Manchester Pride has revealed its most diverse line-up to date for this year’s Gay Village Party, which has been co-created with Manchester’s queer communities. Visitors to the four-day festival, taking place on August bank holiday weekend (25 – 28 August), can look forward to a plethora of exciting local and international artists performing over three stages: the Village stage, Mancunity stage and Alan Turing stage.
The Gay Village Party is a diverse, inclusive, queer-led and queer-run celebration of LGBTQ+ life and love in Manchester’s world-famous Gay Village and is set to be the ultimate celebration of queer joy at the heart of Manchester Pride Festival. The line-up symbolises the importance of changing the conversation, elevating and showcasing the world’s biggest queer artists, and focusing on community-led performances, as 96% of performers are queer, 54% are women, 51% are people of colour and over 42% are from trans and non-binary communities, in response to Manchester Pride’s Pride in Our Future report.
Headlining this year’s Gay Village Party is international drag queen sensation Pabllo Vittar. Boasting a social following of 34.8M and 4M monthly listeners on Spotify, Pabllo Vittar is the most followed drag queen in the world, performing alongside some of Manchester’s homegrown talent.
Also taking centre stage is American singer and songwriter Jake Shears. Best known as the former co-lead vocalist of pop-rock band Scissor Sisters, who achieved a slew of successful hits including Filthy/Gorgeous and I Don’t Feel Like Dancing, Shears has since been pursuing a solo career, with his new album Last Man Dancing due to be released later this year.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner Danny Beard will be joining the line-up once again, as they host Danny Beard and Friends for the fifth consecutive year. Danny Beard has come a long way since finishing as a semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent in 2016, and Manchester Pride is proud to be on their journey of success. Danny Beard currently hosts Gossip Gays podcast and boasts a social following of over 255,000.
Also returning to Manchester Pride Festival is multidimensional cultural icon Cheddar Gorgeous, who was the runner-up in last year’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. Cheddar Gorgeous now boasts a social following of over 286,000 and has previously appeared on Drag SOS. Also flying the flag for RuPaul’s Drag Race UK are series four’s Black Peppa and Dakota Schiffer.
The line-up has been co-created with local activities and performers, showcasing the importance of allowing Manchester Pride’s communities to directly input in their celebrations. This year, Manchester Pride welcomes the Queer Asian Takeover for the first time, in which festival goers can celebrate queer brown joy. Headlining the takeover is international DJ Gok Wan, who will be joined on stage by local talent including The Bitten Peach, a gender-diverse, pan-Asian collective showcasing joy and excellence, Gracie T, who runs a South Asian creative collective and platform for unrepresented artists, and House of Spice, an LGBTQ+ South Asian and Middle Eastern performance house.
Trans led and curated event Trans Filth & Joy, hosted by Milk Presents and Trans Creative, returns for 2023 where party goers can expect to be entertained by a night packed with DJs, drag, burlesque, cabaret, activism and music. Headlining Trans Filth & Joy is British drag queen BIMINI, who is best known for competing on the second series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and has since been awarded ‘Drag Hero’ by Gay Times magazine.
Black Pride MCR will take festival goers on a musical journey, celebrating the black roots of house music, disco, funky house, vocal and tribal, all brought together by exceptional DJs and iconic dancers.
Fat Pride also returns, celebrating big bodies with an evening of dancing, partying, showing off and feeling good. With guest DJs, dancers, performers, and heaps of fat love.
Platforming some incredible cabaret acts, the Cabaret Stage will once again host The Enby Show, described as an “electric, unique and vibrant” gender-bending variety show that bins the binary and crashes the cis-tem. Also taking to the stage is Pecs Drag Kings, a female/non-binary theatre and cabaret company who’ve been creating critically acclaimed shows for the LGBTQ+ community since 2013. Festival goers can also expect exciting and diverse performances from Queeriosity Cabaret, Cutie-POC Cabaret, and Disabled Queer Joy Cabaret.
What’s more, all of these fabulous acts will be joined by Pocketful of Sunshine pop sensation Natasha Bedingfield and international pop icon Lisa Scott-Lee from STEPS.
Other events announced as part of the Pride celebrations include Youth Pride MCR and Family Pride MCR, where young people and families will be able to join in the celebrations with a series of performances and events, such as Ginny Lemon’s Dog Show, an unmissable doggy extravaganza, and Disney Classics performed by The Untold Orchestra.
Other performers include Kelly Llorenna from N-Trance (Set You Free), Jodie Harsh, Misty Chance and Friends, Lucky Roy Singh, Queen Bayard, La Discothèque Orchestra, Manchester Residents Blasha and Allatt (Meat Free/Frixxxion), Kim Lana, Mix-Stress and Friends, SWAGGA, Monopoly Phonic, Kele Le Roc, and Tom Aspaul.
Mark Fletcher, CEO of Manchester Pride, said: “We have worked closely with our communities to offer a line-up that is for the community, by the community. As a world leading city and an organisation that is spearheading the global Pride movement, our aim is to provide a platform which elevates and showcases local queer performers alongside renowned international LGBTQ+ talent, with a little support from our allies. This is Manchester and this is how our communities want us to celebrate our Pride. ”
“We are so proud to announce that our line-up consists of 96% queer performers, 54% female performers, 51% people of colour, and over 42% trans and non-binary performers.”
Manchester Pride Festival, in partnership with Booking.com, takes place over four days in Manchester city centre on August bank holiday weekend (25 – 28 August) and is made up of several fringe events, providing opportunities to advocate for LGBTQ+ equality, engage families and young people, and to celebrate queer arts and culture.
The events of Manchester Pride Festival 2023 are free to attend with the exception of the Gay Village Party, tickets for which can be purchased through Ticketmaster now. £2.50 from every ticket will be donated to the Manchester Pride Community Fund, with the money going directly to LGBTQ+ causes and projects in Greater Manchester through the distribution of grants.
To find out more about Manchester Pride, visit www.manchesterpride.com
