g7uk » manchester pride

Outnorthwest front covers. Who knows who?

GS — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:09:31 +0000

Photo: by Vera Kratochvil.

In the small pond that is gay Manchester, a couple of dozen people back-pat and promote each other. Publicity and awards are given.
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Manchester Pride charity figure for 2011

GS — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:38:11 +0000

Manchester Pride has announced a figure of £105,000 for good causes.

However, only £98,000 of this amount was raised during the ten day festival. The other £7,000 came from fundraising at the Manchester Pride Dinner which took place in September 2010 — almost a year before.
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A public discussion with Julia Grant (video)

GS — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:30:47 +0000

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.

Fireworks on the final night of Manchester Pride 2011 (video)

GS — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:49:10 +0000

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.

What The Pink Paper didn’t tell you in its LGF funding cuts article. And why…

GS — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 06:04:03 +0000

Update: (25 October 2011): part of this article has been removed while further research is done.

“Stockport NHS cut gay charity by 100 per cent” was the emotive headline in The Pink Paper on 26 May 2011.
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Interview with Julia Grant (video)

GS — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 03:47:54 +0000

A 70-minute interview with legendary Manchester gay village business woman Julia Grant.

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.

Rewriting history to promote the gay village and Manchester Pride

GS — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:10:47 +0000

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.
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Wynnie LaFreak delivers a letter on behalf of the Facebook group ‘Facts about Manchester Pride’ (video)

GS — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 15:05:16 +0000

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

A Freedom of Information request reveals how much Manchester City Council gives to, and charges, Manchester Pride

GS — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 07:42:36 +0000

Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
Year	Sponsorship provided by MCC which is ring-fenced for the Pride Parade only	Charges made and paid to MCC in respect of the overall Pride event including the Big Weekend
2005	£20,000	£13,600
2006	£25,000	£26,250
2007	£25,000	£32,620
2008	£27,500	£27,660
2009	£32,500 + £1425 specific to a Heritage Trail project	£28,500
2010	£32,500	£33,300
The sums paid to Manchester City Council do not include charges made by Greater Manchester Waste (now known as ENVIRONMENTS) for the removal of rubbish which is between £6000 and £9000 per annum. You can see full details of the FOI request here.

As you can see, even if we ignore the thousands of pounds that are charged for removal of rubbish, in four out of the last six years the City Council has clawed back in charges more than it gave the event.

It gives with one hand and gets the kudos for supporting the LGBT community, while taking with the other.

The City Council gave more than £2m towards the running costs of Manchester’s International Festival in 2007. The Festival was expected to bring in £32m of extra business to the city, while we’re told Pride brings in £22m of extra business some years.

And about £250,000 given for the Manchester Day Parade in 2011 (BBC).

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

GS — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 03:33:04 +0000

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:
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