After Manchester Pride’s collapse last year, a community-led coalition has rebuilt the city’s biggest celebration from the ground up. Carl Austin-Behan explains how.
When Manchester Pride went into voluntary liquidation last November, owing millions of pounds and leaving artists and suppliers unpaid, many worried that the city’s biggest LGBTQ+ celebration was finished for good.
Instead, six village venues, a handful of local volunteers, and a great deal of unpaid graft have brought it back from the brink – rebranded as Manchester Village Pride, taking place from the 28th to 31st August.
Former Lord Mayor and longtime Pride ambassador Carl Austin-Behan was among those who met with Manchester City Council Leader Bev Craig in the days after the liquidation. The council was prepared to support a parade and a vigil – but the village itself risked being left to its own devices.
So, Carl, alongside venue owners and independent operators, approached the Village Licensed Business Association with the idea to bring the parade, the vigil, and the village party together under one community interest company.
The council approved the plan at the end of January, with CityCo and Marketing Manchester signing on to support delivery. Venues across the village pooled funds for a loan, raising a starting pot of £120,000. Ticket sales are already running ahead of where they’d normally be at this stage.
Carl is candid about why the old model failed. Manchester Pride’s wage bill averaged £800,000 a year, while the event’s move from the village to Mayfield Depot – chasing an ultimately unsuccessful Euro Pride 2027 bid – left people paying to stand inside a warehouse on a hot August weekend: “It goes against the grain for a lot of people.”
This year’s lineup across the Gaydio Dance Arena, the main stage, and the community stage in Sackville Gardens has cost less in total than last year’s single headline act: “We meet on a weekly basis around the board. We challenge each other – is that the best price we can get? Have we spoken to somebody else? – rather than just being handed a chequebook.”
The volunteers steering Manchester Village Pride between them run venues including Eagle, Cruz, and New York New York, and Carl credits his own years of council and community contacts – built up since becoming the city’s first openly gay Lord Mayor in 2016 – with smoothing conversations with the council and Greater Manchester Police: “I’ve got most of the people we need to connect with in my phone. It’s made it a lot easier than trying to find out who these people are.”
Carl urges anyone planning to attend to buy tickets and wristbands early: “The more people buy tickets early on, the better the event will be,” highlighting that money in the bank as the surest way to pay artists and crew fairly – the organisers have signed a new charter with Equity to guarantee it. Tickets and wristbands are available via Skiddle and the Manchester Village Pride website.
He’s also using the platform to flag a cause closer to home: the financial recognition scheme for LGBT veterans dismissed or discharged under the pre-2000 ban on gay personnel serving in the armed forces. This has particular personal resonance for Carl as he was discharged from the RAF in 1997 due to his sexuality. He has since been active with the charity Fighting With Pride advocating for people affected by the ban.
Under the scheme, veterans can claim up to £50,000, with a further £20,000 available for those impacted more broadly – but the scheme closes in December: “It’s not so different to the Post Office scandal – people took their own lives, families were ripped apart – and now there’s recognition out there and compensation available but a lot of people affected by the ban still don’t know about it.” Anyone affected can contact the charity Fighting With Pride or the MOD’s restorative team directly.
For now, though, the focus is on Manchester Village Pride – rebuilt, as Carl says: “by the community, for the community.”
