See also: Manchester Gay Scene

Manchester has a thriving gay scene brought into the national awareness in recent years by Channel 4 television's superb drama "Queer as Folk". We wonder how many weekend's trips where planned to Manchester with people looking for the fictional club Babylon featured in the series.

Manchester's gay scene is concentrated around the so-called "Gay Village" which centres on Canal Street and surrounding roads. There are many gay friendly bars, clubs and restaurants in the area, many of which the breweries have invested heavily in. Although overall smaller than the London gay scene, Manchester's gay village is impressive because all the bars are so closely located.

In fact the quality of the bars themselves compare very favourably with anything London has to offer, with the only downside being that at weekends the area can become 'very mixed' which can take the edge off the friendly gay atmosphere. Fortunately a number of the bars now adopt a majority gay and lesbian policy ensuring the atmosphere remains sufficiently homo friendly. We've put together a directory of gay friendly bars and clubs in Manchester gay village on UK Gay Guide. The Cruz 101 club is still going strong you'll be pleased to know.

Regardless of the gay scene, Manchester itself has gone under a fairly major transformation over the last decade with many new shopping developments, exhibition venues and impressive property developments taken place including the new Media City development. Situated on the waterside at the heart of The Quays, The Lowry is a stunning, award winning building housing two vibrant theatres, a studio space, relaxing art galleries, cafés, bars, a restaurant, souvenir gift shop and Salford’s Tourist Information Centre.

Manchester Pride 2019
Manchester Pride is the city's annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) festival that is held over the August bank holiday weekend. In the past Manchester Pride had been called many names including Gayfest and Mardi Gras. Manchester Pride has traditionally been a fundraiser for the LGBT and AIDS/HIV communities and is the only Pride event in the UK that has consistently done so. Along with London and Brighton, it is definitely in top 3 pride events in the UK.

Pride events have been taking place in Manchester for over 20 years. The main goal of Manchester Pride is to raise money for a variety of LGBT organisations and groups within Greater Manchester and we thank you for your ongoing support.

This year's Pride festival runs from the 23rd - 26th August with the main parade of Saturday 24th.

The parade normally starts around at 13:00 and is usually based around a theme celebrating Equality and Diversity). As usual there will be a week of events in the run up to the main weekend. See website for full details of the week's events and how to participate.

See www.manchesterpride.com for further details about the 2019 event, the arts festival etc and to buy wristbands.