gay pride parade

Come and join Manchester Pride's Big Weekend - one of the biggest parties in the UK. From Friday 26 to Monday 29 August, tens of thousands of people descend upon Manchester's world-renowned Gay Village to celebrate the climax of the Manchester Pride’s ten-day festival.
By day, there's three stages packed full of world-class entertainment as well as hundreds of Market & Lifestyle Expo stalls.

By night, Manchester's exciting gay bars and clubs take you through to the early hours of the morning with events that will make you wish the Big Weekend never came to an end.

Organisers of the Gay Pride revels expected a million people to join Saturday's event under the theme Carnival of Love. Luigi Andreoli, a 28-year-old nurse from Ealing, west London, embraced the carnival spirit in fluorescent pink fishnet tights, feathers and a neon corset. "It took me about three hours to get ready," he said. "It's fantastic. This is what we are, and Pride is an excuse to show people that we enjoy who we are and there is nothing wrong with it."

Thousands of people attended Manchester's 20th annual gay Pride parade and celebrations over the Bank Holiday weekend.
The parade, part of the Big Weekend that concludes Pride week, was this year led by Sir Ian McKellen. Despite damp weather, organiser Jackie Crozier told the BBC that the turnout was "fantastic".

She added: "We're absolutely delighted with the amount of people who turned out and also the people that put so much effort into their parade entries."