While the big Pride festival settles across Manchester for the weekend, outside the sprawling mass of the gay village there is a small 'free' Pride event in parallel.
Of course, like the NHS it's not free, simply free at the point of use and the ways the money get there are a bit more hidden away.
Part of the incoherent mission of the alternative event is to recreate the spirit of the 1990s when Manchester Pride in its various incarnations didn't have the gated area that exists now.
And fair play to them, they have got one bit of the 90s spirit right. Back in the 90s, Pride - or Mardi Gras as it was - never invited any of the bi groups running in the city to take part: sure enough, just as we weren't invited there then, we weren't invited to this rose-tinted take on 90s Pride now.
There are a smattering of things wrong with the big Pride, or things that you might equally do differently, but I do like that even if we have to pay for a stall, these days when Pride are putting on a parade or an exhibition, at last the bis are invited to the ball.
No comments:
Post a Comment