Manchester Pride reveals most diverse line up yet for epic Gay Village Party 2023

The Gay Village Party, which takes place over the August bank holiday weekend (25-28 August), will showcase an exciting mix of local and international talent on three stages: the Village stage, Mancunity stage, and Alan Turing stage.

The line-up was co-created with Manchester’s queer communities and symbolises the importance of changing the conversation and elevating the world’s biggest queer artists.

The festival, which is a diverse, inclusive, queer-led and queer-run celebration of LGBTQ+ life and love, is set to be the ultimate celebration of queer joy at the heart of Manchester Pride Festival.

This year’s headliner is international drag queen sensation Pabllo Vittar, the most followed drag queen in the world, with a social following of 34.8 million and 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

She will be performing alongside some of Manchester’s homegrown talent.

American singer and songwriter Jake Shears, former co-lead vocalist of pop-rock band Scissor Sisters, will also take to the stage. Shears has been pursuing a solo career and will release his new album Last Man Dancing later this year.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner Danny Beard will host Danny Beard and Friends for the fifth consecutive year.

Also returning to Manchester Pride Festival is multidimensional cultural icon Cheddar Gorgeous, the runner-up in last year’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. Cheddar Gorgeous now has a social following of over 286,000 and has previously appeared on Drag SOS.

Mark Fletcher, CEO of Manchester Pride, said: “We have worked closely with our communities to offer a line-up that is for the community, by the community.

“As a world leading city and an organisation that is spearheading the global Pride movement, our aim is to provide a platform which elevates and showcases local queer performers alongside renowned international LGBTQ+ talent, with a little support from our allies.

“This is Manchester and this is how our communities want us to celebrate our Pride. ”

The line-up was co-created with local activities and performers, showcasing the importance of allowing Manchester Pride’s communities to directly input into their celebrations.

This year, Manchester Pride welcomes the Queer Asian Takeover for the first time, which celebrates queer brown joy.

Gok Wan will headline the takeover, joined on stage by local talent including The Bitten Peach, Gracie T, and House of Spice.

Trans Filth & Joy, a trans-led and curated event hosted by Milk Presents and Trans Creative, will also return for 2023.

Party-goers can expect to be entertained by a night packed with DJs, drag, burlesque, cabaret, activism and music. The British drag queen BIMINI will headline Trans Filth & Joy, known for competing on the second series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and awarded ‘Drag Hero’ by Gay Times magazine.

Black Pride MCR will take festival-goers on a musical journey, celebrating the black roots of house music, disco, funky house, vocal and tribal, all brought together by exceptional DJs and iconic dancers.

Fat Pride will also return, celebrating big bodies with an evening of dancing, partying, showing off and feeling good.

Other events announced as part of the Pride celebrations include Youth Pride MCR and Family Pride MCR, where young people and families can join in the celebrations with a series of performances and events.

The Cabaret Stage will host an exciting mix of acts, including The Enby Show, described as an “electric, unique and vibrant” gender-bending variety show that bins the binary and crashes the cis-tem.

Pecs Drag Kings, a female/non-binary theatre and cabaret company that has been creating critically acclaimed shows for the LGBTQ+ community since 2013, will also perform. Festival-goers can expect diverse performances from Queeriosity Cabaret, Cutie-POC Cabaret, and Disabled Queer Joy Cabaret.

The line-up is set to be the most diverse yet, with 96% of performers being queer, 54% women, 51% people of colour and over 42% from trans and non-binary communities.

You can check out their website here

The events of Manchester Pride Festival 2023 are free to attend with the exception of the Gay Village Party, tickets for which can be purchased by clicking here.

£2.50 from every ticket will be donated to the Manchester Pride Community Fund, with the money going directly to LGBTQ+ causes and projects in Greater Manchester through the distribution of grants.