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Manchester Pride Festival 2023 – parade, tickets, line-up, and travel advice

Here's everything you need to know.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 25th August 2023

The time has finally come for the return of the much-loved Manchester Pride Festival 2023, with the city ready to welcome a huge parade, a line-up of massive music, and loads of celebrations across the Gay Village.

The charity’s annual LGBTQ+ celebration is one of the highlights of Manchester’s events calendar, drawing thousands into the city.

This year, there’ll be the Gay Village Party, the parade, and loads of smaller events like Superbia Weekend, Family Pride, and more.

If you’re heading down to Manchester Pride Festival 2023, here’s everything you need to know, from travel to tickets and more.

Manchester Pride 2023 Parade

The Manchester Pride 2023 parade route
The Manchester Pride 2023 parade route. Credit: Supplied

This is arguably the most popular and well-attended part of the entire Manchester Pride Festival weekend – the parade.

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Thousands will take part in the march through the city centre, with tens of thousands usually coming to watch.

This year’s theme is Queerly Beloved, marking 10 years since gay marriage was legalised in England and Wales.

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The parade will set off at 12pm from Liverpool Road, navigating its path through the city centre via Deansgate, Peter Street, Oxford Road, Portland Street, Princess Street, Whitworth Street.

It’s expected to wrap up on Fairfield Street around 3pm.

Manchester Pride Festival tickets and wristband exchange

Manchester Pride Parade. Credit: Supplied

Manchester Pride Festival will run from Friday 25 August until Monday 28 August, with all events apart for the Gay Village Party free to attend.

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Weekend and day tickets are still on sale with Ticketmaster, though VIP and low income tickets have sold out.

Manchester Pride ticket prices are as follows:

  • Saturday day tickets – £33.85
  • Sunday day tickets – £33.85
  • Monday day tickets – £2.50
  • Weekend tickets – £41

You’ll need to swap your ticket for a Pledge Band at the Pledge Ban Exchange Point before heading into the Gay Village Party. You can find the exchange point at the Aytoun Street Car Park, with the opening times below.

  • Friday 25 August: 12pm – midnight
  • Saturday 26 August: 12pm – midnight
  • Sunday 27 August: 12pm – midnight
  • Monday 28 August: 12pm – 6pm

Manchester Pride Festival line-up

This year’s line-up is Manchester Pride’s most diverse to date, with 96% queer performers; 54% women, 51% people of colour and over 42% from trans and non-binary communities. 

The music will take place across three stage; The Village Stage, MancUnity, and the Alan Turing Stage.

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Headliners include drag sensation Pabllo Vittar, singer-songwriter and Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner Danny Beard, and electronic music icon Alison Goldfrapp.

The full stage splits and set times are on the Manchester Pride website, but there’s a tidy summary below too.

Alison Goldfrapp
Alison Goldfrapp. Credit: Publicity picture
BIMINI. Credit: Publicity picture
BIMINI. Credit: Publicity picture

Friday

  • The Village Stage: Trans Filth & Joy, hosted by Milk Presents and Trans Creative. Featuring BIMINI, Tito Bone, Cyro, The BollyWitch, and more. 18:30-23:00.
  • MancUnity: Celebrate Fat Pride, in partnership with Gaydio, with artists including The Niallist, Ivy Profemme, The Fat Britney, and Miss Lei-Lei. 18:30-00:00.
  • The Alan Turing Stage: Hosted by Donna Trump, and includes the Human Rights Forum, La Discothèque Orchestra, Queeriosity Cabaret, and more. 17:00-23:00.

Saturday

  • The Village Stage: Notable appearances by Alison Goldfrapp, Pabllo Vitar, Jodie Harsh, and more. The stage will open from 12:00 with a Parade screening, with main acts from 16:30-23:00.
  • MancUnity: Black Pride MCR / Swagga, headlined by Raven Mandella. 13:30-00:00.
  • The Alan Turing Stage: Queer Asian Takeover, hosted by Lucky Roy Singh, featuring Gok Wan, Gracie T, and more. 12:00-23:00.

Sunday

  • The Village Stage: Join Danny Beard and Friends, Jake Shears, Natasha Bedingfield, Lisa Scott-Lee, and more. 12:00-23:00.
  • MancUnity: Queer Women’s Takeover, with Monki, Blasha and Allatt, Mix-Stress and Friends, and more. 13:00-00:00.
  • The Alan Turing Stage: Cutie-poc Cabaret, hosted by Rikki Beadle-Blair, with Oneda, Angie Brown, and more. 12:00-23:00.

Monday

  • The Village Stage: Revel in community collaboration and enjoy performances from George the Dragon Disabled Queer Joy Cabaret and Cuppa T. 12:00-18:00.
  • MancUnity: The Runway by Manchester’s own 7ft drag artist Banksie, 14:00-17:00.
  • The Alan Turing Stage: Enjoy the melodies of the Disney Orchestra. 12:00-16:30.

Family Pride

Family Pride 2023.
Family Pride 2023.

Family Pride is the part of Manchester Pride Festival that aims to provide an exciting, inspiring and celebratory day for LGBTQ+ families, parents/carers, and children alike.

The completely free event will be held at the Great Northern Warehouse on Saturday 26 August, between midday and 6pm.

The programme includes music, crafting, party games and sing-a-longs, as well as a rainbow disco, showcasing performances and artists that champion love, self-expression and individuality.

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You can find out more here.

Travel advice

There’s a rail strike on this weekend… yep, again. Oh, and there’s a First Bus strike on too.

So if you’re planning to get public transport in to town, you’ll need to plan carefully, especially as the Manchester Pride Festival is on at the same time as a Manchester United game and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ gig at Wythenshawe Park.

Mancs are being urged to leave their cars at home due to the road closures and diversions around the city centre.

The tram will be your best port of call. Here is the latest travel advice from TfGM.

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Weather forecast

As per the weather forecast for the entire summer so far, it’s not looking like a heatwave is imminent.

According to the Met Office, Friday will have highs of 17 degrees and lows of 12 degrees, and will be cloudy but dry.

On Saturday, there’s a 60% chance of a thunderstorm at 12pm (right at the time the parade starts, which is nice), then it will be cloudy with sunny spells after that.

Temperatures will reach 18 degrees, with lows of 11 degrees on Saturday.

On Sunday, there’s again highs of 17 degrees and lows of 12 degrees, with a chance of rain showers in the afternoon.

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And for the Candlelit Vigil on Monday, it’s cloudy and 18 degrees all day.

Featured image: Manchester Pride

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Richard Ashcroft says Robin Park gigs could help make Wigan ‘a focal point in music’

Danny Jones Danny Jones Richard Ashcroft wants Robin Park gigs to make Wigan a focal point for music

Manc music veteran Richard Ashcroft has big hopes for the upcoming season of live music at Wigan’s Robin Park, insisting that gigs like his self-titled double bill could help his hometown become “a focal point music for the first time in years”.

The former Verve frontman turned successful solo artist was speaking to host Anna Jameson on BBC Radio Manchester earlier this week when he explained just how big a deal this series of Wigan concerts could be for the area.

Beyond the likes of himself, his former band, The Lathums and Railway Children, to name just a few, there aren’t too many notable music names to have come out from the WN postcode – but that isn’t to say there isn’t plenty of talent and potential to do so.

Bigging up the borough as an “amazing place” that’s perhaps sometimes overlooked, he’s keeping his fingers crossed that Mancs and people from all over the region, including the local council, can “get right behind” the upcoming calendar of Wigan concerts to shine the spotlight on it once again.

As he goes on to tell Jameson, he envisions this going on to become a platform for new, up-and-coming artists not only from Wigan but across Greater Manchester, insisting that “there’ll be this week where young bands play venues, bigger bands come” and so on, giving grassroots something “to build to”.

Noting that the foundations have already been lain with this first lot of gigs, with the likes of fellow natives The Stanleys and Maxwell Varey named as two of Richard Ashcroft‘s warm-up acts this summer, alongside more well-known outfits like Cast and The Zutons.

In the middle of the pack, you also have rising Scouse stars Red Rum Club and The Royston Club from Wrexham, who are also making plenty of waves, so it looks like the groundwork is very much there.

There are a variety of other gigs at Robin Park as the area looks to emulate the early success seen from similar bookings over in Wythenshawe like Noel Gallagher’s headliner in 2023 and in Wigan later this year, as well as Blossoms’ mini-festival.

Blossoms announce massive Wythenshawe Park gig next summer

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The 52-year-old believes his shows among the others at Robin Park this summer could leave a “legacy” and give something for people to look back on and remember it as a moment in which, “for the first time in years, Wigan became a focal point for music” in the North and across the country.

Speaking to ITV earlier this week also, the Britpop legend admitted that despite coming up in the same era as the likes of The Stone Roses and Oasis, not to mention in such close proximity, those figures always seemed “larger than life” but that it’s an honour to go back home on such a big scale.

It’s been over two and a half decades since he and The Verve played their iconic Haigh Hall gig to more than 33,000 locals and the two Robin Park gigs on 20-21 July are set to be on an equally massive scale.

You can still try and grab tickets and listen to the rest of his interview on BBC Sounds HERE.

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

Featured Images — BBC Radio Manchester/Ed Webster (via Flickr)

What's On

Manchester MMA star Tom Aspinall slams ‘unfair’ start times for UFC 304 at Co-op Live

Danny Jones Danny Jones Tom Aspinall says UFC 304 Manchester start time is absolutely terrible and unfair on UK fans

Local MMA star Tom Aspinall has come out to criticise the start times for UFC 304 here in Manchester, calling it ‘unfair’ for fans here in the UK.

In case you missed that rather big announcement, the UFC is returning to Manchester after nearly a decade and will be the very first sporting event held at the brand-new Co-op Live Arena, which is finally set to open this week following multiple delays (touch wood).

However, in an effort to keep broadcasters and the UFC‘s massive audience back in the US, the fight card will be starting until around 3am – and that’s at the very earliest.

Responding to the decision the Atherton-born and Salford-based fighter posted a video on his socials saying, “As a fan who wants to watch it live, I think it is absolutely terrible”.

@tomaspinallofficial My thoughts on UFC Manchester fight times for you UK fans 🤛 #ufc #manchester #foryoupage #viralvideo #fans #tomaspinall ♬ No Loss – Instrumental Version – Canon

He goes on to say that “it’s just not fair on the fans – the UK fans obviously. It’s predominantly an American audience so I understand that, they want to sell to them, but why can’t they sell to them in the afternoon which is our evening time?

While he admitted it “doesn’t make that much difference” to him as a fighter, the 31-year-old went on to ask, “Why can’t the American watch it in the afternoon and Manchester, the UK and European fans can all fly to the event and sell out this new arena?”

“I mean, it’s going to sell out regardless, mate”, Aspinall reiterated, adding that “we’re very lucky to have a pay-per-view event in Manchester” but that forcing the British audience and Mancs to watch something just down the road at a US-convenient time just doesn’t seem right.

There’s been plenty of backlash amongst MMA fans online too, with many stating that it simply goes to show that the UFC as an organisation “don’t care” about overseas supporters as much as they claim to.

Tom Aspinall isn’t the only one complaining about the UFC 304 start time.
Others have been less negative about it.
Aspinall has been having digs ever since the announcement.

Read more:

As the current interim heavyweight champion, Aspinall will be right up at the top of the billing for UFC 304, which is the first time the event has been in the UK full stop since 2016.

The promotion’s last British fight was here in Manchester too, on a night when local legend and adopted Manc Michael Bisping retained his middleweight championship belt against Dan Henderson.

We can only hope for similarly victorious scenes for the North West this July.

As for the shiny new venue, Co-op Live, after a fair few teething problems it looks like they are now on course to open just a week or so after the initial launch date. Not so bad.

A guide to the brand-new Co-op Live Arena: drinks prices, how to get there, capacity and more

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

Featured Images — Tom Aspinall (via TikTok/Instagram)

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