Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays join Manchester Pride Festival
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays will be flying the flag with pride in Manchester with a three year partnership to be headline sponsor of the UK’s largest Pride celebration, Manchester Pride Festival.
Manchester Pride is a charity that campaigns for equality, celebrates LGBTQ+ life and creates opportunities for LGBTQ+ people to thrive. It is dedicated to promoting and raising awareness for LGBTQ+ issues and the fight for equality across the city.
Manchester Pride Festival is the charity’s flagship event. It takes over the city every year over the August bank holiday weekend in celebration of LGBTQ+ life. Last year Ariana Grande, Years and Years, Kim Petras and Cheryl Cole were all on the lineup for the festival. Keep an eye out for this year’s lineup!
Running from August 28th to 31st, Manchester Pride Festival 2020 will feature various events, including Manchester Pride Parade, Manchester Pride Live the Candlelit Vigil, the Superbia Weekend, the Gay Village Party and Youth Pride MCR.
Mark Fletcher, chief executive for Manchester Pride, said: “I am honoured to be partnering with an organisation that is so committed to placing diversity and equality at the heart of everything it does. When brands like Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays are able to carry a message across the globe in support of LGBTQ+ people it is extremely powerful and I am confident that we will work together over the next three years to drive real change both here in Manchester and throughout the world.”
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays have been committed to supporting LGBTQ+ people and fighting for diversity and inclusion around the globe for a long time. They have worked to educate local governments, tourist bodies and hoteliers in the Caribbean about diversity. Virgin Atlantic also became the first company in India to feature an LGBT couple in its advertising. And last year, the two companies worked together on the Pride Flight, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic added: “Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays have long been staunch supporters of LGBTQ+ rights and we strongly believe in making our business as inclusive and welcoming as possible. We are absolutely thrilled to be the headline sponsor of the Manchester Pride Festival, at our home in the North. I am really looking forward to working with Mark and his team to use the influential power of our brand, our international footprint and our incredible people to fight for change across the world.
“As part of our growth strategy, Manchester is a major focus for us and with recent additional services to Orlando, Barbados and Las Vegas, we’re delighted to offer customers more choice than ever before. As Flybe joins the Virgin family and transforms to Virgin Connect this year, we’re excited to offer customers flying from the north 47 daily flights throughout the UK, Ireland and across Europe.”
Tickets to Manchester Pride Festival are available now. Rainbow passes start at £35 for a day pass and £65 for the whole weekend. Visit Manchester Pride to find out more.
