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What's happening? Live updates throughout the bank holiday weekend
Let us know your experience of getting into the gay village, being served, the ticket scheme and Manchester Pride weekend in general. Our email form is here. Also we have a link where you can upload video directly to us (ask for it).
We have a pop-up Facebook group during the month of August.
19:28 For decades there have been debates about moving Manchester Pride out of the gay village. There is a fundamental conflict between wanting to hold it in a relatively small space while also wanting it to be the "biggest ever."
Some years ago the Department For Transport said it would be unlawful to block access to those who don't buy a wristband while allowing in those who have paid. However it is possible to close access to all, equally. Despite the hype, people who pay are not some sort of privileged class who have more rights and entitlement to be on public streets.
Attendance can be reduced in various ways. For example don't book acts that have mass market appeal and stop selling so many wristbands. Reduce the amount of publicity and marketing. The bottom line is the organisers are failing to manage it effectively and safely.
19:08 In our pop-up Facebook group Anon writes "aggressive, homophobic security guard stopped me entering barking orders to go round somewhere 'you need a band', 'whats the problem with you people'. Contacting a solicitor to see what action can take. Have it all recorded and I even sought help from the police who didn’t uphold the law even when I told them I felt harassed, alarmed and distressed. PES Security. The security manager had to intervene when the guard threw a metal barrier across my parh."
Anon has posted a photo of the security guard's licence badge.
18:30 On X (Twitter) Jake says he was refused access to the disabled toilets despite showing staff why he is disabled. Jon posted saying "the toilets in the arena are frankly dangerous. The crowding is going to cause someone to seriously be injured." According to Penny, even St John's Ambulance volunteers are struggling to get through the crowds.
So much has been posted in our pop-up Facebook group that it's hard to keep up here on the live blog!
18:15 As a consumer, if you've paid for something and you don't get it, you're entitled to a refund, either from Manchester Pride or your card company if you paid that way. Punishing Manchester Pride financially is probably the only way to make them sit up, take notice and improve things in future years.
18:00 We're seeing a large number of complaints on X (Twitter) and Facebook from people who were unable to get near the main stage because of the crowds. Others complain about the crush and lack of toilets. The Manchester Evening News has written about it.
Unfortunately these things are nothing new. Five years ago The Independent wrote about the worrying situation there had been at Mayfield Station that year. As far back as 1998 there was a frightening crush in the gay village when the police imposed a flow system that seemed quite mad.
19:24 Referring to last night, Sam posted on X (Twitter): "The toilet situation was so dangerous at the main stage with crowds crushing in and out. I did try and use the accessible toilet which I can rightly access with a radar key and documentation but the guy guarding them said I wasn’t disabled enough which was vile @ManchesterPride."
14:00 The parade has been blocked by some sort of protest near the Central Library.
13:40 Thirty-three years ago this afternoon... In a terrifying stunt on the NCP car-park, Ian Jay dives head first into a net of sponges from sixty-five feet above. The public and celebrities sponsored rungs of the ladder, with cheques received from Stanley Baxter, Bella Emberg, Denis Norden, Lisa Tarbuck "to name but a few".
11:00 Matthew posted in the Facebook group to say he "entered the village last night on Sackville Street, Bloom Street and Canal Street without any issues." However his photographer friend was carrying a large lens camera and security demanded to see a "press pass." Matthew's friend told them to "report it to GMP who were stood nearby" if they felt there was an issue.
Matthew writes that the "security guard also mentioned it was a ticketed event which made us both grin."
Matthew's friend has every right to take photos on a public street, using whatever type of camera he wants to.
Pride's security guards are giddy with imaginary powers they don't have. So are Pride's other staff sometimes. One year a member of staff tried to stop a press photographer shooting pictures of the parade at St Peters Square.
23:45 E tweeted: "@ManchesterPride paid £50 to stand behind the barrier because the stage was at capacity 😍 I hope you’ll be refunding for the tickets you oversold."
18:00 Welcome to our live blog for 2024.
FACTS! Our 2022 factsheet is available to download. As a PDF here. Or as images (handy for sharing on Facebook & Twitter!): page 1 | page 2
Older factsheets can be found on this page and are still well worth a read.
You can see our Live Blog pages from 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023.
Our 2022 Factsheet (PDF) about Manchester Pride is available (there won't be a new factsheet for 2023). Read about your right to access the Gay Village without buying a wristband, history & opinion .
Download the PDF version.
And here it is as two images (handy for sharing on social media): page 1 | page 2
Our factsheet from 2021 is still well-worth a look. It has four pages of facts, gossip and fun. Download it as a PDF here. See our factsheets page for other years.
The ruling by the Local Government Ombudsman in April 2015 (PDF). The Ombudsman decided that Manchester City Council had exceeded its powers by mentioning wristbands in a traffic order and that it was unlawful to restrict access to premises (businesses and homes).
Minutes of a meeting at Marketing Manchester in November 2002. These show that those present were told they couldn't charge people to enter public streets. However some of them went ahead and did so from 2003 onwards for a decade.
At the meeting were: Manchester City Council, GHT, the LGF (now known as the LGBT Foundation), Marketing Manchester, the organisers of Europride 2003. The advice seems to have come from the police. Yet the police apparently then turned a blind eye...
This document was unearthed at the Library Archives quite recently by a FactsMCR campaigner.
Since the ruling by the Local Government Ombudsman in 2015 the media — both LGBT and mainstream — have stayed silent about the decade-long wristband fiddle and your rights. So some people continue to pay unnecessarily.
All your favourites know: GayStarNews, Pink News, Manchester Evening News, The Guardian, BBC and many more. In a letter to us, the BBC defended its journalist right not to report this. The same BBC that championed consumer rights at one time now prefers to cosy up to the civil-rights-infringing Manchester Pride, as a "sponsor" (the BBC says it doesn't give money).
These organisations don't need to lie. They simply ignore an issue completely. Or, they report some of the facts; perhaps popping in just one or two bits they don't like, to add a fake impression of balance. That's how they manipulate opinion in the direction they think it should go.
The veteran ITV reporter John Pilger says that "not reporting" is the most powerful form of censorship.
What else aren't they telling us?
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