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.

You may have heard about the notorious raid on a drag ball at a temperance hall in Manchester in 1880? An article in The Guardian (Village People, 7 August 2004) refers to the incident, but it begins with the scene just over one hundred years later.

In 1988 “Canal Street in Manchester city centre was still a red-light district,” writes the author. Going on to describe how police officers patrolled its “dank alleys”.

“This kind of surveillance was nothing new in the area,” she continues. (more…)

In the absence of any official public forums or public meetings, we set up a group on Facebook to discuss the facts and changes people would like to see at Manchester Pride.

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

The first part of last Saturday’s Manchester Pride parade.

I’ll put up the rest when I have time. Editing and encoding long clips takes ages! (more…)