CityLife

Taking Pride in making city celebrations sparkle

FOR the headquarters of an internationally-renowned festival credited with having helped bring about a gargantuan change in attitudes towards the lesbian and gay community, the offices of Manchester Pride are surprisingly down-at-heel.

A couple of flights up a back street office complex in the heart of the Northern Quarter, festival manager Jackie Crozier is having a ‘serious’ debate with a Pride volunteer about the likelihood of her getting her hands on a very fashionable ‘Legalize Gay’ T-shirt from the American Apparel store.

Jackie – dressed down in jeans and yellow T-shirt – explains that a rainbow-coloured selection of shirts have been kindly ‘donated’ but there’s not a single one in red, so can said volunteer go back and blag one in her favourite colour?

Anywhere else, this behaviour might be seen as pushy. Arrogant, even.

But here it explains how two full-time members of staff, a few freelancers and 100 volunteers are able to bring about arguably the biggest annual event in the Manchester city centre calendar with such limited resources.

Over 10 days, there will be an eclectic mix of amazing goings-on ranging from appearances by musical acts including Little Boots, Bananarama and Peter Andre, to the activist Peter Tatchell and the flamboyant alternative to Crufts that is The Pink Dog Show.

On top of all that will be the usual Manchester Pride Parade and the poignant full stop to proceedings, which is the George House Trust HIV Candelit Vigil, in Sackville Gardens.

It’s a big operation and not only does Manchester Pride meet its £800,000 running costs through wristband sales and sponsorship, it also raised £105,000 for charity last year.

The talent turn up, in spite of the low budget, because they WANT to get involved.

This is Crozier’s fourth year working for Manchester Pride – her second as festival manager – and the 19th festival on the same theme, even if the name has morphed over time through things like Mardi Gras and Gayfest.

Aged 33 and now living near to Salford University with her girlfriend and dog – ‘yes’, she says, ‘it will be competing in The Pink Dog Show’ – Crozier remembers her first festival as something very different from to what Manchester should expect this summer.

“I came from Leeds, which hasn’t got a Gay Village,” Crozier recalls.

“That’s why I used to come out in Manchester.

“The first time I walked into the Village there was a Pride event. And I remember walking past New York New York and there were loads of people holding hands and I thought: thinking ‘This is a place where you walk over that magic line and can be yourself and it’s not scary and it’s not intimidating’.

“Pride has grown so much from what was just a bring-and-buy sale outside the Rembrandt, set up to raise money for people with HIV.

Highlight of calender

“We’ve raised over £600,000 since 2003. Ticket sales are up and it looks like there will be lots of money this year. I’ve seen the parade itself grow and I think it’s now the highlight of most gay people’s calendars.

“We sell more tickets every year. We are raising money for charity but it’s also about people having a really good time, to watch the parade, to go and have a look at the lifestyle stalls and the market stalls, see the entertainment in Sackville Park and get really good value for money for that £12.50.”

Crozier joined Manchester Pride from Marie Curie, in Manchester, where she was a community fundraiser.

She commuted from Leeds until she got the job with Manchester Pride, cementing what has been a long love affair with this side of the Pennines.

“The job was advertised and, as a lesbian, I thought it would be a fantastic thing to do,” she says.

She even supports Manchester United and is delighted that both Fred The Red and Moonchester, respectively mascots for United and City, will be taking part in a Pride football event.

And She is clearly proud to be part of an organisation that, in its various forms, has helped shape attitudes, both here and around the world, with visitors coming from as far-afield as America and Australia.

Few of them will argue with the assertion fact that Manchester is one of the most cosmopolitan, tolerant and out-there cities in the world – but it isn’t so long ago that the Gay Village was as much a safe haven for the lesbian and gay community as it was a place to celebrate sexuality.

While HIV is now a condition which people can live with for decades rather than a death sentence, Crozier says that it is just one of the many pertinent campaigning issues to be found a few steps away from the busy bars and stage shows.

“There is the politicsthere, the desire to raise awareness. Our ultimate aim is to raise as much money as we possibly can for LGBT and HIV charities, get across the messages from different organisations – there’s still bullying taking place, people don’t have the confidence to come out.

“The Big Weekend part of the festival is a celebration, where you can come into Manchester, be yourself, you can be in an environment where everybody is welcoming, whether you are gay, you are straight, you are transgender. Whatever your orientation is, it’s a safe environment. It’s a celebration of being gay.”

Working at the event rather than participating in it means a very different experience to that which she had as a punter over 15 years, but Crozier wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I was coming to Manchester Pride before I worked here and I do really want it to carry on growing. I’d love to be there partying with my friends and just enjoying it but I am working all weekend and I do need to make sure with the other event managers that it all comes together.

“I still get fun out of it. It’s fantastic. I love the parade, it’s my highlight. And I love looking out over the stage when you have a fantastic act on there and seeing how happy everybody is.”

Manchester Pride takes place between August 21 and 31, with the ticket-only Big Weekend events taking place between Friday, August 28 and Bank Holiday Monday. For further details visit go to manchesterpride.com.