Manchester Pride Reviews 24

A brilliant organisation providing a great event for all and support for communities throughout the year.

Fun day for all ages, a great atmosphere and inclusive community

Is it busy? Yes! Is it a bit mad (in the best way) of course it is, but what else does one want, need or expect from a Pride event? Manchester pride is an event which every year still surprises me, just when you think they can't do more to reach more of the community, they do. The event guarantees fun, experiences, love, reflection and our fabulous visibility in ways that no other pride does, plus is run by a team who want to continue to learn and adapt the experiences every time to ensure this continues. If you do any pride in your life, it should be Manchester 🐝

What an incredible Pride event! The energy, love, and inclusivity were truly inspiring. Beautifully organized, vibrant performances, and a powerful sense of community. Can't wait for next year!

Though I'm not from Manchester I felt like I was part of a big family gathering

Brilliant experience!

What a great even had such an amazing time and really well organised.

Absolutely banging!!

Had ana amazing time! Such a vibrant and inclusive event. Happy pride

This was my first time ever going to Manchester pride, I had only ever been to Stoke pride before and I was so hyped up, this was probably the worst pride experience I have ever had in my life. The parade was just brands with rainbows, not a lot of actual people in the parade. Security was super aggressive and yelling and bullying anyone trying to take pictures or just simply watch the parade. We decided to try and find the stalls to have a look round, we looked online, they were supposed to be on community lane in chorlton street, we were sent in all kinds of directions by the staff, then when we thought we finally found it after a member of staff sent us down a street, another one stopped us and demanded to see our wristbands, we didn’t have any because we were trying to get to the stalls, she kept talking over us and not listening to what we were trying to ask, then announced there were no stalls even though another staff member said there was just literally a few meters from her. So then we go and try and find the stalls again, we ask another member of staff, she sends us down back into the parade and we have to squeeze through, at this point we’re exhausted and extremely frustrated, to the point where we had to go down a side street to take 5, my friend does some digging online and finds the stalls are in the gay village blocked off by a physical pay wall! So you have to PAY just to look at things to buy. And there’s several types of tickets and we’re told by a staff member that we have to go to some sort of bus company to get the tickets and then come back. At that point we gave up and got a drink and went primark instead as the entire day had been wasted. There is no excuse for such a poorly organised event, we already struggle with physical disabilities, but if we had been wheelchair bound or something, we would have not been able to get anywhere. It was just inaccessible. Today was just a huge waste of time, money and energy. I strongly recommend going to a different pride event elsewhere, Manchester pride is not worth it unless you have money to pay to breathe the air and have the patience for rude staff who send you in circles who seem to not even know their own event.

It’s probably a bit harsh tarring the whole event of Pride with the experience of the Sugababes but that overshadowed what was other than that a fun fest because that made us pay! If we’d known what a shambles that would turn out to be we would have avoided it & gone for free.
The Sugababes need a bigger venue than a car park! We had to get in 2 hours before they played to watch them. The toilet provision in the car park was woeful. We were entitled to accessible toilet bands but didn’t realise we’d need them for the Sugababes so didn’t get them. Once we were in the ‘car park’ we couldn’t risk leaving to get bands, it was utter chaos all round that area.
The accessibility manager wouldn’t let us use these facilities unless we left to get bands, even when we showed her the relevant medical evidence.
Other than the bands pretty much everything else at Pride is free, why pay for a band when seeing bands is a poor experience and is almost impossible. We had to be there for hours of filler entertainment, which was pretty poor, to see half the Sugababes set because we couldn’t access toilets.
As an additional point a car park is flat, the audience was predominantly male and some were very tall. I’m tall so not an issue for me, shorter people really struggled to see.

Terrible organisation for Manchester Pride 2024. Mark Fletcher should be ashamed and sacked. Selling 100's of tickets Iver stage capacity to make money and not provide that service. Absolutely shocking !!!! 😠 😡

Really disappointed, we headed to the main stage, it was running behind due to weather but when acts did come on it was boring to start with. Several drag acts dancing badly and miming out of sync, it would have been fine if billed as a drag show but it wasn't. When singers did come on it was brilliant, very entertaining and a great atmosphere. There were lots of very rude people around, some tall girls pushed their way in front of us, we complained as we then couldn't see, when their male friend came he started saying how rude we were and that we should apologise to his female friends, he also said "you should apologise then leave, you're straight anyway". To exit the staged area was difficult because a crowd had gathered by the exit behind the barriers to watch the show. The gay village itself was rammed and getting anywhere was a nightmare, random bars had music and dancing in the street and you had to fight your way through the people. We were made to feel unwelcome in a disco bar, my friend was dancing around with a man who said he was gay, he was picking her up and spinning her around for fun, they were fooling around on the dancefloor and she touched another gay man's bum, he was offended by this and as he went back to his friends and dropped his drink on the way. He went to the bouncer and said my friend has pulled his shorts down and knocked his drink out of his hands. When the bouncer came my friend was back dancing with the first man, they were grinding and grabbing each others bums having a laugh, the second man then started saying to the bouncer "see, she's doing it again" bouncers didn't care a jot what we had to say, it was very much this is gay pride and you're not lgbtq so don't be here, we were kicked out of the bar. A woman outside said she'd seen several fights. Used to love the bars on canal street, always a good vibe but the prejudice against straight people has completely ruined it, I won't be back as it seems the lgbtq community want to be secular despite the event being billed as inclusive.

Very sad to post this but very disappointing experience. The gay village is overcrowded. People are trampling on others, pushing, shoving and the only way to prevent this and make it fun for everyone is to control numbers. It’s clear they are trying to get as many people in as possible but that’s preventing most people from having a good time. Unfortunately we experienced hate crime in the bar toilets which is traumatic and the staff can’t even intervene because the situation is too dangerous. The event is poorly managed and we will not be returning or recommending this to anyone until ticket sales are reduced or the location is changed to manage the quantity of people attending.

They have been charging entry into the village when they were told they couldn't insist on charging back in 2002. They are still trying to mislead people at the entrances by checking for wristbands when none is needed just to enter the roads

This charity does so much to help so many, they are so much more than just a big party (which they do very well) - but they are at the heart of the LGBTQIA+ community in Manchester. Thanks for all you do!

Amazing charity, working for inclusion and acceptance. Making the world a much better place.

Also, the festival is fantastic and we all know/appreciate how much work goes into it from such a small dedicated team.

Well done MCR Pride!

Manchester pride is one of the main weekends we look forward to each year. This year with the change we were already sceptical to how it was going to be this year. It was worse. There is not enough room around canal street and the surrounds for this type of pride. When there was a place for people to go if choose to, for main acts like Manchester live it was so much more enjoyable. It was to overcrowded. We were use to this after Manchester live in canal Street not all day every day. No system whatsoever. People could enter without wristbands, which we knew this already due to public right of way. Fair enough not into pubs. But it was uncomfortable the amount of people everywhere pubs streets everywhere. There was no hope of getting anywhere near the so called main stage of acts. Tried to go back old school and failed, bring back the way it use to be, bring back the pride we the majority all love, can see from comments this was an epic fail, and failed miserably. Bring back the pride everyone gets to experience. Of all the years I have been going this was by far the worst experience and will not be going again if things don't change. Manchester Pride is one of the biggest in the country. It needs to be somewhere, or the main acts somewhere that can accommodate this amount of people. Please do something for next year. You will be losing out on alot of people if not, myself included.