Levenshulme Pride 2024, 9-11 August
Levenshulme Pride started in 2017. We have flourished with the support of our wonderful community and through determination and enthusiasm we have established ourselves as the largest free local Pride in Greater Manchester. Open, inclusive, free and fabulous!
We had a founding principle that everything should be free to attend and we have stuck to that. This has become even more important recently with the crippling cost of living crisis. We want to support local businesses and groups across our community, promote Levenshulme, and ensure that anyone can come along and enjoy Levenshulme Pride.
Our origin story
Levenshulme Pride was started because a couple walking down the A6 holding hands were called ‘faggots’.
In an instant a pleasant walk in the sunshine became a homophobic hate crime. Just like that. Very casual. No big deal. Except we think it is a big deal!
There was a discussion online where people were both appalled and supportive. What could be done? Well, Levenshulme Pride is what can be done. Levenshulme is a diverse, supportive, energetic and wonderful place to live but it faces challenges.
What better way to counteract hatred than to show the pride we have in our community, the pride we have as LGBT+ people, the pride we have as we come together as a community to celebrate the variety of people living here and the strength that comes from that?
The response to the suggestion of having Levenshulme Pride was amazing and immediate. The enthusiasm has been infectious and empowering. We started from nothing but we made something wonderful happen.
Who is Levenshulme Pride for?
Everybody.
Levenshulme Pride will be an opportunity for LGBT people in Levenshulme and beyond to come together and celebrate being part of the great community of Levenshulme. It is a truly open and inclusive event. We welcome any and all people, community groups and businesses to show support for and become part of Levenshulme Pride. We are a People’s Pride.
What is Levenshulme Pride?
A celebration.
An act of defiance against hatred and intolerance.
A chance to educate and inform.
An opportunity for everyone in our community to show solidarity and support for each other.
We will be coordinating events and activities across Levenshulme. This is very much a community event driven by and supported by the people of Levenshulme.
Want to get involved? Have an idea? Want to put on an event as part of Levenshulme Pride? Get in touch. We welcome all ideas and support.
In 2017 we started with six venues. In 2018 we had 17 venues with more groups involved and a wider variety of activities including live music, film screenings, theatre, fitness and mindfulness sessions, DJs, community activity, drag acts, poetry, cabaret, a tea party, an open mic evening, kids storytelling and workshops. We partnered with the LGBT Foundation to provide an HIV testing facility in 2018 and provide safer sex packs across our venues.
We continued to build on this success in 2019 with more venues, more activities and events taking place in the week leading up to our Pride weekend. In 2020 we faced extreme challenges with the ongoing Covid19 emergency and sadly cancelled Levenshulme Pride. We came back in 2021 with a wonderful line up of events and activities and built on that success in 2022.
We will be bringing joy to Levenshulme once again this year for Levenshulme Pride 2024 (9-11 August) so come and join us.
Everything is free to attend. No tickets. No charges.
Levenshulme Pride: No Barriers
