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Three artists have pulled out of Manchester Pride in response to the event’s main sponsor – with protests also planned to take place during the weekend of the festival.
Manchester Pride 2024 will return over the August Bank Holiday weekend (August 23-26) and will once again see a variety of stages take over the Gay Village, alongside the annual parade through the city.
As with the last two years, one of the festival’s main sponsors this year will be travel site booking.com, which some artists have suggested profits from the ongoing conflict in Palestine. Research by knowledge and research organisation SOMO found that between March 2021 and May 15, 2023, the accommodation platform had 51 listings on its website located within Occupied Palestinian Territory.
As a result of the sponsorship, The Bollywitch and Felix Mufti, who were both due to perform during Friday’s Trans Filth and Joy section, have withdrawn their scheduled appearances at the Pride event. Dan Chan, who had been set to perform during the Queer Asian Takeover on Saturday, has also pulled out.
Posting on Instagram last week, Dan said: “I am no longer performing at @manchesterpride. I cannot continue with this gig when their main sponsor, @bookingcom, is directly profiting from genocide in occupied Palestine. I have notified them to take my name off this year’s line up as I do not want to accept a pay cheque that has been made through genocide.”
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, The Bollywitch, the alias for performer Yvy DeLuca, said she decided to pull out of the event after finding out more about the corporate sponsor behind this year’s festival. In a statement, Booking.com said it is ‘aware of the concerns that have been raised about some of the listings in the West Bank’, and is ‘monitoring the situation closely’. The travel platform said it was ‘deeply saddened by the loss of life as a result of the war in Gaza’.
Manchester Pride said it ‘fully recognise[s], respect and support any artist’s decision to perform or not perform’ at the event, and that it was in ‘active dialogue’ with Booking.com to ‘address the concerns raised’. The festival’s trustees added that they stood ‘in solidarity with all those suffering from the devastating war in Gaza’.
“My decision was solely based on the fact that I’ve seen a lot of Pride events sponsored by organisations that are affiliated in some way with what is happening in Palestine,” The BollyWitch explained. “A lot of us are speaking up about it but it does feel like Manchester Pride are trying to go the other way rather than listening to us. I feel like they have really missed the mark about this.”
The performer said she had reached out to bookers at Manchester Pride to discuss her concerns about the sponsorship of the event but said she felt their response was ‘lacklustre’. She then went public with her withdrawal from the event on social media. She said she has since heard from other artists who are also planning to withdraw from the event.
“I prefer to do the right thing rather than making money,” she explained. “I was a little disheartened by Pride’s lack of response. It was lacklustre, basically the bookers thanked me for my email and said they would inform the rest of the team. That was all I ever heard from them about it.
“I’ve worked with Manchester Pride in the past and raised discussions with them about other things, like the need for more representation. People are getting really angry about what’s happening and their lack of response doesn’t help things. It’s something they can’t continue to stay quiet about. It’s not a good look and is going to tarnish what the whole event is about.
“It’s such a shame because Manchester Pride is such an iconic part of queer culture in the city and I don’t want it to be the case where that goes down the drain because of poor decisions.”
The sponsorship of the event has also led to a petition being created – with more than 1,100 signatures as of Monday morning (July 15) – urging Manchester Pride bosses not to ‘partner with any company that profits from any conflict across the world, aides with deportations, or contributes to climate change’.
Activists and members of the LGBTQ+ community are also planning to protest at this year’s Manchester Pride too. The Reclaim Pride March, which has been organised by artist Will Belshah, will begin in the Gay Village before heading to Cheetham Hill on the Saturday of the festival.
It will continue the ‘Pride Not Profit’ when protestors marched at Manchester Pride after the charity cut funding from the George House Trust and LGBT Foundation’s safer sex scheme after 27 years. On social media, this year’s march has been described as being held ‘in light of recent developments, unethical sponsorships and ongoing historic failings in recent years by Manchester Pride’.
“We don’t want Manchester Pride to fail, we just want to help drive it in a way that puts the community back at the heart of it – that was the precedent that we set last time,” organiser Will said. “I know that a lot of artists can’t necessarily withdraw from appearing at Pride because they rely on it and don’t have a lot of other work at the moment, and it’s important to say that this is being done with the intention of pressuring a response from the organisers themselves.
“We also take issue with the unethical main sponsors Barclays and Booking.com, who have direct links to the occupation in Palestine, funding arms sales and profiting from occupied land. This has absolutely no place in Pride, and we will not be complicit with war crimes.”
Will added: “It’s about Pride being a role model for the Village. A lot of people have left queer spaces – there’s a large proportion of people that don’t want to be there at the minute. We just need to find a way for the Village to be a place in that community for women, for trans people, for people of colour and for disabled people. It will also help the businesses in the village too.”
Will said the planned protests are ‘not an attack’ on volunteers, staff or artists at the Pride event, but rather a ‘call to the Board’. He explained: “It’s very top-heavy financially and it’s just not doing what it needs to be doing right now. It’s been 40 years since George House Trust was founded and I think that makes now a great opportunity to put charity back at the heart of Pride.”
What Manchester Pride and Booking.com have said
David McGovern, the Chair of Trustees at Manchester Pride said: “The team at Manchester Pride stands in solidarity with all those suffering from the devastating war in Gaza and all the innocent people subjected to violence in Palestine and Israel. At our core, we value liberation and believe nobody’s free until everybody’s free.
“Manchester Pride and the LGBTQ+ community have a long, proud history of protest. We fully recognise, respect and support any artist’s decision to perform or not perform at the Manchester Pride Festival and we continue to stand by, facilitate and champion our communities right to protest.
“As a charity, Manchester Pride’s focus is primarily on protecting and improving LGBTQ+ rights and looks to work with organisations that support the modern Pride movement. We assess all partnerships thoroughly in accordance with our Private Sector Engagement Policy.
“We are in active dialogue with Booking.com to address the concerns raised by our communities and we continue extensive discussions to understand their stance and actions regarding accommodation listings in occupied territory. They have assured us of their commitment to human rights and informed decision-making.
“We are a listening charity, we continuously engage with our communities to ensure our programme of activities and grant-making meets the needs and priorities of intersectional LGBTQ+ people living in Greater Manchester. We continue to consult with our artists and communities to be able to provide authentic, meaningful support in the run-up to our Festival and beyond.
“We recognise the many forms activism can take and believe we are in a powerful position to challenge systemic oppression with a seat at the table to influence change in some of the world’s biggest private sector organisations.”
Meanwhile, a Booking.com spokesperson said: “In addition to Pride being a moment for celebration, it’s also an opportunity for dialogue and debate on topics that are important to LGBTQ+ communities, which is something we fully acknowledge as a partner of Manchester Pride.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of life as a result of the war in Gaza and remain hopeful for a lasting, peaceful resolution. We are aware of the concerns that have been raised about some of the listings on our platform in the West Bank, which we take very seriously. We are monitoring the situation closely and continue to work with a variety of stakeholders and experts in this space to inform our ongoing approach.
“Our mission at Booking.com is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. That’s why we believe it’s up to travellers to decide where they want and need to go. If a particular region may be categorised as disputed or affected by conflict, and as a result, may pose greater risks, we include information to help make sure travellers can make their own informed decisions. And this includes encouraging them to check the official travel guidelines of their government as part of their decision making process.”
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