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Cheaper Early Bird tickets are already on sale for Manchester Pride Festival 2025 after another phenomenal year

The line-up may be unknown as of yet, but a good time is definitely guaranteed.

Thomas Melia Thomas Melia - 2nd September 2024

As expected, Manchester Pride Festival 2024 went down a treat this year, with artists like Eurovision double-champion Loreen plus Jessie J, Rita Ora and Sugababes delivering show stopping performances in the city’s iconic Gay Village. 

Next year’s festival is looking like a biggie too, with Early Bird tickets selling out fast, so you need to grab ‘em while you can and get this on your roster for August.

Past years have seen the likes of global sensation Ariana Grande, Natasha Bedingfield and Zara Larsson wow the crowds at Manchester Pride Festival, and 2025 will surely bring in some more household names.  

Tickets are available for £41 with a £2.50 Community Donation Fund, which helps contribute to pushing issues which are reviewed yearly. 2023’s Manchester Pride Community Fund saw topics like HIV Stigma, LGBTQ+ Events, Mental Health and Wellbeing all raised and addressed.

The 2025 Manchester Pride Festival will run from Friday 22 August until Monday 25 August, however annual Pride-goers will already have the last weekend of August reserved in their diary for celebrating in style. 

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Nobody does it like us Mancs as Manchester Pride is one of the country’s largest Pride Festivals carrying a legacy of its own, starting with the city’s first Pride Event in 1985. 

The 2024 Manchester Pride parade. Credit: The Manc Group
The 2024 Manchester Pride parade. Credit: The Manc Group
The huge main stage at Manchester Pride Festival as 2025 tickets go on sale. Credit: The Manc Group
The huge main stage at Manchester Pride Festival as 2025 tickets go on sale. Credit: The Manc Group

Mark Fletcher, CEO of Manchester Pride, shared his reflections: “This year’s festival was nothing short of magical. Seeing our community and allies come together in such a vibrant and heartfelt celebration reminds us of the strength we have when we stand united.

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“From the incredible performances to the profound moments of reflection, Manchester Pride Festival 2024 embodied the true spirit of love, acceptance, and resilience. We can’t wait to make next year’s festival even better!”

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit manchesterpride.com/tickets

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Featured image: The Manc Group

What's On

Manchester’s iconic inflatable monsters are set to invade the city centre again this Halloween

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Dozens of huge inflatable monsters are set to invade Manchester next month, as Halloween returns to the city for 2024.

Yes, it’s that time of year yet again… the monsters are back.

After several years of looming over Manchester‘s most-notable rooftops and lurking around famous city centre sites, it’s been revealed that the iconic MCR Monsters will be returning for another year of spooky celebrations next month, along with loads of other terrifying tricks and treats – with something for the whole family to get involved with.

Organisers CityCo and Manchester BID are gearing up to “roll out the blood-red carpet” for its legendary and monstrous guests in a couple of weeks time.

This year’s annual Halloween in the City celebrations will kick off with a week-long colourful invasion of the MCR Monsters, before being followed by a two-day family festival across the city’s popular shopping destinations.

Halloween is returning to the city for loads of spooky celebrations next month / Credit: CityCo (via Supplied)

Crawling their way back into the city from Friday 25 October through to Halloween itself on Thursday 31 October, the epic MCR Monsters inflatable art trail – which is created by artists Filthy Luker and Pedro Estrellas – will be taking over leading locations like Manchester Arndale, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Corn Exchange, and New Century, with many more sites set to be announced soon.

A brand-new monster called ‘The Leech’ will be heading to town to join to celebrations this year, alongside some other spookily-similar faces from years’ past.

Buildings across the city will also be turning a ghoulish green once the night falls, while you can also expect to see thousands of little pumpkin lanterns adorning the city’s streets once again.

There’ll be something for all the family to / Credit: CityCo (via Supplied)

Some of the other fan-favourite events on the jam-packed Halloween in the City lineup confirmed to be returning this year are the ‘Monsters Rock! Music Festival’, with spooky live bands and DJs, as well as gruesome games and competitions, the popular ‘Team Trick v Team Treat’ fancy dress challenge, and the hair-raising monster procession ‘Rock! Party Procession’ – which will feature giant puppet monsters, stilt walkers, and a live band marching their way through Manchester Arndale and on Market Street.

Thousands of families are expected to come into the city centre dressed in their scariest costumes over Halloween weekend on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 October.

Jane Sharrocks, who is the Chair of Manchester BID, said Manchester is set to transform into the “ultimate Halloween playground” this year, and that organisers are planning 2024 to be the “most thrilling year yet”.

“As the first UK city to host these incredible creatures, Manchester has become the ultimate Halloween destination,” Jane added.

Read more:

Halloween in the City officially returns to Manchester on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 October, with the monsters descending from Friday 25 October and the pumpkins potentially even earlier, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled.

Featured Image – CityCo (via Supplied)

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Cultplex’s annual horror film festival returns to GRUB next month

Danny Jones Danny Jones horror film festival manchester cultplex

A much-loved staple of Manchester’s spooky season is returning this autumn as the STAB Season film festival lands back at Cultplex next month.

Part of GRUB over at Red Bank, Cultplex is one of the best small-screen cinemas and hidden gems full stop to be found in the city centre; as the name would suggest, they celebrate fan favourite films, video games, cool nerd stuff and all things culty.

And don’t worry, by culty we mean the stuff people are obsessed with – there’s no risk of stumbling across old people donning hooded cloaks like in Hot Fuzz or anything, we promise.

However, that film is a very good example of the kind of fandom this Manchester ‘mini-cini’ champions, and this October it will once again be taken over by a whole host of horror movies and more as part of the month-long festival.

Promising to deliver “a month of sinister cinema that isn’t for the faint of heart” and be “the biggest yet”, the 2024 STAB Film Season over at Cultplex kicks off on Wednesday, 2 October and doesn’t stop until the start of November.

With this year’s lineup featuring sci-fi and supernatural classics such as The Exorcist (1973) and Alien (1979) – and that’s just the double-bill they’ve booked in for Halloween night – as well as full-on movie marathons, special spooky one-offs and other events.

We’re talking quizzes, Q&A and binging of TV box sets just to name a few. Basically, it’s going to be equal parts terrifying and terrific.

Kicking off the city’s longest-lasting horror movie festival with their annual airing of 1974’s locally-shot-yet-criminally-underseen The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (now THAT is what you call a cult film), before swinging headlong into Wes Craven’s hit slasher franchise Scream and Korean zombie hit Train to Busan (2016), this thing is going to move at a mile a minute.

It’ll be Halloween before you know it. You can find the full STAB Film Season 2024 line-up below:

DateWhat’s on at STAB Film Season – Cultplex @ GRUB
Wednesday, 2 October19:30 – The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)
Thursday, 3 October20:30 – Sprechen: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari + live score
Friday, 4 October20:30 – Double-bill: Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) + Shiva Baby (2020)
Sunday, 6 October13:00 – Scream Stab-a-Thon
Wednesday, 9 October19:30 – Interference Film Club: Martyrs (2015)
Saturday, 12 October13:30 – The Addams Family (1991)
16:00 – The Blob (1988)
19:00 – Zombie All-Nighter ft. Train to Busan (2016), Return of the Living Dead (1985), REC (2007) and Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)
Sunday, 13 October16:00 – Interview With The Vampire (1994)
Wednesday, 16 October19:30 – Halloween Quiz Show
Friday, 18 October18:00 – Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace (2004 — and our pick of the bunch*)
Sunday, 20 October13:00 – TRASHFEST with Andrew Leovald Q&A
16:00 – CULT CLUB: The Mummy (1999)
Wednesday, 23 October19:30 – GASP: Suspiria (1977)
Thursday, 24 October19:30 – MAGHOUL (amateur video game night – but scary)
Friday, 25 October18:00 – Double-bill: Thirteen Ghosts (2001) + Ghost Ship (2002)
Saturday, 26 October13:00 – A Lovely Time: The Simpsons ‘Treehouse of Horror’ Quiz
13:30 – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
16:00 – In The Mouth of Madness (1994) + Nick Helm Podcast
20:00 – A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) for Freddy K’s 40th B-Day Party
Sunday, 27 October13:00 – Movie Church: Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
16:00 – Linnea Quigley’s Horror Workout (1990)
19:00 – Tetsuo The Iron Man (1989)
Wednesday, 30 October19:30 – Arrow Film Club: Ju-on The Grudge (2002)
Thursday, 31 October – HALLOWEEN!19:30 – Double-bill: The Exorcist (1973) + Alien (1979)
Friday, 1 November19:30 – Slumber Party Massacre Double Bill
Saturday, 2 November – The Finale16:00 – Death Becomes Her (1992)

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Halloween and horror fans won’t need convincing on this one, you already know the drill.

You can expect all this and loads more surprises we wouldn’t dare spoil for you when STAB Film Season kicks off at Cultplex next month.

And the best part is, you’re already at GRUB, so proper good food and drink is right on your doorstep. Just try not to throw it all in the air when the jumpscares start.

Full-season listings can be found HERE with tickets for all events available to book now – if you’re brave
enough. It’s not the only thing fright fans can look forward to this year either…

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Cultplex/GRUB MCR (supplied)

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