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THE FULL STATEMENT BY PHIL BURKE

“As the Chair of Manchester Village Business Association, I wanted to write this letter a while ago, after a very long time of consideration and frustration, but decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

However, I have now been asked and urged to write it by so many people that I have been left with no choice.  It is with no pleasure or hidden agenda that I do so.

The subject matter is unfortunately Manchester Pride, or rather the organisation and running of Manchester Pride.  A number of the businesses have requested, no demanded, that this debate is opened and resolved.

The general feeling amongst the businesses, and a vast number of attendees, is that we no longer have a Manchester Pride that is an annual celebration of the LGBT community and The Gay Village.  What we now have is Marketing Manchester’s Pride!

It has become an annual excuse for the organisation behind Pride to become dictators and revel in the power that they wield.  Businesses are held to ransom over contributions, accreditations become more cumbersome and complicated, legally granted licences are revoked, little or no input is asked for, or actually wanted, from the very businesses that are the life blood of the whole event, and the VBA is at best tolerated and apparently seen more of a hindrance.

You would think that a charity-driven event would actively encourage and search for advertising opportunities; the more people that know and are interested in an event then the more people attend and buy wristbands.

This alas is not the case with Pride.  Businesses are actually dictated to that they cannot advertise Pride or use the logo before paying a very sizeable donation to them.  You will not be listed or appear anywhere on the website either.

As we all know, and are extremely grateful for, The Village has a number of independent and small operators.  It is these very independent and usually flamboyant people who keep The Gay Village fresh and alive 365 days a year.

Yet these are the very businesses that are penalised and punished by Pride for not having the ready cash-flow of a large multi national operator, who can pay up their branch’s contribution easily.  Small businesses sometimes rely on the Big Weekend itself to fund their contribution, so therefore get absolutely no support, no listings, no encouragement and no help from Pride because they haven’t paid up.

Surely an organisation that is in existence purely because of the businesses that started the whole thing off would want to support those businesses. Again this is not the case.  What could and should be a community driven event is now a purely commercial operation, with absolutely no regard or thought given to the community itself.  Established Gay Village operators are shunned and overlooked for non entity, non gay organisations that just have bigger purses.

One of our established operators wanted to add a fairground ride into the site, at their own expense and in a location of Prides choice, an idea that the VBA fully and vocally supported, and yet was refused.

Obviously because Pride needed yet another food concession on every available spare metre.  One of the residents on Bloom Street was actually refused entry to their own owned property because two passes had already been issued (to the lodgers in his spare room by the way), so he bought a pass rather than deal with the rude ‘jobsworths’ at accreditation.

The VIP tent was blatantly only there for Marketing Manchester to entertain their clients and friends, as none of the businesses got any passes!  One of The Gay Villages most prominent and well known personalities was physically attacked by the Pride security back stage, as he was about to go on, for free, on his own time.  This person has been involved with Manchester Pride since day one, and has been very instrumental in helping to create the very village we see today.  Yet apparently, in the new order of ‘pounds over poofs’, this means nothing.

And the tales and stories go on and on, each detailing how the corporate face and commerciality of Pride is blatantly and forcibly enforced over and above the community and its participants.

Let’s make no mistake that Manchester Pride is a hugely successful event, and long may that continue.  But maybe its time to stop trying to turn it into a Reading Festival, the V Festival or a mini Glastonbury.

This event was created as a celebration of being gay, a chance for the gay community to revel and wallow in the fact that we do indeed have a famous Gay Village and a thriving huge and loyal base.  The event is very important….the philosophy and ethos behind it is far more so!

As the spokesman for the VBA it is my job to ensure that the businesses are heard, and the feeling now is actually so strong that we demand to be heard and we demand an open, transparent and fair debate on where we go from here. Without the businesses there is no Pride, so I now publicly and openly challenge them to join us in this debate and help us all ensure that Manchester Pride enjoys and celebrates another 18 years.
Phil Burke”

Posted: 30 August 2008 at 18:00 (UK time)