Over the years Out In The City have got involved with the Manchester Pride Parade to celebrate and show that we are proud of who we all are, both individually, and as a community within Manchester. Each year has proven to be a great deal of fun, and this is why we continue to participate in this fantastic season of events! We have done our best to keep a record of each of the years gone by, so please choose a year from the list below and hopefully you will enjoy what you see…
Pride 2004
Our group was not completely formed at this stage, but to show our support to the gay community we were involved with Age Concern groups throughout Manchester and marched along as the Pink Mechanics! The bright pink jump-suits shone out far and wide for all to see, and we proudly showed how just as we are an older community, it certainly does not mean we are not just as fun loving and happy to get involved as everyone else !!!
The photos we have managed to get our hands on are shown below….
Pride 2005
The theme chosen for this years Pride parade was all about the legalisation of Civil Partnerships. We created our very own Wedding Chapel theme with Bride, Groom, and even a huge cake fit for a Queen!! The costumes were fantastic as ever, and our two sets of partners playing the brides and grooms were absolutely brilliant. There was a great deal of support as always from the crowds on the streets, particularly with the choice of theme being so poignant to the current affairs of the time. Our group thought that it was important to show that it was not just a great breakthrough for the young community, but also for those couples and partners in the older community, who had been together many years, and who now had the opportunity to show their love and commitment as any heterosexual couple can.
Here’s a few little photos to show what we got up to !!
Pride 2006
A Diversity of Angels! This is what our group became during this years pride parade in Manchester. From the glowing white angel with towering wings at the front of our brigade, to the small, dark haired devilish angels at the rear, we aimed to show how just because something may look different they can still be just as valuable and special as each other. We may have set ideas of how an angel should look, but this does not mean to say that anything different to this cannot be just as beautiful an angel.
We spent a long time making a rather large silver angel which you can see in the photos at the bottom of this section. The effort put in by the group was outstanding and this really paid off on the day of the march. As well as our glowing pure looking angels, we had our “hells” angels as well, sporting dark leather clothing and black makeup. But still angels all the same!
We have a selection of lovely pictures below…..
Pride 2007
This years theme was Out In The City at the Circus!!! Even though decided a little too late, the theme was pulled off to perfection. The crowds came out in their hundreds and all the fun of the fair was brought to life by the energetic members of our group. Flags waving, bubbles blowing, whistles chirping! A very memorable time was had by all!
Our wonderful Queen of the fair, Anna, sat casually on our lovely circus float waving at the passing crowd with the most wonderful like etiquette. Then there was good old Nelly the elephant dancing around at the back of the float entertaining the cheering crowds with the most interesting dancing I’ve ever seen an elephant do!!! Our resident strongman played to the crowd and showed off his extreme power and strength lifting his 200kg weights (ok so it was two foam footballs on a broom handle). The barrage of clowns was enough to drive anyone to laughter and our circus ringmaster was there to keep the ferocious lion at bay!
Here are a few photos from our pride parade in 2007 !
Pride 2008
April/May 2008 - As a start to this years pride we have begun making our groups main banner for the parade. The Manchester Art Gallery have kindly given us a room for 3 weeks in order to start our creative juices flowing!! Below are a couple of photos of how we have been getting along.
June/July/August 2008 - Another set of some preparation work going on, this time at ADA House near the Wing Yip Chinese supermarket. Work began on making decoration for both the float and for the costumes.
Pre Pride Event - Wednesday 13th August 2008
