Village Bakers Baking Masterclass - £700

Village Bakers is an inclusive social group that aims to use food to tackle social isolation within the LGBTQ+ community.

The Village Bakers Baking Masterclass Project will host an interactive cookery class, where the LGBTQ+ community can learn a range of cookery skills, whilst working in teams helping to form strong friendships. The class aims to give people inspiration and skills to take home and practise on friends and share with neighbours, thereby using food as the vehicle to foster connections. The class will focus on how baking and cooking can help support wellbeing, providing escapism and relaxation in following the process of cookery.

One of Village Bakers' core aims is to ensure the group and activities are accessible to everyone regardless of financial situation or background; therefore, the aim is to reduce or eliminate any ticket fee for the masterclass. This grant will help support the running and execution of the course, funding ingredients, cookery school hire, equipment, teaching staff, and providing cookery materials to take home and use again. The masterclass will be a fun, interactive, and social learning experience. Attendees will be able to take these life skills into the future and create more showstopper creations at home.

Free Books for Schools - £990

The grant enables the LGBTQ+ Free Books For Schools Project to send carefully curated book packs to 33 local schools across Greater Manchester. The goal is to promote LGBTQ+ literature and provide a valuable resource for students, educators, and the wider school community. These book packs contain a diverse range of LGBTQ+ books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and young adult literature. By increasing the accessibility of LGBTQ+ literature in schools, they will foster understanding, empathy, and acceptance among students whilst also addressing the lack of representation that currently exists in schools, which in turn will allow young LGBTQ+ people to see themselves within the literature they read in schools.

Village Manchester Football Club - £1,000

Village Manchester Football Club has been running for over 20 years now, with the core ethos of the club being to give gay and bi guys the chance to play and support the sport they love in a safe, welcoming environment. Since then, they've grown massively, and now have four teams giving players of all abilities the chance to play football. These days, they're delighted to welcome many straight allies while remaining Manchester's gay-friendly football club. They have players of all ages and races, and from all over the world, and their ethos is simple - everyone is welcome, discrimination is not.

The grant will pay for pitch hire for Village Manchester Football Club's Development Group for a year.

Mirage Queer Bar - £1,000

Mirage Queer Bar is a social space in Islington Mill, Salford, that aims to get people meeting in a fun, friendly environment and provide a welcoming space for workshops, support groups, speed dating, group meals, life drawing, art shows, and social clubs. The grant will be used to pay for the installation of a dishwasher sink to support the growing infrastructure of this incredible space.

LGBTQ ESEA and their Allies Meet-Up - £1,000

Voice ESEA will reach and help connect the North West's LGBTQ ESEA (East and South East Asian) community in Manchester and beyond with meet-ups, talks, performances, exhibitions and more. These will offer an opportunity for attendees to share their experiences but also invite other non-LGBTQ ESEAs and non-ESEAs to learn from others and educate themselves. They will work with artists and performers from the LGBTQ ESEA community as well as showcase LGBTQ ESEA literature and the arts to increase representation and visibility. With the latter, they want to work with Queer Lit to curate a collection of ESEA-penned books to share with people or screen LGBTQ films from the ESEA region.

Being Proud - £1,000

The young people of The Proud Trust's BeeYouth group have been awarded a grant to do a project over a number of weeks that explores the topics contained within the musical 'Heathers'. The young people will engage in workshops, see the musical, and share ways to promote positive wellbeing amongst their peers.

The project will involve the young people doing workshops around: Positive and healthy relationships; drug and alcohol use; sexual health; and wellbeing. These are a few of the topics that will be covered in the project. The outline of the project would be that the young people do several workshops to prepare to see the musical Heathers, they would then see the show and do several more sessions focused on mental health and wellbeing, including a small gardening project on the Proud Place's roof garden so other community groups can improve their wellbeing by visiting it.

Rainbow Noir's 10th year Pride Parade - £955

With the support of Manchester Pride's Community Grant, Rainbow Noir aims to celebrate their tenth anniversary by elevating their cultural heritage and lived experiences as carnival troupers, voguers, and performers to the forefront of the parade. This exciting project seeks to align their dynamic presence in person with their unwavering commitment to showcase the resilience, diversity, and unbridled joy of the QTIPoC community. They won't ask if you spotted them in the Parade; they're sure they were hard to miss!

Queer Family Tea - £1,000

Queer Family Tea has been awarded a Community Grant to host three community meals for people who identify as LGBTQ+. These gatherings will provide a safe and welcoming space for the LGBTQ+ community to come together, socialise, and create community through food.

These meals will be free to attend and in accessible venues, with funds available to cover guests' travel or any access requirements.

The Untold Orchestra - Queer Audiences Steering Group + Choir - £1,000

This funding will enable The Untold Orchestra to run four workshops for queer people. In these workshops, participants will discuss ideas, understand barriers to engaging with different creative spaces, and participate in drop-in choir sessions led by a queer facilitator who also performs with the orchestra. These workshops will take place at Feel Good Club, one of the Orchestra's partner venues, and will feature music written by queer icons. The goal is to support queer individuals on an individual basis and raise awareness across the city about the important role of queer culture in everyone's life.

Health Equity and Advocacy Training Programme - £1,000

The H.E.A.T. Programme is a cultural safety development course, designed to support practitioners in engaging with QTIPOC people within the realms of health, wellbeing, and equality in the UK. Through this course, common misunderstandings of health and help-seeking practices within communities of colour have been challenged and reshaped. The programme actively counters negative visibility of QTIPOC people, shedding light on key health disparities and advocating for a more equitable and compassionate approach to healthcare and wellbeing.

Superbia Fund Turn On Fest 2024 - £1,000

Established in 2019, Turn On Fest is a theatre and performance festival, with work produced by LGBTQIA+ people for LGBTQIA+ people. As a result of ongoing collaboration with Manchester Pride's Superbia programme over the last few years, Turn On Fest has been able to return with a fortnight of events in early 2024 with a program including new writing, scratch nights, musicals, and more.

With £1,000 from The Superbia Fund, Turn On Fest will be able to use the festival to platform emerging queer writers who without this vital financial support would leave their stories left untold. This fund will also support the organisations' work with Under 18's at the Hope Mill Theatre School, who will be able to commission their own musical based on themes exploring gender identity from a young person's perspective.

In 2024 and with the Superbia support, they aim to increase the demographic of representation across the program, making sure that they increase the platform for people who identify as Lesbian, Pansexual, Intersex, Trans and also including disabled people.

Peripeteia Theatre Company, My Gay Best Friend - £750

'My Gay Best Friend' is a piece of theatre in which six LGBTQ+ writers were commissioned to create a letter or monologue that was performed by six actors. An artist call out took place in May 2023 with a performance on June 25th 2023 at King's Arms in Salford.

Small Hour Stories: A Trans New-writing Anthology - £1,000

'Small Hour Stories' is a Trans new-writing anthology for the Trans and Non-binary community. With help from the Superbia Fund, Mortar and Pestle Arts will commission trans playwrights to tell stories that focus on folklore, fantasy, and mythology stories through a trans lens.

Each playwright will be given audience feedback, the chance to build their creative network and a safe space to try new work with the Mortar and Pestle creative team.

Portraits of Recovery - £1,000

Supported by a Superbia Grant, this groundbreaking initiative aims to explore different perspectives and experiences of Chemsex, focusing on the role, intimacy, and consent in queer sex and relationships.

"Let's Talk About Chemsex" will be spearheaded by artist Harold Offeh, who has been commissioned to develop a collaborative visual arts project. Working directly with lived experiences, the project will engage a diverse range of stakeholders and participants, including individuals who have had difficult and problematic relationships with Chemsex.

As a highlight of the project, Harold Offeh will present "Let's Talk About Chemsex," a radio show format, staged within a radio set on Manchester Pride's Community Lane. The title draws inspiration from the iconic 90s rap group Salt n Pepa and their track "Let's Talk About Sex," which attempted to destigmatize discussions around sex and desire in popular culture during the height of the AIDS pandemic. Drawing on this history, the radio show aims to address Chemsex, consent, HIV, and queer intimacy in an inclusive and compassionate manner.

Toxic Community Outreach Programme - £1,000

Toxic Community Outreach Programme - a community-led creative outreach project exploring LGBTQ+ relationships impacted by racism.

Running alongside Dibby's next show Toxic, and led by community artist and musician Tolu Ajayi, the project offers LGBTQ+ people in interracial relationships opportunities for creative reflection on the show's themes. Exploring the impact of racial power dynamics and minority stress on queer romantic, platonic and sexual relationships, the programme supports artists, participants and audiences to share intersectional experiences and offer strategies to thrive in an often toxic world.

Projects for Superbia Weekend at Manchester Pride Festival 2023


Superbia Festival Wyn N Sin - £1,000

The Wyn N Sin event over the Manchester Pride Festival weekend 2023 was the first of its kind in the UK. Queer Africans who've never been able to attend pride and listen to music they're familiar with came to a space that was created just for them. All the members of the collective are neurodivergent QTIPOC people with wider connections in the queer community. With their first event, they were able to start some really important community building and conversations about sexual health and consent that they believe is really important in their community. It also gave a lot of queer POCs the opportunity to have ownership of a space that felt safe and was created with them in mind. They started with the aim of building bridges between members of the POC queer community and the wider queer community, and strengthened their commitment with the event over the Pride weekend.

SWAGGA Manchester Pride closing party - £1,000

SWAGGA ran a Manchester Pride Festival 2023 closing party at Rebellion on Whitworth St. The grant will be used for venue hire and ensuring fair pay for performers from a diverse range of backgrounds. The fund will also support SWAGGA's outreach efforts to charities and community groups such as rainbow noir and African rainbow family who will be offered concessions and free tickets.

Levenshulme Rainbow Parade - £1,000

Levenshulme Rainbow Parade built on a tradition of community creativity and a celebration of Pride in Levenshulme. They commisioned Laurie Pink, a transgender artist, to create a trail of rainbow-themed artworks across the neighbourhood (on shipping containers and in windows of local organisations) to accompany the annual Pride march, and provide a colourful art trail that highlights local organisations and grassroots groups. The artworks will brighten the area and last for approximately 6 months after Pride celebrations, showing that Pride is not just for one month. The project will also engage the local community in creating their own rainbow windows that can be spotted alongside the official trail - they have a long-running Creative Community Windows group that will be involved in recruiting residents.

Trans Pride Manchester - £1,000

Trans Pride takes place on August 12th-13th and brings together the Trans and Non-binary community. Trans Pride included a protest march, panel event, and workshops, where they would also like to provide water and snacks due to the potential hot weather.

The grant covered safety and accessibility costs like purchase of high vis vests and a BSL interpreter. The grant covered Trans Pride's promotional costs, payment of Trans and Non-binary panel speakers, workshop hosts, photographers and operational costs, including merchandising, safety booklets for stewards, and workshop materials. 

East Lancashire Rainbow Train - £1,000

This exciting initiative offered a special experience to younger LGBTQ+ people and families. Through collaboration with the Proud Trust, the East Lancashire Rainbow Train was an unforgettable journey of music, drag acts, and comedy on a vintage steam train, starting from Bury Bolton Street Station, venturing to Rawtenstall and back.

The event was based around queer arts and culture, showcasing and supporting local and upcoming artists, and giving the opportunity for local LGBTQI+ organisations and charities to raise awareness of their service, including Fostering, Proud 2 Be Parents, the LGBT Foundation, and the Proud Trust.