Manchester Pride Live venue revealed

Manchester Pride has today revealed that MCR Pride Live, the live music element of Manchester Pride Festival, will this year take place at Manchester’s newest outdoor event venue at First Street.

Manchester Pride will be taking over the brand new, outdoor venue, which was originally launched as Homeground this May by HOME. It is situated on Ask Real Estate’s 80,000 sq ft future development site just next to the centre for contemporary theatre, film, art and music.

The site will host two live music stages, the Main Stage and the Gaydio Dance Tent, for performers including Zara Larsson, Sigala, Annie Mac, Gabrielle, Katy B and Example in a stellar line up on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 August.

On Sunday night Zara will be joined on stage by singer, songwriters Ella Henderson, Gabrielle, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Lucy Spraggan, Jason Andrew Gust and Shura. The stage will be hosted by Danny Beard, Cheddar Gorgeous, Anna Phylactic, The Manchester Queens and House of Blaque.

Set to appear on Saturday are English DJ, record producer and remixer Sigala, Radio One’s Dance Party legend Annie Mac, singer songwriter Katy B and musician, singer, songwriter, rapper and record producer Example.

Plus the LGBTQ+ charity has secured another major artist as headline performer on Saturday but will not be in a position to reveal their identity until 27 August, right before the bank holiday weekend show.

Saturday night’s performances will be hosted by La Discothèque and House of Ghetto.

Mark Fletcher, CEO of Manchester Pride, said; “It’s really exciting to be taking MCR Pride Live to First Street this year. The site is perfect for our event and is less than ten minutes walk from the Gay Village meaning that ticket holders will be able to move around our different sites in the city really easily and enjoy everything that Manchester Pride Festival has to offer.”

Manchester Pride is planning to hold its flagship Manchester Pride Festival, in partnership with Virgin Atlantic, in its regular spot in the city’s calendar from Friday 27 August until Monday 30 August. The festival features six key strands: Activism, Equality, Arts and Culture, Youth and Family, Community and Party.

The festival which takes place at venues across the city will include MCR Pride Live, Gay Village Party, Equality Marches, Superbia, Your Pride MCR, Family Pride and the Human Rights Forum.

The festival normally includes the Manchester Pride Parade on Saturday across the city. As a result of the government’s guidelines for large scale events, Manchester Pride has been forced to cancel the parade this year as it is not able to deliver the event within the safety guidelines.

All of the remaining elements of the festival, including the free events, will be ticketed, with the exception of the Candlelit Vigil. All of them, including the vigil, will be subject to the government’s guidance meaning that all ticket-holders aged 18 and over will need to demonstrate their COVID-19 status upon entering the festival.

They will be asked to do this by showing a valid NHS Covid Pass obtained by supplying one of the following:

• Proof of a negative NHS Lateral Flow Test– taken prior to travel on the day of arrival at the festival

• Proof of full vaccination– both doses received (with the second at least 14 days prior to the festival)

• Proof of natural immunity– based upon a positive PCR test within 180 days of the festival (including 10 days self-isolation following the result).

Further details of how this will be managed can be found on the Manchester Pride website here.

Mark Fletcher continued; “Not being able to deliver the Manchester Pride Parade this year was heartbreaking but it really would be impossible to check the COVID-19 status of every single person that came to watch it. Hundreds of thousands of people head into the city to watch the procession go by and there would be no way of ensuring that those people were not transmitting this virus which has taken such a horrible toll on our lives over the last 18 months.

“The government is advising that all live event organisers put these processes in place and we are working together with the relevant safety groups and local authorities to follow this advice. By demonstrating their COVID-19 status our guests will be able to enjoy the weekend safely, enabling us all to come together and celebrate for the first time since 2019.”

For more information about the festival visit www.manchesterpride.com.

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