Manchester Pride postponed until 2021
Organisers say they're "heartbroken and devastated" to deliver the news.
By Will Stroude
Manchester Pride has become the final big UK Pride festival to be postponed or cancelled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Following the lead of London, Brighton and Birmingham on Monday (11 May), organisers announced that the event, which was due to take place over the August Bank Holiday weekend, will not happen in 2020.
“We are heartbroken and devastated to deliver the news that we have made the decision to postpone this summer’s Manchester Pride Festival until August 2021”, the team behind the annual celebration of LGBTQ equality said in a statement.
View this post on InstagramAn update on Manchester Pride Festival 2020 ❤️ Please click the link in our bio to read our Q&A.
“This decision is not one that has been taken lightly… To put simply, the ongoing situation is incredibly uncertain and it would be too much of a risk to go ahead with plans for the Festival this year.”
While confirming that people who have already bought tickets will be able to use them for next year’s event, organisers added in a separate Q&A that they could not guarantee that this year’s special guest performer, Adam Lambert, would return next year.
“We are hugely grateful to all the artists that we had booked to perform at the festival this year and many of them have agreed to return to perform for us in 2021 to help us deliver the biggest and best Manchester Pride Festival in 2021”, a Q&A section on the Manchester Pride website reads.
“At this stage, we cannot confirm if Adam will be joining us in 2021. As we work closely with artists and agents to build an amazing programme for the Festival in 2021, we’ll let you know as soon as we can.”
Manchester Pride has been live-streaming festival performances from previous years over the last few weeks, and organisers revealed they are already working on ways to celebrate Pride this year.
“We’re in the very early stages of working on ideas for an alternative celebration in 2020 and we’ll share our plans with you once they can be confirmed,” they said.
Meanwhile, Brighton Pride has already announced that its 2021 event will carry a theme of ‘Over the Rainbow’ in honour of the NHS, key workers, and LGBTQ groups – click here to read more.