Manchester Pride 2010 raises just £115,000 for good causes

Manchester Pride 2010 has raised just £115,000 for charity. In real terms, this is considerably less than was raised by the free-to-attend GayFest a decade ago.

There’s how the figure fits into the overall picture:

2010: £115,000 (pay event)
2009: £135,000 (pay event)
2008: £105,000 (pay event)
2007: £95,000 (pay event)
2006: £121,000 eventually, after challenging a £56,000 VAT bill (pay event)
2005: £120,772 (pay event)
2004: £129,426 (pay event)
2003: £127,690 (pay event)
2002: £65,000 (free event)
2001: £70,000 or £100,000 – reports vary (free event)
2000: £105,000 (free event)
1999: zero raised (pay event – the first year with the ‘pledgeband’/wristband)

To get a rough idea of the effect of inflation over the years, add 3% for each year. So £105,000 in 2000 is equivalent to approximately £141,111 now.

In the financial year 1994/95 the Village Charity managed to raise £60,000 for good causes, which is roughly equivalent to £109,000 today, and Mardi Gras was free-to-enter for everyone that year.

Costs continue to rise, as do ticket prices, with stealth increases too — such as reducing the period for buying an ‘early bird’ advance ticket. The one thing that never changes much is the amount for good causes.

Between 35,000 and 45,000 tickets are sold each year and, in recent times, businesses across Manchester have benefited from between £14.5m and £22m of extra business each year due to the event.


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