Manchester Pride Comes of Age

Manchester Pride celebrates its eighteenth birthday this year. A wide range of events will celebrate the city's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community over the next ten days. The festivities began with a balloon release in Albert Square earlier this evening.

For many Pride goers the real highlight will come next weekend with the Big Weekend, which kicks off a week today, on Friday, August 22. The following day, Saturday, August 23, will see the Pride Parade wend its way through central Manchester from 2pm.

Manchester Pride culminates with a HIV Candlelit Vigil in Sackville Park, Sackville Street at 9pm on Monday, August 25. The one minute vigil allows people to remember friends and loved ones who have been lost to HIV and AIDS.

Manchester has always been a city of firsts. The city was the first in Britain to have a designated gay village, centred on Canal Street and Chorlton Street.

Visitors attending the various Pride events may wish to take time out to explore the city's rich heritage. Independent travellers can explore the world's first industrial city with the Manchester: Then & Now audio travel guide.

Listeners to the Walk Talk Tour audio walking tour of Manchester will hear about some colourful characters from the past have made their mark on the city and the wider world. Fittingly, the Pride Parade starts at the Museum of Science and Industry, where several firsts pioneered in the city are commemorated. To hear an audio sample from the Manchester Walk Talk Tour podcast guided tour please click here.

With a Walk Talk Tour mp3 guided tour you're in charge. No need to feel conspicuous with a guidebook in your hands or struggle to follow - let alone hear - the tour guide with the umbrella. Listeners to the Walk Talk Tour Manchester visitor guide are free to stop, start and listen again - as they see fit. In addition, each Walk Talk Tour downloadable travel guide comes complete with a map for you to print off - so you won't miss a thing.

Don't have an iPod, MP3 player or suitable device on which to hear the Manchester: Then & Now, Walk Talk Tour? Don't worry, you can the Walk Talk Tour city walking tour of Manchester from the city's Visitor Information Centre located on Lloyd Street (just off St Peter's Square).

Customers purchasing the Manchester: Then & Now city guide will pat £5 online. Purchase the Walk Talk Tour Manchester travel guide from the Visitor Information Centre and you will pay £6. The pre-loaded mp3 guided tour includes a set of disposable headphones and a map of the tour's route.

The Walk Talk Tour audio walking tour of Manchester begins in front of the Town Hall. The tour culminates in Cathedral Gardens. Visitors who are interested in the history of Manchester Pride may want to take a look at 'My First Pride', an exhibition at Urbis, in Cathedral Gardens, which showcases some of the experiences of 18 years of 'first timers' at the event. The exhibition will be on at Urbis until August 31 from 10am to 6pm. To find out more about the opening times and admission charges of several of the attractions along the tour's route please have a look at the Manchester tour's Where & When pages.