Manchester Pride

See you next summer - 17 - 27 August 2012

Loud & Proud

The Organisation

What is Manchester Pride?

Manchester Pride is Manchester’s annual festival celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) life. Manchester’s celebrations started in 1991 on August Bank Holiday weekend to raise money to support those affected by HIV.

Manchester Pride provides opportunities for empowerment, participation, representation, access, and celebration, encouraging pride, respect and partnership.

Who organises Manchester Pride?

A Festival Director is employed to produce the event, and lead a team to co-ordinate the event management, marketing and entertainment for the festival.

Consultation also takes place with community organisations through monthly Stakeholder meetings involving representatives from LGBT youth groups, sports clubs, health organsiations, arts groups etc.

Positive partnerships developed with other agencies including the Greater Manchester Police, Ear to the Ground and Nine Lives Productions (event management for the Big Weekend), Greater Manchester Fire Service, Greater Manchester Ambulance Service, St John’s Ambulance and Manchester Medical Services are integral to the success of the event.

Who pays for Manchester Pride?

Manchester Pride has a number of sources of income that help to stage the event each year. These include the sale of tickets for the Big Weekend, sponsorship, contributions and donations and income from the outdoor bars and catering within the events site. Manchester Pride also receives grants for specific projects from bodies such as Arts Council England, AGMA, The Big Lottery and Manchester City Council.

Is it the Council who run Manchester Pride?

Whilst we work closely with Manchester City Council and other bodies and organisations across Greater Manchester, Manchester Pride itself is run by the company ‘Manchester Pride Limited’. It is a registered charity governed by a board of trustees who are all volunteer members from the LGBT community. The way Manchester Pride Limited operates is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association (a document required by law for all Limited Companies) and the regulations laid down by the Charity Commission.

What do the Trustees do?

As with any registered charity, a board of trustees are required to oversee the running of the charity. Manchester Pride has a Chair, Deputy Chair/Treasurer, Company Secretary and a number of additional trustees. Details of the whole Board can be found on our website. None of the Trustees are paid for their work.

Does Manchester Pride have a mission statement?

Yes. Our mission statement is:

Manchester Pride is an annual festival by and for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, working towards the involvement of different sectors of the community, and raising funds for LGBT & HIV organisations.

Manchester Pride provides opportunities for empowerment, participation, representation, access, and celebration, encouraging pride, respect and partnership.

Why is it called Manchester Pride?

Manchester’s pride activity has had a number of names over the last 20 years: Absolutely Fabulous, GayFest, Mardi Gras and EuroPride.

In 2003, EuroPride established the festival as a ten-day event involving a range of activity including sport, film, debating & campaigning, arts & entertainment, parade and the traditional Bank Holiday activity – the Manchester Mardi Gras.

Research conducted at the festival; on the feedback forms on the EuroPride website; e-mails sent to the EuroPride office and meetings with a wide range of LGBT community organisations, indicated that people welcomed the new elements, particularly those who had always felt that the traditional Mardi Gras activity was not something that they were interested in.

The research indicated that many individuals and organisations perceived Manchester Mardi Gras to be about partying and drinking, and only encompassing activity over the Bank Holiday weekend in the Village.

By calling the ten-day festival Manchester Pride, it would retain the inclusivity of EuroPride and reflect the additional elements of sport, art, heritage, film etc that had encouraged a huge number of people to take part in the event for the first time.

How much profit does Manchester Pride make?

As Manchester Pride is a Registered Charity, WE DO NOT MAKE ANY PROFIT FROM ANY ACTIVITY. Any funds that are surplus to the operating costs at the end of the year are distributed to Charities and Organisations.

I feel Manchester Pride is much more commercial than it has been in the past

Some of the activities undertaken by Manchester Pride do operate in a similar way to commercial activities. The Big Weekend in particular operates this way to ensure the secure future of Manchester Pride and maximise the money distributed to Charity.

Are all of the Pride events run by the same people and are they charity events too?

No. Lots of major cities across the world hold Pride events. These are run in a number of ways. Some are similar to Manchester Pride and are registered charities; some are operated by venue owners; some are run by the city council and others are operated by event management companies.

Manchester Pride is one of the only pride events in the world to raise such amounts for charity each year. Many events do give smaller amounts to charity or a percentage of their profit. By having tickets for our event, this allows us to plan ahead and also allows the charities receiving our funds to plan ahead regarding the work they undertake based on our annual grants.