Manchester Pride 2011: Diary

Originally posted on www.differentscene.co.uk

This weekend saw Manchester Pride celebrate its 21^st birthday, and like any other 21^st birthday bash it was big, colourful and filled with partying and joy. Manchester Pride truly was a celebration of everything gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered.

DS were lucky enough to get to experience the weekend in its whole and it was a very eventful weekend filled with amazing live acts from both the musical and comedy worlds, I even got groped by a lesbian in a chip shop, now that to me is a sign of a good weekend. So here is our Manchester Pride 2011 diary:

Friday

Friday night saw the pride festival kick off and Canal Street and the rest of the gay village went into full swing. By 7.30pm when I arrived at the village the streets were already buzzing with excited faces all looking to party the bank holiday weekend away at what was being called ‘gay Christmas’ by a huge number of attendees.

I set off to explore the situation on the streets of Pride where I was faced with huge crowds swiftly circulating through the streets and into the bars that were pumping with the latest top 40 chart hits and some brilliant musical cheese to get everyone in the mood, considering it was the first night the place was packed and I can remember thinking; if this is how it looks only a few hours into it kicking off, then it’s going to be one hell of a weekend.

After working my way through the bars and feeling like David Attenborough exploring the wilderness I made my way towards the main stage, like most other people to get ready for Friday’s headliner; Pam Ann!!!

Now let me tell you after witnessing a few television appearances by the lady herself I had myself braced for few laughs, but nothing could have prepared me for the side splitting comedy that she churned out line after line, and to be honest I don’t think the others members of the crowd were expecting the hilarity that was on offer.

Pam Ann truly had the audience in the palm of her hand, and for the majority of the show she had two of the audiences members on stage to help her with the act, which all began after a hilarious demonstration of how the Grindr app works, no doubt this was one of their pride highlights that they’ll remember for a long time. Couple this piece of comedy genius that played directly to the gay audience on hand, she also attempted to sign along with the signer on the side of the stage, which proved for some impromptu comedy moments that had the crowd almost rolling around the car park floor.

After the brilliant half hour set from the Australian comedienne I headed back to the bars to see how things were shaping up, and you couldn’t move for the life of you as every bar was filled to the brim with every type of person you could imagine. After a few quick drinks it was off to the train to prepare for the parade the next morning.

Saturday

It was a bright and early start for the Manchester Pride parade, which kicked off on the streets of Manchester at 1pm. Arriving in the city the sky was grey and it looked as though it may be a pretty miserable day for a parade to celebrate everything that pride stands for. But that didn’t stop the crowds as they gathered in their masses along the barricaded streets with their rainbow flags, hats and whistles in tow to help show their support.

As the parade kicked off the grey clouds soon cleared up and the sun came out to help shine a light over the whole parade extravaganza. The parade was made up of numerous floats big and small with a wide range of eccentric beings parading back and forth, I saw charities such as George House Trust and the Lesbian and Gay Foundation marching, then members of the three major political parties (Labour complete with ‘ never kissed a tory’ t-shirts) and then some of the more random members of the parade including a group of people doing silly walks, a group of female singers dancing to Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ as they sauntered past, a number of male models escorting the Selfridges van in nothing but very small Calvin Klein underwear that no doubt kept the majority of the crowds extremely happy, there was a few Lady Gaga impersonators strutting their stuff along the streets of Manchester and even the cast of Coronation Street hoped aboard a float to show their support, including the likes of Brooke Vincent and Antony Cotton, but then the last float really did rain on everyone else’s parade. The Co-Op came out in full force complete with a float belting out musical numbers and most likely every member of the Co-Op team from around the North West to push trolleys and show their support for Pride’s big 21^st birthday bash.

So after the parade finished around the 3pm mark, I once again ventured into the village to see what was going down. I discovered that at only 3pm the streets were a lot emptier than they had been the previous, probably due to most people using the morning to recover from the few too many they’d had the night before and preparing for another night of partying, but that said the streets still had a large crowd, especially for that time in the afternoon. So not wanting to fall into the realm of being horribly drunk and unaware of what was going on I decided to take a little trip around and see what stalls the village had to offer. On my little trip around the stalls I found some weird, wonderful and random stalls selling anything from original artwork, jewellery, rainbow flag patterned cat coats and some of the most disturbing sex toys one can imagine, needless to say I promptly left that last stall out of the fear of looking creepy and attracting the wrong attention.

Later on in the evening as my wandering was coming to an end I stumbled across a singer/songwriter called Lucy Spraggan in the village square, she apparently came second in a live and unsigned music competition so go give her a listen she’s pretty good. But yes after this surprise discovery at the back end of the village I manoeuvred my way towards the main stage once again to watch pop singer Pixie Lott. Might I say I was tremendously excited.

The crowd was absolutely heaving as they awaited the arrival of Miss Lott, you couldn’t move properly without fear of being burnt on the nearest cigarette and a trip to the toilet that was situated two seconds away from me took around 15 minutes, so as you can see the stage was pretty full. Sadly I couldn’t get close enough to the stage like I had the previous night, being small there was a slight possibility I may have been trampled, but all the same my view was still pretty good indeed.

As she arrived looking absolutely amazing, she took centre stage to prepare for an acoustic set of some of her biggest hits including ‘ Mama Do’ and ‘Cry Me Out’, she even belted out a brilliant cover of the song ‘Isn’t She Lovely’, and I must say she was. The only problem has to be she only managed to stay on stage for 20 minutes, which was very disappointing, but the 20 minutes she did stay for were brilliant. So after having my Pixie fix cut short I had plenty of time that I hadn’t scheduled in so it was back to experience the hustle and bustle of the bars that resembled sardine tins for gay men, so I resorted to a little dance in Sackville gardens to end the night.

Sunday

Sunday was a day for music as it contained the best line up so far, Patrick Wolf, Sugababes and Alexandra Burke all in one night. AMAZING!

I managed to rush my self to the front of the crowd soon after I arrived. See there are advantages of being small sometimes. Soon after arriving Patrick Wolf took to the stage to perform an hour long set of hits old and new that included ‘The magic Position’ and ‘Accident & Emergency’, it’s a shame Miss Lott couldn’t have done the same as Patrick, but we still love her. Luckily the rain held off for the majority of the gig as Wolf danced around the stage, interacted with the audience, he even lay on some of them at one point and snapped a photo I assume they’ll treasure for a long time, he even made a few joke about some of the crowd not being there for him but for the following acts as he sang the little lines he knew from a select few Sugababes and Alexandra Burke songs. He rounded of his magnificent and engaging set with a small clearly unprepared speech about pride that got the audience cheering away, followed by ‘The City’ from his latest album.

So with an hour and a half to fill until the Sugababes version four hit the stage I quickly ran off for a bite to eat, but to my shock and amazement on returning to the main stage they had once again reached full capacity so it was off to Sackville gardens to watch the Sugababes do their thing, what ever their thing may be now that they are on their fourth line-up.

The girls hit the stage to a sea of chants, especially for the lovely Heidi who’s clearly the Ken Barlow of the Sugababes. They performed an array of hits new and old with both Jade and Amelle filling in the vocals for the departed Keisha and Mutya. Hits like ‘Push the Button’, ‘Red Dress’ and ‘Freak Like Me’ really raised the crowd’s spirits higher than they already were, and their new single ‘Freedom’ also worked the crowd up a treat. It was fair to say the girls truly got everyone in a dancing mood ready for the lady with the X Factor, who was coming next.

With the main event herself coming up I managed to break my way through the seas of rainbow flags and warm alcopops to get a good side stage view of Alexandra, and I must say I was excited. As the sea of people produced a wave of screaming chants towards the stage, she emerged looking absolutely fabulous in a little black number and showed the crowd exactly why she won the X factor crown as she belted out her number one hits like ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Start Without you’ and throwing in a few more chart hits like ‘Broken Heels’ for good measure. The crowd was absolutely lapping her up, and she has clearly broken away from the X factor and has truly became an artist in her own right and she completely owned the stage. With her dancing and vocal abilities you almost wonder could she become a British Beyonce? Only time will tell us that. After 45 minutes of outstanding vocal performances and vigorous dancing there was a surprise in store for the lady herself as she was greeted with a birthday cake and a roaring rendition of happy birthday from the captivated audience. She rounded off the set with a huge rendition of ‘Bad Boys’ and sent the crowd on their way to enjoy their night. She was truly amazing and it was a brilliant way to round off the night, but pride was nearly over so Monday had a lot to live up to.

Monday

So the last day of pride was upon me, and I must say it was a little bit sad after all the fun I’d had over the weekend, so I was determined to have a good time. Sadly the weather was still gloomy but it hadn’t dampened any one’s spirits over the last three days so I was pretty sure today wouldn’t be any different.

As I arrived at the main stage I discovered that they were in fact running late, which was a pleasant surprise as I could now see more than I had intended on. Due to this slight delay in time I was able to witness the musical stylings of Hazell Dean, complete with a small child, and then Alexis Houston who both got the crowds dancing and prepared for the amazing Toyah.

Toyah hit the stage in an outrages outfit with a huge headpiece, not quite as outrageous as Lady Gaga but it was good enough for me, she danced and jumped around the stage brimming with energy and it was brilliant to see a 1970s/80s rock icon doing her thing. She performed hits such as ‘It’s a Mystery’ and the crowd well and truly loved her as they danced around and her new single, a dance style song that went down a storm with the crowd. Alas Toyah was over after around half an hour, but every minute was brilliant.

Then the stage moved on to the more comedic musical styling of 4 Poofs and a piano, who were absolutely brilliant, and the crowd well and truly loved them as they sang comedy musical songs such as ‘Football’s Coming Out’ and a little song aimed at all the men called ‘Do You Take it up The Ass.’ One particular stand out moment from their set had to be a rendition of Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ with slightly altered lyrics dedicated to Jonathan Ross.

As their set came to an end I was brimming with excitement for the next act, the original line up of Bucks Fizz. They hit the stage to loud cheers from the crowd as they belted out hits from the 80s including ‘The Land of Make Believe’ and the crowd absolutely loved them as audience members young and old sang along to the nostalgic cheese on offer. The weather held off as the classic group brought the sun with them, and then as their set came to a close after a mega mix of some 80s classic such as The Eurythmics ‘Sweet Dreams’, the band closed with their most memorable song ‘Making Your Mind Up’, complete with tear away skirts! Yes the band still has it thirty years after their most famous performance of the song at the Eurovision song contest.

As they exited the stage I too soon exited the event that was pride, it really does cost a lot you know! But I must say the weekend was brimming with excitement, joy, and the word fabulous, but most importantly pride! Not even the weather could dampen the spirits of the thousands of people who had gathered for the weekend festivities of ‘Gay Christmas.’