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Manchester Pride 2025 line-up announced, with headline performances from Olly Alexander and Leigh-Anne

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 14th March 2025

Manchester Pride has revealed its 2025 line-up and headliners ahead of the city’s huge LGBTQ+ celebration.

Set to take place, a usual, over the August bank holiday weekend, this year’s live entertainment features headline slots for Olly Alexander, Leigh-Anne, and Billy Porter.

Manchester Pride will span across the Gay Village Party and the newly-announced Mardi Gras event at Depot Mayfield.

The line-up is packed with LGBTQ+ icons and allies once again as summer’s event calendar heats up.

This year’s Manchester Pride festival will take place between Friday 22 and Monday 25 August, culminating in the candlelit vigil at Sackville Gardens.

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Topping the bill this year is Brit Award winner and Years and Years frontman Olly Alexander, along with multi-platinum pop star Leigh-Anne, of Little Mix fame, and Hollywood superstar Billy Porter.

Also announced by Manchester Pride today are special guests including Tulisa, Big Freedia, Sonique and Louisa Johnson, Jodie Harsh, and multi-award winning cabaret artist, Danny Beard with The Danny Beard Show.

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Manchester Pride has also worked with community collectives to commission a number of immersive shows, including House of MCR, which will bring together dance, singing, lip-syncing and fashion.

Kulture Cabaret will be a celebration of queer South Asian and Middle Eastern performers, and Queenz: Drag me to the disco will feature during the bank holiday celebrations.

Bongo’s Bingo will kick off the Manchester Pride celebrations each day.

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This is all part of the first-ever line-up for the brand new Mardi Gras event, which will take place on the Saturday and Sunday and has an ambition to better represent marginalised communities such as trans, non-binary, and queer local talent.

The Gay Village Party will be back in Manchester Pride’s spiritual home from Friday 22 to Monday 25 August, featuring Samantha Mumba, B*Witched and Sister Sledge featuring Kathy Sledge – with more still to be announced.

These performances will be across two stages, the Alan Turing stage and the Indoor Arena, alongside a funfair, market stalls, and pop-up food vendors, plus Ginny Lemon’s Dog Show.

Mark Fletcher, CEO at Manchester Pride, said: “Manchester Pride is the city’s celebration of LGBTQ+ life and culture and each year we’re challenged to respond to the diverse needs of our communities.

“Working closely with LGBTQ+ groups and collectives from Greater Manchester we’ve been able to respond to the needs of our communities in presenting a queer focussed, intentional line up of performers who will elevate and lend their support to the rich bed of LGBTQ+ performers that this city has to offer.

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“With the introduction of the new Mardi Gras event we needed to make sure that we stayed true to what Pride is about in this city.

“Our communities were clear that they wanted to see LGBTQ+ performers front and centre and we’re thrilled to announce a line up which serves.

“With so many stages available across the two live music based events we’re confident that there’s something for everyone; whether that be multi platinum selling pop artists, drag queen royalty or ballroom fierceness that you can expect to see at the special House of MCR Show.”

Manchester Pride 2025 line-up

Friday 22 August

Gay Village Party

  • Samantha Mumba

Saturday 23 August

Mardi Gras

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  • Leigh-Anne // Billy Porter
  • Special Guest: Big Freedia
  • Gok Wan // Sonique // Booty Luv // Joshua James // Bestley
  • The Danny Beard Show // Dean Mccullough’s Pop Machine // Bongo’s Bingo
  • Queenz: Drag Me To The Disco // Black Pride Mcr // Runway X Banksie
  • Rikki Beadle-Blair // Darren Pritchard

Gay Village Party

  • B*Witched // Diana Vickers
  • Gaydio Dance Arena

Sunday 24 August

Mardi Gras

  • Olly Alexander
  • Special Guest: Tulisa
  • Tayce // Jodie Harsh // Louisa Johnson  // K-Klass // N-Trance // Banksie
  • Stephani B // Anna Phylactic // Lucky Roy Singh
  • House Of MCR – Pride Edition //
  • Gaydio Dance Arena // Bongo’s Bingo // Kulture Cabaret

Gay Village Party

  • Sister Sledge Featuring Kathy Sledge // Angie Brown
  • Ginny Lemon’s Dog Show
  • Diva’s Only With Misty Chance // Your Manchester Live With Belinda Scandal

Tickets and more information are HERE.

Featured image: Gemma Parker

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New data estimates that 7.3m Oasis fans are set to miss out on 2027 tour tickets

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant Oasis Live '27 - how tickets registration will work for huge Manchester Etihad Stadium run

New data has revealed that as many as 7.3 million Oasis fans could be set to miss out on tickets to the band’s 2027 tour.

In case you need bringing up to speed a little, it was announced earlier this week that, following the unprecedented success of the reunion tour, Oasis Live ’25, last year, including five nostalgia-drenched gigs at Manchester’s Heaton Park, Oasis would be hitting the road once again in 2027, and this time around, they’re going BIG.

We’re talking 11 nights at the Etihad Stadium and a return to the iconic grounds of Knebworth for four special shows there too, kind of ‘big’.

The iconic Manchester band will also be taking to a range of other world-famous stages across the globe, including five nights at Glasgow’s Celtic Park, and major cities like Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, and Las Vegas.

But despite the elevated number of dates the Gallaghers and co will be performing, some new data has unfortunately revealed that millions of fans may still not be lucky enough to snag a ticket.

The ticketing system for Oasis Live ’27 is not what it was for the last tour, nor will it be similar to many other tours of a similar scale in the past either, as this time, the band and their promotors are taking necessary measures to ensure ‘genuine fans’ get their hands on the tickets and that dynamic pricing doesn’t creep in.

Instead of going into detail on that now though, you can read our full guide on how to get tickets for the Manchester and Knebworth shows here.

Oasis Live ’27 – how to get tickets to huge Manchester Etihad Stadium run

Experts at online ticketing platform TicketSource have analysed the scale of demand for Oasis tickets by comparing the 10 million fans worldwide who queued for the initial release of 1.4 million tickets for their 2025 tour, with the newly announced 2027 tour dates and stadium capacities.

With an estimated 2.67 million tickets available across 38 dates and 11 locations between 21 May and 19 September 2027, Oasis could still face huge demand from fans hoping to see them live.

But research reveals the band would need to play 112 Wembley-sized shows to accommodate everyone who tried to get a ticket in 2025.

Read more:

The 2027 tour would accommodate just 26.7% of those who tried to get tickets last time, meaning almost three-quarters (73%) of them could miss out, leaving a shortfall of more than 7.3 million fans.

Fingers crossed you’re among the lucky lot that secure tickets, though.

Featured Image – Joshua Halling (Press Image – Supplied)

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Iconic Manc movie 24 Hour Party People is set to return to cinemas for its anniversary

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

One of Manchester’s most iconic movies is set to return to the big screen next month.

Remastered in 4K and returning to UK cinemas to mark 24 years since its original release, Michael Winterbottom’s 2002 biographical comedy drama film, 24 Hour Party People, tells the story of Manchester‘s popular music community from 1976 to 1992 – specifically about Factory Records‘ founder Tony Wilson.

The film begins with the punk rock era of the late 1970s, before moving through the 1980s into the rave and DJ culture, and of course, the ‘Madchester‘ scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The narrative largely follows the career of Tony Wilson, played by Middleton-born actor Steve Coogan, while also covering the careers of the major Factory Records artists – especially Joy Division and New Order, as well as A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, and Happy Mondays.

If you haven’t seen 24 Hour Party People before, it’s a dramatisation based on a combination of real events, rumours, and urban legends, as the film is sure to make clear.

Coogan is joined by a cast by a mixture of big names and, at the time, rising stars like Paddy Considine, Shirley Henderson, Lennie James, John Simm, Ralf Little, Andy Serkis, Sean Harris, John Thomson, and even Peter Kay, alongside cameos from other figures connected to the Manchester music scene.

Before it returns to cinemas, the film will first open music and media festival/conference, Beyond The Music, at MediaCity in Salford on 6 October.

The screening at the festival will also be followed by a Q&A with Coogan, Winterbottom, and producer Andrew Eaton.

Read more:

24 Hour Party People will then be re-released in UK cinemas from 9 October, and you can check your local cinema for screening times and book tickets online now.

Featured Image – Altitude

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Ticket touting will now be illegal. Credit: The Manc Group

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Oasis Live ’27 ticket prices revealed ahead of massive stadium tour

Oasis Live '27 - how tickets registration will work for huge Manchester Etihad Stadium run

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