Manchester

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Manchester Pride 2008

Manchester Pride turns 18 this year

Manchester Pride comes of age this year: the UK’s best (and, arguably, most raucous) celebration of all things gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender hits 18 this year. Alongside the usual mix of sport, poetry, cabaret, theatre, film and live music will be a Civil Partnership ceremony unlike any other. No less than nine couples (or eighteen hopeful souls) will be getting hitched in a group ceremony on Thursday August 21. This mass ceremony is typical of Manchester Pride: it, ahem, marries the deeply personal with joyous public spectacle. And as the partnerships fall on the eve of the Big Weekend – four days of partying punctuated by Saturday’s city-wide parade – the newly weds’ first legally intertwined weekend will be spent in a marvellous blur of parties, music, congratulations, fancy dress, candlelit memorials, dancing, clubs and booze. Which has to be better than your usual, sit-down-meal-with-speeches affair.
Manchester Pride Canal Street and city centre (236 7474/www.manchesterpride.com). Aug 15-25; times and prices vary. Big Weekend tickets £17.50.

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