Following my recent interview with Julia Grant, she suggested that perhaps I could organise a public discussion about the future of the August Bank Holiday event (which has been known as Manchester Pride since 2004) and the gay village.

This was arranged with the help of other members of the Facebook group Facts About Manchester Pride and was called: “Pull Your Fingers Out and Claim It Back” — a reference to something that Julia said in the interview.

The discussion took place on Thursday 25 August 2011 at the Hotel International on London Road, opposite Piccadilly Station.

The first half was about past and present. A chance for people to ask follow-up questions about the interview, or anything they’d ever wanted to ask Julia Grant. The second was about the future. What changes we would like to see and how to achieve those.

You can watch the whole thing here. It’s in four parts, with a total running time of 128 minutes.

Traditionally, on the final day of Manchester Pride, there’s a display of fireworks after the HIV Vigil in Sackville Park.

This video was filmed from the top of a tall building to the south. This year I got ambitious and used two cameras!

Please be warned that this contains even more flashes than usual.

Here’s my video of last year’s display.

An exclusive 10-minute video showing the disorder and looting of shops in the Piccadilly area on Tuesday evening and the police response.

A decade ago, Julia Grant was one of the best-known business owners in Manchester’s gay village and an outspoken voice in both the LGBT and mainstream media.

After Mardi Gras 1999 raised nothing at all for good causes, she ran the successful and free-to-enter GayFest for two years. But, some people — including local councillors and Manchester City Council — weren’t happy at all.

Unexpectedly, in 2002, Julia sold Hollywood Showbar and her other businesses and left. Despite rumours and malicious gossip since then, she didn’t speak out in public.

Now, in this exclusive interview Julia Grant reveals the LGBT history that you won’t see at the current Manchester Pride exhibition at The Lowry gallery. Plus she recalls the events that drove her out of the city.

This was recorded on 10 July 2011 during the Sparkle weekend.

Note: eventually, when time allows, archive photos, video and other media will be added to this interview.

Manchester’s 6th annual World Naked Bike Ride took place on Friday 3 June 2011 at 7pm. Here’s my exclusive video of it.

The questions were put in a letter and on Friday 8th April 2011 Manchester’s premier drag queen Wynnie LaFreak delivered it to Pride HQ in person. You can see what happened in this video.

Read the letter here (PDF).

LINKS

Facebook group

Message board

Wynnie LaFreak

I’ll put up the rest when I have time. Editing and encoding long clips takes ages!
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My video from 2008 can be found here.

I broadcast live on blogtv. Including the ten minute firework display at midnight, which you can watch above.

This exclusive video includes an interview with Phil Booth the National Co-ordinator of NO2ID.
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