The line-up for this year’s Manchester Pride music festival has been announced with Brazilian drag sensation Pabblo Vittar, Scissor Sisters’ frontman Jake Shears and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner Danny Beard amongst those set to perform.
Manchester Pride will once again take place during the August bank holiday weekend (August 25 - 28) with The Gay Village Party hosting a diverse line-up of music and performances at Sackville Gardens.
Also joining the line-up are Steps star Lisa Scott-Lee, Natasha Bedingfield, BIMINI and Cheddar Gorgeous.
READ MORE: Manchester Pride 2023 ticket prices as LGBTQ+ festival returns for 'exciting' celebration
This year’s party line-up features 96 per cent of queer performers, with the rest being made up of allies. A large focus on the bill has also been given to women, people of colour and those in trans and non-binary communities.
Brazillian pop star Pabblo Vittar, who has more than 34.8M followers on social and 4M monthly listeners on Spotify, is the most followed drag queen in the world and has worked with the likes of Rina Sawayama, Major Lazer and Charli XCX. Pabblo's headline performance is expected to feature some of Manchester’s homegrown talent.
Other performers to take to the Gay Village Party stage include Dakota Schiffer, Black Peppa, N-Trance’s Kelly Llorenna, Tom Aspaul, Lucky Roy Singh, Misty Chance, Jodie Harsh, Monopoly Phonic, Angie Brown, La Discothèque Orchestra, Kele Le Roc, Blasha and Allatt (Meat Free/Frixxxion), Kim Lana, Pecs Drag Kings and a Disabled Queer Joy cabaret.
Jsky, Bankie, Lady Bushra, Rikki Beadle-Blair, Donna Trump, Carrot, Val The Brown Queen, Blaq Ivory, Ghetto Fabulous and Jonbers Blonde will also be performing over the four-day weekend.
Takeovers this year include the Trans Filth & Joy, Black Pride MCR, Queer Women’s Takeover, and - for the first time - the Queer Asian Takeover, which will feature DJ Gok Wan, The Bitten Peach, Gracie T, and LGBTQ+ South Asian and Middle Eastern performance group House of Spice.
Other events announced as part of the Pride celebrations include Youth Pride MCR and Family Pride MCR, where young people and families will be able to join in the celebrations with a series of performances and events, and will include the return of Ginny Lemon’s Dog Show and a performance of Disney classics from The Untold Orchestra.
Mark Fletcher, CEO of Manchester Pride, said: “We have worked closely with our communities to offer a line-up that is for the community, by the community. As a world leading city and an organisation that is spearheading the global Pride movement, our aim is to provide a platform which elevates and showcases local queer performers alongside renowned international LGBTQ+ talent, with a little support from our allies.
“This is Manchester and this is how our communities want us to celebrate our Pride. We are so proud to announce that our line-up consists of 96% queer performers, 54% female performers, 51% people of colour, and over 42% trans and non-binary performers.”
Manchester Pride Festival, in partnership with Booking.com, is free to attend with the exception of the Gay Village Party, tickets for which can be purchased through Ticketmaster here.
£2.50 from every ticket will be donated to the Manchester Pride Community Fund, with the money going directly to LGBTQ+ causes and projects in Greater Manchester through the distribution of grants.
Read next:
