What’s On at Alt Pride

Here’s our lineup for this year’s Alternative Pride Festival! This page has details about workshops and performances, the full programme with times and locations can be found here for Satuday and here for Sunday.

Saturday

Performances & Talks

  • Rojak is a collective that platforms and celebrates LGBTQI+ people of colour. We're excited to welcome their incredibly talented DJs back into the evening light of the garden.

  • Serin is a Leeds-based queer/trans songwriting/folk duo, made up of Wren Boon and Lucy Bacon. They combine vocal harmonies, powerful violin melodies and gentle guitar to make a sound which has been described as 'summat a bit different’. They perform original and traditional songs from the UK and US, speaking to themes such as gender/queerness, birds and home/belonging.

    Fresh on the Leeds scene, having shared the stage with folk wonders including Melbourne Duo Charm of Finches, and English folk musician George Sansome, the pair will be releasing their debut EP in Autumn 2024.

  • Singer songwriter Dee will be bringing a chill folk/indie solo acoustic set to Alternative Pride this year. Influences include songwriters such as Elliott Smith and Nick Drake.

  • Queer as Folk is a session that aims to create a welcoming and safe space for both new and experienced musicians to play, learn and develop the living folk tradition.

    Usually a fortnightly folk session held at the Molly House, we’re bringing the session back amongst the veg beds where it all began! Come watch, sing, or play. You don’t need any experience to join in!

  • Drag collective of bearded butches, gender gremlins and non-conformist creatives take to the stage at Queer Roots collective! Ye dare dance with these sapphic scallywags?

    This is a 16+ performance, with content including nudity and sexual references.

  • Co founder of MUD, Platt Fields Market Garden and Queer Roots Collective Jo shares her top tips for starting a community growing project.

Workshops

  • Ripped, torn or loved threadbare:  learn the skills you need to repair instead of replace, using just needle and thread. Bringing your own clothes and treasured textiles encouraged. Beginner friendly! 

  • With Giulia Grillo

    Ever thought about the artistic potential of a potato? Do you see nettles as a work of art?

    In this workshop, we’ll do creative, eco-conscious show and tell. 

    Imagine Plattfields Market Garden is a collection of art masterpieces.

    Imagine you are a charming art historian, leading a guided tour of Plattfields art collection ‘from Dandelion to Fertiliser’.

    Together, we’ll create and share silly and idiosyncratic stories about your favourite flower or weed!

  • Join us at Muck and Mire (PFMGs new clay studio) to create cyanotype flags using clay. Create shapes or smeer the clay directly onto the fabric to make pride themed scenes and watch as the fabric transforms before your eyes. Drop by 4-6 Saturday! This workshop will be led by local artists Charlotte Simmons and Freya Wysocki. Muck and Mire focuses on demystifying finding and processing clay,  we are having a slow opening so come see what we’re up to! 

  • This workshop encourages participants to engage with the world around them and challenge the concept of “Nature Writing” as a practice based in expertise and access to travel.

  • Details coming soon!

  • Inspired by Betty Martin’s Wheel of Consent, come to chat about what consent means for you as an individual, us as collectives and the Earth. 

    How has queer culture shaped narratives around consent? Why are boundaries important as we strengthen liberatory ways of relating and Earth care? What can you practice to support your journey with consent?

    This workshop is 14+ and under 18s must be accompanied by an appropriate adult.

Drop In

  • Collect your next STI home testing kit from LGBT Foundation's Sexual Health team. The full screening kit is free to take and free to post, get your results in roughly 2 weeks. 

    For more information, you can visit lgbt.foundation/testing, or email sexualhealth@lgbt.foundation.

  • Come join our Circus Skills workshop, suitable for all abilities. We’ll have a range of props to play around with, and Rosemary will be on hand to offer guidance if you fancy it!

  • Make a print to take home to remember the day by! We'll be providing a selection of QRC and nature-themed stamps, and our volunteers will be on hand to help you print them onto patch fabric or any textile you've brought with you.

  • Make a zine about queerness, pride, nature, or anything you feel like! The zine station is a moment of quietness and calm where you can enjoy the festival atmosphere while creating art.

    It will be stocked with everything you need to draw or collage your own mini-zine, including a plant pot of prompts.

Sunday

Sober day!

Performances & Talks

  • Blether's @ellz_beff invites you to bring your best songwriting and worst Feeld interactions to the stage to form a wonderful cabaret of curiosity!! There is no half-asleep-scrawled-dream-journal entry too crazy, nor poem-about-your-ex too cringe. Blether's queer open mic wants it all!!

    Contact @ellz_beff on Instagram if you're interested in performing!

  • With the Gaskell Garden Project.

    What is natural farming? Is it a technique or a philosophy? Are the old ways still the best ways to achieve a true food sovereignty movement? With 10 years experience of natural farming, GGP will be giving a short talk and tour of their garden to share the alternatives to modern day horticulture and green capitalism.

  • Learn to save your own seeds to grow again next year! Open to anyone with any level or gardening or seedsaving experience, we'll talk about some of the theory behind it before getting hands on with some plants

Workshops

  • With Right to Roam Greater Manchester.

    It's 2024, in England we have access to 8% of the countryside and 2% of waterbodies, if landowners are nice enough to maintain that access. Less than 1 percent of the population — including aristocrats, royals and wealthy investors — owns about half of the land in England. On top of all that if you're queer, not white, disabled or poor your access to land and chances of owning it are much lower.

    The question of this workshop is, we know it's bad... But how do queer struggles connect with land struggles? What does queering land justice look like? How can we connect to land and build connections to land as communities of marginalised people?

    This will be an open workshop with a discussion format. Several members of Right to Roam Greater Manchester (Peaks and Beyond) will be there. We will reflect on our organising and other examples of land justice organising historical and present, as a springboard to discuss these questions. NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED

  • Klezmer Dance is easy, happy, communal dancing.  No partner needed.  Each dance taught and led by Judith Plowman - a warm and experienced teacher.  Laughter and smiling included!

  • Details coming soon!

  • A space for gender diverse/questioning folx to share from the heart and witness each-other with heartfulness.

    Led by Jack from Spectrum of Wellbeing.

    Discover what’s co-created through compassionate presence.

  • Levy Queer Club will be hosting a relaxed and accessible speed friending session - an opportunity to have a natter, embrace curiosity and maybe come away with some new pals. Questions will be provided so folk can just turn up and take part. Easy breezy.

  • Emma is a Manchester based yoga, meditation and movement facilitator, offering accessible, inclusive and playful classes. Emma believes there is no such thing as being "bad at yoga" because the practice of coming to the mat is yoga in itself. No experience required, all are welcome, beginners encouraged! 

    Join Emma for 60 minutes of yoga and meditation, Emma's sessions are accessible, inclusive and playful and will incorporate movement, meditation and breathwork. The session will have a focus on nature and seasons and bring inspiration from the garden around us. No experience required, all are welcome and beginners are encouraged!

  • This workshop encourages participants to engage with the world around them and challenge the concept of “Nature Writing” as a practice based in expertise and access to travel.

Drop In

  • Find out about Manchester Museum’s exhibition ‘Wild’ which explores our relationship with the natural world and get up close to objects from our natural history collections. Join us in creating a collaborative vision board for a ‘queer Wild future’ and reflecting on LGBTQ+ representation, access and experiences in nature. 

    More info about Pride at the Museum: https://queermuseum.wixsite.com/queermuseum

    Wild exhibition: https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/event/wild/

  • With the Proud Trust.

    The Proud Trust empowers LGBT+ youth across Greater Manchester to be proud of who they are. Join us for a pot decorating and seed planting session in the Wellbeing Garden!

    Open to all ages, with those under 13 accompanied by an adult.

  • Bring clothes you don't want, and take away something new! We'll also have a box for pride flags/pins/etc you want to swap. There's no need to bring clothes in order to take things away - some people have lots to bring but take less.

    Please only bring clean clothes in good condition - things in a condition that you'd be happy to take away yourself.

  • Come join our Circus Skills workshop, suitable for all abilities. We’ll have a range of props to play around with, and Rosemary will be on hand to offer guidance if you fancy it!

  • Make a print to take home to remember the day by! We'll be providing a selection of QRC and nature-themed stamps, and our volunteers will be on hand to help you print them onto patch fabric or any textile you've brought with you.

  • Make a zine about queerness, pride, nature, or anything you feel like! The zine station is a moment of quietness and calm where you can enjoy the festival atmosphere while creating art.

    It will be stocked with everything you need to draw or collage your own mini-zine, including a plant pot of prompts.

Food and Drink

On both Saturday and Sunday we have a selection of tasty food to buy on site, with vegan and gluten free options, as well as coffee and hot drinks. The on-site bar will be serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks on Saturday, and will only have non-alcoholic drinks on Sunday for our sober day.

  • gwafuvegan specializes in cooking and delivering affordable vegan West African food, using British produce. We ensure to only use high-quality, sustainable produce that is locally sourced, all while reducing waste. Our number one aim is to spread our love of vegan food and our passion for West African cuisine. By doing this we showcase new and exciting flavours to our ever-growing diverse community.

    On the day will be selling all our classics, Jollof rice, puff puff and beans and spinach stew as well as well known sweet puff puffs!

  • We specialise in dumplings and take inspiration from our time spent living in Southeast Asia. We create and serve dishes that we enjoy eating using high quality locally sourced ingredients.

  • Grounded MCR CIC is a social enterprise serving specialty coffee, hot and cold drinks and locally sourced treats from a bespoke trike. We employ vulnerable adults with poor mental health, training them in barista/hospitality skills. We support local bakers; buy our coffee from a local roastery who pay farmers properly, and offer local makers /crafters opportunities to grow their own businesses via our platforms. Our aim is to help improve community mental health by putting on free events to make us all feel a bit better.