Manchester Pride Day Two featured a joyous parade, showstopping outfits and one epic Gay Village Party as tens of thousands turned out for the LGBTQ+ celebration
23:20, 23 Aug 2025Updated 23:20, 23 Aug 2025
Singer and Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock headlining Saturday Night at Manchester Pride(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Walking down Liverpool Road, amongst the many preparing to take part in this year’s parade, were a duo getting stopped by passer-by’s for photos. But they aren’t celebrities or people that you would recognise from TV, they were mother-and-daughter duo Penny and Jodie Overbury, dressed in their very own custom Tesco bag dresses.
“It’s taken us two weeks to put together,” Penny, who works at the Chesterfield Tesco supermarket, said. “It’s been a lot of cutting, gluing and stapling to make it all work. Our manager gave us a stack of bags – we think we’ve used 240 bags.”
Walking with the Tesco procession, they were part of the thousands taking part in this year’s Manchester Pride parade this year – travelling from Deansgate to the Gay Village – with community groups, members of the LGBTQ+ community, allies and famous faces like Russell T. Davies, Ella Morgan and Danny Beard.
Also taking part in the parade was singer Jsky, walking as part of BBC Pride, and swimmer Michael Gunning, who was walking with Bentley as part of his very first parade. A survivor of the Manchester Arena attack and having been affected by big crowds, taking part marked a big achievement for him.
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“From the moment we stepped onto the parade route, the energy was electric,” Michael said. “There was a wave of love, colour, music, and support that seemed to ripple through every corner of Manchester.”
The Manchester Pride Parade 2025 saw tens of thousands turn out to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
As the parade made its way through the city centre, news arrived that Saturday night’s headliner Billy Porter, who is most known for his role on Pose, had been forced to pull out following an illness.
Marking the first full day of Manchester Pride 2025, crowds headed to the Gay Village to soak up the atmosphere outside of the many bars and venues that call it home throughout the year.
The heart and soul of Manchester Pride, the Gay Village party returns for 2025(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Several attendees without wristbands alleged that they were stopped from entering the area altogether or had to argue with security staff to get into the Village after being informed that a new policy was in place to stop people from entering. A spokesperson for Manchester Pride said ‘a clear safety and wellness policy’ was in force ‘at the Gay Village Party, of which the Gay Village is at the heart of’.
Manchester Pride is always a good reason to celebrate, but for couple Dale (24) and Nicole (23) there was extra cause. The pair, from Grimsby and Manchester, met a year ago at the LGBTQ+ festival in the Bloom Street car park where the likes of Sugababes, Rita Ora and Jessie J performed.
Dale proposing to her girlfriend Nicole one year after meeting at Manchester Pride(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Now, 12 months on, Dale got down on one knee to ask her partner to marry her. “We met at a rave in a car park and I’ve just loved her for ages,” she told us.
“Tonight I just thought I’m doing it, I’m going to ask her. She’s my best friend.”
Manchester Pride 2025 brings the party back to the Gay Village in Manchester City Centre(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Meanwhile, outside The Church, drag performer Tonya Knees led a rowdy sing-song of Oasis’ Don’t Look Back in Anger, whilst former Hollyoaks star and LGBTQ+ icon Annie Wallace told the packed-out crowd: “There will be no going to bed at 10pm tonight! Pride is a big party, but it’s also a protest, it’s a fundraiser.”
Pretty much around the corner, there’s a topless go-go dancer dressed in leather chaps performing outside Company Bar in a birdcage, as a woman with an inflatable horse’s head bops around with her friends.
Mother-and-daughter duo Penny and Jodie Overbury, dressed in their very own custom Tesco bag dresses at Manchester Pride 2025(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
Talking of fashion, this year’s ensemble of outfits, fits and party looks were top tier from the get go, spanning everything from leather chaps and fishnet vests to rainbow pant suits, matching cowboy hats and boots and of course, Tesco Bags For Life fashioned into dresses.
Is it a piñata, a John Lewis Christmas decoration? No, it was Lancashire’s finest, the very fabulous Diana Vickers sung her socks off on the Alan Turing stage in the heart of the Village on Saturday night.
X Factor semi-finalist Diana Vickers takes to the Alan Turing Stage at Manchester Pride 2025(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
The singer, songwriter and actress best known for her 2008 stint on The X Factor was in high spirits and a very bright pink coat as she appeared on the stage, whittling through her best-known tracks including ‘Once’, ‘Music to Make Boys Cry’, before renditions of Chappell Roan and Celine Dion.
Having defrosted after her time away from the spotlight she also played her brand new single ‘Ice Cream’, which we can all agree is a bop. “Ice cream machine, You scream, I scream,” on repeat for the foreseeable and destined to be stuck in your head until the end of time – that’s a promise.
Saturday night at Manchester Pride 2025(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Rounding off day two, Leigh-Anne brought watts of energy to Depot Mayfield – transforming the new Mardi Gras area into a sweaty and slick fusion of R&B and Afropop. Arriving to chants of “we love you Leigh-Anne”, the former Little Mix star arrived on stage to Don’t Say Love.The garage anthem brought a jumping bass and an equally jumping Leigh-Anne as she delivered the high-energy with her four dancers before emerging into a heated dance break that fully showed that she is a performer to be reckoned with.She then continued the set with songs like OMG and new single Burning Up, as well as a cover of Bob Marley’s Could You Be Loved – and it turned out, with this crowd, she certainly could. And then some.