The Gay Village Party is high camp queer joy–Camp As Tents, if you will.
We’re serving camp queer joy at Manchester Pride Festival this year and you’re invited!
About Manchester Pride
Who are Manchester Pride?+
Manchester Pride is one of the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ charities that creates opportunities to uplift queer communities and bring people together to celebrate LGBTQ+ life, while also campaigning for greater equality and liberation across Greater Manchester. Our vision is of a world where LGBTQ+ people are free to live and love without prejudice and our culture is universally celebrated, and our mission is to authentically celebrate and liberate diverse LGBTQ+ communities in Greater Manchester and beyond so we can all thrive.
What is Manchester Pride Festival?+
Manchester Pride Festival is a ‘party as protest.’ Our flagship event not only celebrates LGBTQ+ lives, but pushes for queer liberation as part of the global LGBTQ+ pride movement. It's a vibrant, loud, and proud celebration of queer life, culture, and expression—a defiant refusal to hide in shame. The beating heart of Manchester Pride Festival is the Gay Village Party, a diverse, inclusive, and queer-led celebration held in Manchester’s iconic Gay Village. This event not only creates safe spaces for LGBTQ+ communities but also empowers queer talent and raises vital funds for the Manchester Pride Community Fund.
The essence of Camp, and why we love it
The term 'camp' is deeply embedded in LGBTQ+ culture. It signifies an extravagant, ostentatiously effeminate style, often deliberately exaggerated and theatrical… just like the Gay Village Party! By adopting the phrase "Camp as Tents," we’re celebrating the essence of camp—joyful, bold, and unapologetically queer.
Why the Gay Village party is Camp As Tents
Our Camp-aign (hehe) is inspired by a quote from a member of our community and captures the exuberant spirit of Camp, proudly reclaiming and reimagining a historical phrase to represent the vibrance and resilience of LGBTQ+ people and culture. It encapsulates the spirit of the Gay Village Party—bold, theatrical, and the campest celebration in the city. We really will be screaming to Price Tag outside the Village Chip Shop and we’re not sorry about it!
The history of 'Camp'
The earliest known use of 'camp' in the English language dates back to the 17th century, but its meaning was quite different. It was related to actions that were exaggerated or theatrical, often used to describe behaviour that was ostentatiously effeminate. It was generally a derogatory term, implying that the person was putting on an affected or exaggerated style of behaviour.
By the late 19th century, 'camp' began to be associated more specifically with LGBTQ+ subcultures. It was used to describe the flamboyant and exaggerated behaviour that some gay men adopted, both as a form of social signalling and as a way to challenge societal norms about masculinity and propriety. Oscar Wilde, a famous playwright and gay icon, was associated with camp style in his witty, flamboyant, and sophisticated mannerisms.
Photography: R: Jean-Regis Roustan—Roger Viollet/Getty Images. L: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images.
During the 1930s - 1940s, Camp became a form of in-group signalling and a way for gay men to communicate and bond with one another in a society that was largely hostile to them. The publication of Susan Sontag's essay "Notes on 'Camp'" in 1964 was a turning point– Sontag's essay brought the concept of camp into the mainstream cultural discourse. She described camp as a love of the unnatural, the artificial, and the exaggerated. According to Sontag, camp was a way of seeing the world not in terms of beauty, but in terms of artifice and stylisation. She emphasised its dual nature as both a genuine appreciation of the aesthetic and a form of ironic detachment.
In the 1980s, the AIDS crisis brought many aspects of LGBTQ+ culture, including camp, into sharper focus. Camp became a form of resistance and resilience in the face of widespread suffering, loss and homophobic prejudice. It was a way for the LGBTQ+ community to assert their identity and humanity in a society that often tried to marginalise them.
'Camp' and its uses today
Today, "camp" is a widely recognised and celebrated cultural phenomenon that has evolved into a powerful means of self-expression and a symbol of queer pride. It's been embraced in mainstream media and entertainment, with shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and events like the Met Gala (themed Camp: Notes on Fashion in 2019) showcasing its influence, not to mention the international pop stars and LGBTQ+ icons that embody the spirit of camp. It continues to be a vital and dynamic part of LGBTQ+ identity and culture, celebrated for its boldness and joyful defiance of convention... Hence 'Camp as Tents'!
Join us at the Gay Village Party this August for another world-class, high camp, unforgettable celebration of LGBTQ+ life and love, right here in the heart of Manchester's Gay Village.
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