GARY'S COVID-Y MANCHESTER PRIDE GUIDE 2020
Usually I take great pleasure in writing a round up of all of the amazing alternative Manchester Pride events put on by the one-of-a-kind queer community as an alternative to Manchester Pride’s main celebrations for people who want something a bit different or who may be against or can’t afford the expensive ticket price elements of the main event but 2020 is a weird year. So weird that Manchester Pride itself has had to go online due to covid 19 and are themselves calling that “Alternative Manchester Pride” and the only physical events you can go to are largely being run by Manchester’s queer alternative scene! Shit got topsy turvy!
So I’m gonna do a run down of everything. Everything Manchester Pride have put together (a really great online festival with original live acts plus a queer symposium and activism section kinda like their amazing online forum they did earlier in the year) and all of the Covid Safe, sit down, don’t dance, don’t meet up with your friends events that are still happening in the city during August Bank Holiday Weekend.
I do have to say it is even weirder that Manchester is in local lockdown during all this and we can’t meet people in our houses and gardens and you are only supposed to meet up to 6 people from different houses in outdoor spaces or up to 12 people from only two households (*correct at time of publishing!). Not sure how much this will be stuck to by everyone, not sure how it can be enforced, remember there is a pandemic out there and new cases are spreading in the under 40s especially. Stay safe, make sensible decisions, go out with a mask, hand sanitiser, wash your hands and stay outside as much as you can would the our advice to a safe Pride. And if you pick up some trade, get them into a sensible position where they are facing away from you, make sure they are a tall-o so the back of their head is 2 metres away and maybe now’s the time to indulge in your George Michael outdoor sex fantasies? Lie back and think of Chris Whitty!
THURSDAY
YES! turns over their gig space to cinema club Above The Line for week of queer films which continues today with excellent gay African circumcision drama The Wound 2pm and Celine Sciamma’s trans youth drama Tomboy at 7pm.
RebeccaNeverBecky heads online with a digital party broadcast on Twitch and Mix-Cloud Live this evening. Join boss lady Mix-Stress, residents Blackbetty and Katbrownsugar alongside special guests d.clemente & Missscere from 8.30pm for Colourz Poppin', a colourful Pride RnB vibe raising money for taking donations for COLOURSYouth charity.
Reform Radio DJs takeover at Escape to Freight Island at Mayfield starting a five-day Queer Power celebration which runs until the 31st which, although isn’t run by Manchester Pride will still be raising money for the charity. It’s probably the most covid safe space in the city, a huge outdoor space with hundreds of tables, street food, DJs and live performers. The weather is looking okay so this should be the place to go down with your bubble should you be wanting to have a queer, safe alternative Manchester Pride. The programme of events the have put together is great and you can book a 2.5 hour slot for whatever you can…a lot of the slots have gone but there are also walkups on the day especially if you group is small.
FRIDAY
Bollox is back, in a socially distanced fashion at Freight Island 6pm-midnight, can’t wait to see the videos from this as it is already SOLD OUT .
The Refuge starts their annual Come As You Are weekend with Homoelectric DJs Gina Breeze, Will Tramp, Luke Unabomber. The event takes a seated, no dancing format this year and runs 5pm-11pm daily. Unlike Freight Island it is not ticketed, no bookings available (apart from the Dining Room reservations) as it is running on a first-come-first-serve basis, get down early to avoid disappointment.
saturday
Freight Island has the best lineup of the day with me and Thom doing a mini version of our big queer disco night Love Party 3-6pm (we’ll be back bigger and better next year!) before that there’s Drag Brunch with great queens from across the city 12-3pm and after there’s DJ Paulette (6pm-midnight) soundtracking Black Pride takeover with vogue houses House of Blaque and our friends House of Ghetto performing plus at 10pm Beau and Grace will be bringing a special Pride is a Protest performance version of their cabaret night Creatures of Catharsis to Freight Island to give some proper disruptive Pride political energy to the night.
Over at The Refuge, Come As You Are continues with great queer Manc DJs including Rebecca Never Becky’s Mix-Stress, High Hoops and Kiss Me Again.
Online Manchester Pride’s Saturday is a celebration of their world famous pop festival and party element of the usual celebrations on United We Stream, hosted by Cheddar Gorgeous and with new online performances from Bright Light Bright Light, Jodie Harsh, House Gospel Choir, HUSK and Louise Redknapp amongst others
There's other stuff dotted in-between these performances too…We’re especially looking forward to FAT PRIDE a celebration of big queer bodies.
One year on from the iconic meme (pictured) Monopoly Phonic is back with a socially distanced, seated version of Girls Night Out at Brick Social NWS late into the night with added Pop Curious in the other room of this two room venue.
Sunday
If you’re after some more film pleasures then why not head to YES! again and indulge in the bright colours and sumptuous characters of Pedro Almodavar in a bright pink room with a double bill of Bad Education and All About My Mother from 6pm. They have a great roof terrace and a new outdoor beer garden too if you are just generally looking for somewhere nice to have a drink or want to head down before or stick around after in a nice covid safe space.
Come As You Are rounds off The Refuge’s weekend with DJs Abigail Ward, Paulette and Kim Lana
Our friends Good Afternoon are DJing and bringing the rowdy party vibes at Freight Island from 3-6pm and then Mix-Stress is back sound tracking the RnB, house and everything in-between with another House of Ghetto Black Pride Takeover crammed with vogue performances then from 10pm to midnight Cheddar Gorgeous joins the Amuse Bouche gang… if you haven’t been yet Amuse Bouche is Joe Spencer’s regular Sunday night drag and dining experience at Freight Island and it features the best drag talent from the alternative scene in the city dancing for your pleasure, often in food related costumes, with live performances and loads more. Last time we went Grace smashed her vagina into a cake. That’s entertainment!
Manchester Pride’s Sunday is based around activism, art and culture and Youth Pride. Youth Pride features great events for teens and adults alike including lip sync smack downs and vogue classes, the activism forum features discussion with Juno Dawson and Munroe Bergdorf amongst others but the Superbia Sunday takeover on the Superbia YouTube channel is the jewel in the whole weekend’s crown.
The Superbia Gallery 2020 is an online virtual gallery space they’ll be showing some of their favourite digital work from the last three years plus some new work, original Superbia Spotlights commissions and a virtual tour.
The Superbia Cinema presents six brilliant LGBTQ short films made by queer filmmakers…
Seize & Hold (2020), 3 mins, Finley Letchford-Dobbs
A young trans man uses dance to explore the highs and lows of life in a remote lockdown setting. Commissioned for Superbia Spotlights.
Binder (2020), 8 mins, Sadé Mica
Artist Sadé Mica creates chest binders from unlikely fabrics to use in their film work, challenging their hidden nature in the lives of some trans and non-binary people. Commissioned for Trans Vegas 2020 by Trans Creative.
Baby Lies Truthfully (2020), 6 mins, Joe Ingham
Voiced by Russell Tovey with material from Jim Hubbard, Therese Fare, Jack Deveaux and others, Joe Ingham’s film combines drama and documentary to bring to life – for the first time in over thirty years – the words of artist / writer David Robilliard who died from AIDS in 1988.
Invisible Women (2019), 25 mins, directed by Alice Smith, produced by Jo Ingham
The incredible story of two Irish lesbian pioneer activists and their half century of activism. Angela and Luchia formed the Gay Liberation Front in Manchester, set up a women’s refuge and printing press, and more. This film was supported by a Superbia Grant.
Crypsis (2019), 9 mins, directed by Christopher McGill, produced by Siobhan Fahey
David Souk plays an African gay man seeking asylum in Scotland. Under pressure to ‘prove’ his identity and experience, he delves into the queer clubbing spaces of his city, only to be triggered back to the traumatic circumstance of his escape.
Watch along with and enjoy an hour of original film-making, exploring activist history, memoir, artist explorations, HIV and AIDS, dance, poetry, love, sex, joy and stories of asylum. After the screening, Superbia Project Manager Greg Thorpe will be joined by filmmakers Finley Letchford-Dobbs, Sadé Mica, Joseph Ingham and Siobhan Fahey to discuss their work.
There’s also the amazing looking Superbia: Artists in Conversation which sees great queer artists be interviewed by other great queer artists including our own Grace Oni Smith. LGBTQ TV writer Russell T. Davies is interviewed by Nathaniel J. Hall, queer theatre pioneer Rikki Beadle-Blair, MBE will be interviewed by Darren Pritchard of the House of Ghetto, drag queen Anna Phylactic chats to Grace and novelist Niven Govinden is interviewed by Tawseef Khan.
MONDAY
Not that we ever usually make it to Monday of Pride but maybe this time we will! Manchester’s 7ft model drag queen Banksie debut her new queer cabaret Miss Chief in the socially distanced surroundings of Hatch. From 7pm catch Banksie herself, Lill and our Grace Oni Smith (again!!!) amongst other amazing LGBTQ acts.
If you wanted to go to the Homoelectic takeover at Freight Island, that is tonight but it’s been SOLD OUT since a day after it was announced.I just wanna say… Thank the gay Lord for Freight Island or else we would have all have had nothing to do this weekend or for the last month, this place has made us feel a little more normal during coronavirus! Shout out to Sophie Bee for making this amazing new space so queer friendly.
Finally Manchester Pride continues the Candlelit Vigil with a moving online video version of the annual tribute to those LGBTQ+ people we have lost in the last year.
For Manchester Pride’s whole online programme go to… www.manchesterpride.com Well done to that whole team for putting this together.
Stay safe, stay sensible and stay cute this weird Manchester Pride weekend. Remember it will be back as soon as it can and we’d rather you stay sensible and you make sure you’re around to celebrate in 2021.