bottle of warm wine in a plastic bottle cost us thirty English pounds, but it’s pride – so why not.

Gok Wan and Danny Beard

As we sipped our wine and the sun was setting on the city, Gok Wan hit the decks playing a mix of old-school house, and party anthems and even got Danny Beard on stage to shake what his mama gave him.

Jessie J

Gok got the audience hyped for the Friday night headliner, Jessie J, who absolutely deserved the huge crowd she pulled in.

The Domino and Price Tag singer gave us plenty of throwbacks from the past decade of her career and beyond while she served in a sheer blue skintight bodysuit.

The down-to-earth singer-songwriter was the perfect choice to start the weekend of camp partying, and she certainly was responsible for a lot of hangovers on Saturday morning.

The next day and arguably the busiest day of the weekend started with the Manchester Pride Parade.

The Manchester Pride Parade

Hundreds of people lined the streets of the city on Saturday afternoon to see the parade pass through the city and snake down Deansgate.

The theme of this year’s parade was ‘buzzing to be queer’ connecting Manchesters symbol of the worker bee and the rich LGBTQ+ history our city has to celebrate.

Over 200 floats, organisations and charities walked and danced through the city streets to show their support and solidarity with the queer community, dressed in vibrant costumes and bringing the best vibes.

There were even some famous faces, we spotted Russel T Davis walking with George House Trust, Charity Shop Sue flying high on the Jet 2 float, and Kevin the carrot!

The parade, which got a lot of flack on social media for causing traffic chaos with road closures and people deeming it ‘over the top’, is a reminder that Pride events and marches are still needed in 2024.

The love outweighed the hate speech from protestors on Deansgate, with the cheers and whistles from the supportive crowd drowning them out.

A lot of the charities and organisations walking the parade were handing out free advice leaflets, as well as sweets, rainbow-covered merchandise, greeting cards and a boob check guide from a breast cancer charity.

The parade, which is popular with young people and families, is a great way to raise awareness of the issues faced by those in the LGBTQ+ community show solidarity and make those in the crowd who may not be out yet feel seen and loved.

The parade passed the Great Northern warehouse where Family Pride was being held, which had great resources available to parents and fun activities for little ones, including a bouncy castle and dance performances by Ghetto Fabulous who the grown-ups loved over on the main stage later that day.

A party to remember in the village

Back in the Village, the partygoers had taken it up a notch, almost every bar was opening its doors to revellers with DJs and drag queens performing in the streets.

You could hardly see the cobbles as the crowds descended into the enclosed canal street.

One of the downsides to Manchester Pride is that they surround the area with huge barriers and winding queues to get into certain areas of the village.

This meant that there was a one-way system in place to get around the narrow streets, but if you left enough time to get where you needed to be, we found it easy enough to navigate.

We decided to give the main stage a miss for the most of Saturday as our party feet were getting tired from standing and dancing in the streets.

Instead, we opted to check out the Queer Asian Takeover on the Alan Turing stage which was a vibrant celebration with a mix of queer culture and Asian music.

We then found a quiet spot outside Richmond Tea Rooms, where drag queen Miss Verry Cherry was entertaining the audience and taking song requests.

This corner of the village was a great little place to sit and rest, especially for those like me who can’t hack three days of partying anymore or those less able to stand all day.

There was a fully stocked bar, you could order food to your table from the restaurant menu and use the clean toilets, not the already overflowing portaloos on the main strip – perfect!

Two-time Eurovision winner Loreen

Saturday’s headliner was the two-time Eurovision winner, Loreen. Her incredible performance drew the attention of what felt like every person in the village.

There were even people on top of car parks and buildings overlooking the village trying to get a glimpse of the Swedish star.

The ‘Euphoria’ singer has been seen as an icon to the queer community since 2012, with her songs being played in gay bars across the country ever since her first Eurovision win, so having her perform in Manchester was great to see and worth staying up late for.

The final day celebrations

The final day of celebrations started with the Ginny Lemon’s Dog Show, those who braved the windy weather and combatted their hangovers saw Ginny and her panel of guest judges rate the pooches’ prowess on a mini canine assault course.

The larger-than-expected audience crowded around the barriers of the Alan Turing stage and cheered as the furry friends jumped through hoops and there were lots of laughs as of course things didn’t go to plan – never work with children or animals, and this involved both!

This fun Sunday morning activity should be on the main stage next year, or at least streamed on the big screen on stage as there were a lot of people with little legs stuck at the back unable to see the puppies performing.

Sunday at Pride

The village was a lot quieter on a Sunday afternoon, allowing us time to explore all of the stalls outside the Manchester College building on Chorlton Street and the markers market outside Kampus.

The stalls were a mix of queer artists, charities offering support and advice and clothing stalls with LGBTQ+ slogans and icons.

A pair of disco ball earrings from Dragged Out London caught my eye and Chappell Roan has officially taken over Brat Summer with almost every creator having some Pink Pony Club and Hot To Go merch, my favourite was a denim jacket from Becky Kayll Designs which didn’t come home with me but is on my wish list!

The indoor arena was where the girls, the gays and the gay girls were on Sunday evening.

Club night organisers Swagga took to the Indoor stage with dancers and DJs giving the audience a taste of carnival.

They took raising the roof and getting down to a whole new level. Manchester legend Mix-Stress had a huge two-hour set, spinning house tunes and getting everyone in the mood for the pop trio Sugababes over on the main stage.

Sugarbabes rock the main stage

In a last-minute change in the afternoon, there was a re-jig of the acts and as the Sugababes performed on the main stage, they opened up the Alan Turing stage to screen the show live there to allow everyone to see and hear the original lineup.

The three original singers, Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan stormed the stage in matching tracksuits, giving the audience a taste of the 2000’s.

The ‘Too Lost In You’ singers pulled huge crowds at the Glastonbury festival earlier this year, and they brought the same energy to Manchester Pride, entertaining the entire village at once.

“Three days of love, pride, dancing and queer joy”

After an almost overwhelming three days of love, pride, dancing and queer joy, the Manchester Pride event comes to a close.

The music and celebration stops and most of the crowd leaves, but the roots and foundations formed over the weekend and the past 30 years remain.

There will be a vigil in Sackville Gardens on Monday evening to remember loved ones lost due to mental health struggles, hate crimes and the stigma that comes along with being part of the LGBTQ+ community, especially our trans friends who are still fighting for their rights.

It is important to remember that while Manchester Pride is a celebration of everything the community has fought for, we’re not done.

We’re here, queer and we’re going nowhere.

Manchester is an incredibly diverse city that welcomes people from all walks of life, and we know how to put on a good show!

Fancy Pride 2025? Tickets are now on sale for next year’s event and you can get them by clicking here