Manchester Pride announced this morning that it raised £105,000
from this year's event - meaning that it has topped a total of £1
million since it started 21 years ago.
A total of £98,000 was raised during the ten day festival, with an
additional £7,000 being raised at the first Manchester Pride Dinner
in September 2010.
Vicken Couligian, Chair of Manchester Pride, said: "We are over
the moon here at Manchester Pride to have raised such a fantastic
sum of money over this year's festival - and what better birthday
present could we have than meeting the £1M target.
"After a summer that has arguably had its low points - with the
gay blood ban still in place and the recent Manchester riots - it
is great to have something positive to shout about in Manchester
and be proud of.
We work extremely hard all year round at Manchester Pride to put
on a great event and fundraise for deserving causes, and we are
very grateful to all of those who support us in doing so. Our
patrons, staff, board of trustees, friends, volunteers, media
partners and festival goers - thank you for helping us achieve
this!"
The festival is the only one of its kind that continues to raise
such large sums of money for charities and LGBT groups, and is
renowned for having the biggest and best musical talent year on
year, reflected in its five consecutive annual wins of the Pink
Paper Awards' 'Best Pride' prize.
As in previous years, the Lesbian & Gay Foundation's free
condom and lube scheme and the George House Trust's HIV Welfare
fund will both receive £24,500, with the remaining money being
distributed over the coming months to LGBT and HIV charities and
organisations across Greater Manchester.
Paul Martin OBE, Chief Executive of the Lesbian & Gay
Foundation (LGF) said: "The Lesbian & Gay Foundation would like
to say a huge thank you to everyone who came and supported
Manchester Pride this August.
The monies raised for local LGB&T and HIV good causes is a
fantastic achievement and to know that despite difficult financial
circumstances, tens of thousands of people contributed to the
success of the festival and to supporting their local communities,
is a testament to why we are so incredibly proud of
Manchester.
We would like to pay tribute to all of the volunteers who support
Pride and the charities all year round. It is with great sadness,
but huge respect that we pay tribute to Jackie Crozier, who has
played a tremendously important role as Festival Director,
maintaining the status and reputation of Britain's favourite Pride
event, and we wish her all the best for the future.
The fact that Manchester Pride has now raised over £1 million for
local LGB&T and HIV good causes since EuroPride in 2003, is a
wonderful legacy to Jackie and her team and we should all be
incredibly proud of the hard work that continues to go into making
this city's Pride event one of the best in the world.
The monies that the Lesbian & Gay Foundation will receive will
go towards making sure Manchester's Free Condom & Lube
Distribution Scheme for gay and bisexual men, remains visible and
free to access across Greater Manchester.
We would also like to encourage all those interested to apply for
Manchester Pride's Community Fund to support their own projects
too.
As we look forward to Manchester Pride 2012, we wish everyone
involved in putting together the event the very best
."
Next year's event is scheduled to take place from the 17 - 27
August 2012.
