Manchester Pride Parade 2024 brings a buzz to the city despite a blip of rain

The Manchester Pride parade brought a sea of jubilation, good vibes and plenty of glitter to the city centre on Saturday afternoon.

Held each year, the parade takes place from Deansgate towards the Gay Village and sees thousands of people line the streets to take in the positive vibes of the event and to show unity with the LGBTQ+ community.

As usual, this year’s parade saw drag artists, community groups and allies take part, with the likes of Danny Beard, Tia Kofi, Su Pollard, DJ Paulette, Russell T Davies and Charity Shop Sue amongst some of the famous faces taking part.

READ MORE: A year before Manchester Pride was born, thousands turned up for a massive party

The parade took on a Buzzin to be Queer theme, taking inspiration from the spirit of the worker bee, adopted by Mancunians. Fittingly, it meant that many of those marching took the theming quite literally, and fabulously, with plenty of bee outfits on show.

As it was reported earlier this month, one notable omission from the annual event was the Coronation Street float, which usually features some of the iconic soap’s cast members. It was announced that the move had come as ITV cuts back on costs.

Amongst the corporations, community groups and clubs taking part in this year’s parade were the Manchester Runners, George House Trust, Aer Lingus, Moxy Manchester, African Rainbow Family, The Proud Trust, Village Manchester Football Club and Heart radio station.

Speaking about the parade, Mark Fletcher, CEO of Manchester Pride, told the Manchester Evening News: “I am overwhelmed by the turnout of the Parade this year - it is the longest parade we have ever had, and that’s an achievement considering what we’ve had in the past.

“It’s free for all the community groups and LGBTQ+ organisations to take part, and we always encourage them to take part as much as possible. One of the things I always say is how proud I am of our allies who take part in the parade too.”

Adding about the theme to this year’s parade, Mark said: “We wanted to take the worker bee, which represents Manchester, and adopt that almost in a way that charts the progress of how far we’ve come in terms of LGBTQ+ equality as well as the need to ‘buzz’ the progress on a little bit too.

“That’s why we created the Progress Bee - we’ve used that symbol as a degree of ownership and identity. It’s part of the fabric of what Manchester stands for, and the support that we’ve had and that so many pioneers have stepped out and pushed the movement forward.

“We wanted to chart it as a hive of progress recognising all of those that have gone before us and those who take the bee on today and march for continued progress.”

Despite a small number of counter-protesters, leading Manchester Pride to issue a statement earlier today, the event ran successfully for close to four hours. Later on Saturday, people will flock to the Gay Village Party to see the likes of Rita Ora, Loreen and Katy B.