When does the Manchester Pride Festival 2025 take place?
The Manchester Pride Festival 2025 takes place from Friday 22nd - Monday 25th August 2025.
Do you need tickets to go to the Manchester Pride Festival 2025?
The Gay Village Party is our only ticketed event. Tickets are exchanged for a Pledge Band which will give you access to the areas managed and programmed by Manchester Pride such as our performances stages and event spaces.
Free to attend event delivery - 8%
It’s important for us to keep events such as the Parade and Candlelit Vigil free and accessible to all, but these events cost money to deliver in a safe and enjoyable way. Purchasing a Pledge Band ensures we can continue to deliver these essential Festival events to the public for free.
Volunteer Programme - 1%
Volunteering is a rewarding experience and a great way to make new friends. Volunteers are managed across the weekend by a dedicated volunteer manager who coordinates their activities that help the Manchester Pride Festival run smoothly. The team of volunteers are provided with training, a uniform and are fed and watered.
Accessibility - 1%
We are dedicated to making sure our events are accessible to everyone and have increased our investment in this area following feedback from our communities. Accessibility consultants, accessibility liaison team, BSL interpreters, viewing platforms and accessible loos are just a few of the provisions that go into making the Manchester Pride Festival accessible for disabled and neurodivergent people.
Artists - 15%
Hundreds of artists and performers appear at the Manchester Pride Festival, from DJs to Drag Queens. We work hard to bring you a line-up of artists and performers loved by LGBTQ+ audiences. Furthermore, we’re committed to platforming Queer talent from Greater Manchester and beyond, providing paid work for their performance.
Event Production and Infrastructure - 15%
The whole event site is built from scratch to bring the garden spaces and car parks to life as an arena to showcase a world class LGBTQ+ line-up. Fences, toilets, bars, market stalls, dressing rooms and even the box office are all brought in especially for the Manchester Pride Festival to help you enjoy the celebrations in the best way possible.
Health & Safety and Crowd Management - 21%
Months of planning and consulting with Manchester City Council, Manchester Fire & Rescue, Greater Manchester Police, North West Ambulance service and private security firms goes into ensuring a safe delivery of Manchester Pride Festival. As with all major events, we must pay for policing. Purchasing a Pledge Band also ensures we have 24 hour medical cover, a welfare area and adequate crowd control measures to ensure everything from the Parade to the Gay Village Party is enjoyed with peace of mind.
Licencing and legal fees - 9%
Manchester Pride applies for temporary events licences and hires the space to be able to create the staged and programmed areas of the Festival. PPL PRS is required for the use of music and performance across the bank holiday weekend and ensures the appropriate royalties are paid to those involved in the creation of music. Solicitors are needed to draw up contracts and ensure everything is above board.
Event Communications - 7%
Manchester Pride Festival is promoted to ensure we sell enough tickets to be able to put the event on, and raise funds for LGBTQ+ good causes in Greater Manchester. A number of media professionals staff the press office to handle media enquiries in the run up and during the Manchester Pride Festival. Social media, photography and videography help media from all over the world look to Manchester during our celebration, and maximum converge ensures queer people, culture and expression is loudly publicised in a refusal to hide in shame.
Event Staffing - 10%
This relates specifically to the temporary event staff that are brought in to help run the event during the building up, across the bank holiday weekend and the breakdown of the event. Roles include artist liaison, box office team, technicians and stage managers to name just a few.
Stage, Lighting and Sound - 8%
The whole event site is built from scratch to bring the park spaces and car parks to life as an arena to showcase a world class LGBTQ+ line-up. We bring in industry leading suppliers to ensure you enjoy the line-up in the best possible way.
Waste Management & Cleaning - 5%
We ensure we leave areas around the city as we found them, from the Parade route to the Gay Village, a dedicated team ensure that waste is collected and recycled or disposed of responsibly.
A £2.50 fixed donation from every ticket goes directly to the Manchester Pride Community Fund, and every penny goes to supporting LGBTQ+ causes and projects in Greater Manchester. Find out more on how you can apply for a grant.
How do I apply for a ticket for my personal assistant or carer?
In our commitment to making Manchester Pride Festival accessible to everyone, we provide ticket holders with a disability that require full-time assistance, with a complimentary ticket for their carer/personal assistant.
Carer/Personal Assistant Tickets are limited to 1 per applicant.
We kindly ask that you purchase your own Gay Village Party ticket online first, and in 2025 we will link a form in the Accessibility Hub to request your complimentary Carer/Personal Assistant Ticket. Please visit our Accessibility hub for more information.
Accessibility
What provisions do you have in place for customers with access needs at Manchester Pride events?
Please see our Accessibility hub here on our website which will provide you with the information you need to ensure an enjoyable experience at Manchester Pride events.
We have a dedicated access team on site at Manchester Pride Festival to assist our customers, along with other provisions such as British Sign Language Interpreters on our stages, accessible toilets as well as downloadable resources made available prior to the event that customers can bring with them over the weekend.
Will there be an accessibility team on site at Manchester Pride Festival?
We have a dedicated Accessibility team on site at Manchester Pride Festival across August Bank Holiday weekend who will be able to assist customers with any individual access needs.
If you need support in regards to Accessibility prior to Manchester Pride Festival:
You can email our Access Team at accessibility@manchesterpride.com or you can call the Manchester Pride Office at 0161 831 7700.
Will there be BSL interpreters at Manchester Pride Festival?
We ensure that British Sign Language interpreters are present at Manchester Pride Festival stages and events. All staged areas with performances with words or lyrics will have BSL interpretation at all times. BSL interpreters are usually located on the left of our stages.
Where can I find your ticket Terms & Conditions?
Please see below for FAQs, and read our Ticket Terms & Conditions in the footer of our website before purchasing your Manchester Pride Festival Pledge Band.
We will announce Pledge Band Exchange opening times closer to the event.
The Gay Village Party is our only ticketed event, meaning that Manchester Pride's programmed areas within the Gay Village, such as our performance stages and event spaces, require a ticket to attend.
Manchester Pride holds licenses to host celebrations in certain areas of the Gay Village, and your Gay Village Party ticket includes access to these stages and programmed areas. Please note, some Gay Village Venues will be operating a No Pledge Band No Service policy, so to enjoy everything on offer over the weekend you'll need a ticket.
Manchester Pride is a charity and the cost of a Gay Village Party ticket helps Manchester Pride deliver a safe, community pride celebration. You can see how every penny of your ticket is spent by exploring our website, and remember that every ticket includes a £2.50 ring-fenced donation to Manchester Pride Community Fund.
We care deeply about inclusivity. Manchester Pride is aware of the limitations and restrictions of making the Gay Village Party event site fully accessible due to the nature of the location of the event, and so we provide alternative access where access is restricted.
At the Gay Village Party, we offer a free Carer/Personal Assistant Ticket for all customers with access requirements. Customers with a disability that require full-time assistance should purchase their own ticket, and then head apply for a complimentary Carer/Personal Assistant Ticket. Once applied for, our dedicated accessibility team will be in touch closer to the event to introduce themselves and confirm any access requirements.
We have a dedicated access team on site at Manchester Pride Festival across August Bank Holiday weekend who will be able to assist with any individual needs. This is in addition to other provisions such as British Sign Language Interpreters on our stages, accessible toilets as well as downloadable resources that customers can bring with them to our events.
Customers with accessibility requirements are of course more than welcome to bring a bag to our events.
Our main goal is to keep everyone safe, and so everyone will be subject to search on entry to event areas. We ask you to please cooperate with stewards who are conducting searches as they are trying to keep people safe.
Once inside the Gay Village, Manchester Pride operated venues have individual operating times, and last entry for a staged area will be 30 minutes prior to the end of the performance times.
If you want to attend a particular bar or venue within the Gay Village, it would be best to check with them on their last entry policy.
If a particular ticket type is sold out then unfortunately we will not be releasing any more tickets, but you can grab a ticket for another day or enjoy the weekend if those are still available.
When you buy a ticket to the Gay Village Party, you’re not just buying a ticket to see any particular performance - you’re enabling us to stage a world class celebration and support the LGBTQ+ community. We do not offer refunds if any particular event, artist or stage is cancelled (and sometimes this happens, as it's live events!). We’d recommend going to find some of the other incredible talent that’s bound to be on our stages over the weekend.
The streets of the Gay Village will be crowded and we have a crowd management plan that is constantly being assessed across the weekend 24 hours a day. If an area doesn’t look busy to you, there may be a reason it’s closed due to something else happening elsewhere on the site. We know it may be frustrating if you have to wait to enter a certain area or venue, but we ask you to please be patient and follow the directions of stewards for everyone’s safety, and rest assured that it will be a temporary closure and will be part of a wider plan incorporating the whole of the event.
We’d also ask that you don’t bring anything that can be seen as weapon, horns or loudhailers, musical instruments, fireworks or flares, flagpoles, glass including perfume bottles, aerosol cans, spray paint, drugs including Nitrous oxide, selfie sticks, laser pens or anything else that may be a danger to the public or cause nuisance.
