In a first for Manchester Pride Festival, the organisers are introducing a new Family Zone on Saturday 24 August from 12pm to 5pm in Sackville Gardens.
The event, which will be at the heart of the festival in the Gay Village Party, will welcome families and children under 14 and will coincide with the Manchester Pride Parade Screening in the park.
The event programme is centered around fun, wellness and learning and will comprise of family-friendly activities, a picnic area, craft workshops, sport sessions and talks as well as a place for LGBT+ families to get together.
Hosted in a big top style circus tent will be Junk Orchestra and Queen Vs Bowie Disco with Born To Be Wild Child. The Junk Orchestra features a supersonic recycled collection of objects, rescued and re-invented from the urban sprawl! Within each individual jam session, participants will get to play and compose on tuned junk instruments; covering percussion, wind and string – flipflopaphones, scaffoldaphones, tuned tanks and wheels, logaphones, fire extinguisherphone, tincan drums, storm sheets and more!
The picnic area will welcome the incredibly popular Drag Queen Story Time and Proud To Be Parents: One stop shop. Proud To Be Parents will be offering advice for any LGBT+ person/people that would like to start a family, offering information and advice on each of the various avenues.
Plus there will be pride flag making, spaceship design, giant games, face painting, no mess crafts and a soft play area.
Mark Fletcher, chief executive for Manchester Pride, said; “When designing Manchester Pride Festival every year, we take a lot of time to consult with LGBT+ people and the people who come to the festival have told us that they would welcome a space in which they can celebrate with the whole family. So for the first time in 2019 we have created this space. Through art, craft, music and story telling we will create a unique space within th Gay Village Party for people of all ages to enjoy.”
Family tickets are priced from £20. Day tickets are priced from £10 and weekend tickets are also available here.
The four-day Gay Village Party, which will happen in Manchester’s Gay Village, will this year bring live performances, a food and makers market and more to the iconic cobbled streets and area surrounding them.
The focal point of the event will be Sackville Gardens which will play host to the Thomas Cook Airlines stage and the brand new family space.
Music and performances will be programmed throughout the weekend with Liberty X opening the event alongside Sara Aalto and host Stephen Bailey. Proms in the Park will take over on Saturday daytime followed by a ‘Danny Beard and friends’ extravaganza in the evening.
A huge part of the weekend will be the Queer Music Stage which will be programmed by Manchester Pride’s year-round programme of culture Superbia. It will run on Sunday from 2pm to 11pm.
Trans Pride will also take place on the Sackville Gardens Stage on Monday and as always the weekend will close with the Candlelit Vigil in this space in the evening.
