Equity has secured £15,000 for performers who were left unpaid when Manchester Pride went into administration last year.
The funding, secured after months of campaigning by the union, will cover around 20% of the £70,000 owed to more than 50 performers. It comes from contributions made by businesses to a “social action pot” put forward by Manchester City Council and does not involve taxpayers’ money.
Combined with £12,500 raised through a crowdfunder organised by Equity member Nathaniel Hall, a total of £27,500 has now been secured – almost 40% of the outstanding fees.
Equity is contacting more than 50 performers who came forward following Manchester Pride’s collapse. Individual artists were left owed between £150 and £5,000, with the union planning to distribute a percentage of the unpaid fees to each of them.
Karen Lockney, Equity North West Official, said: “This is great news for the many performers who were left high and dry last year when Manchester Pride went bust. Lots of people thought they’d never get anything for these gigs they worked over a year ago, but it just goes to show that you should never give up.
“Performers are so often the people who end up out of pocket, dismissed and treated badly, but there would literally be no Pride without performers. We’re grateful to Manchester City Council, and to everyone who donated to the crowdfunder, and we’re especially pleased that Manchester Village Pride went ahead this year on an Equity agreement. We’re also encouraged by the promise of discussion on worker representation at other events in the city, which we hope will lead to more union agreements and better terms and safety standards for all workers.”
At the time, artists reported missed 30-day payment deadlines and said they had encountered “automated replies, contradictions, and shifting expectations” while attempting to recover their fees.
Manchester Village Pride, the smaller replacement event held over the August bank holiday this year, became one of the first Pride events to operate under a union agreement.
Equity and MVP agreed minimum terms and conditions for performers, including stronger safeguards around payments. The sold-out event was run by a new Community Interest Company rooted in Manchester’s Gay Village and provided gigs for dozens of performers.
Cllr Garry Bridges, Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “We’ve been clear throughout that we sympathised with the plight of performers left unpaid when the former organisers of Pride went bust.
“We’ve been working with Equity to find a meaningful way to help those worst affected without using public money to meet the debts of a failed business and I’m pleased that we’ve been able to reach this constructive solution together.
“The event and its performers have a bright future under new organisers Manchester Village Pride and it’s great that they have strong arrangements in place to ensure that performers can have confidence going forwards and similar issues can’t happen again.”
Nathaniel Hall, creative producer, performer and activist, added: “It’s encouraging to hear that Manchester City Council have found £15k to help creatives out of pocket from last year’s collapse of Manchester Pride. Even though this won’t cover all the losses, the gesture is really welcome. Equity members have been working for months to get this result. LGBTQ+ Equity members can be proud they have a union that has their backs when times are tough.”
