Updated on 29 August 2006

'Why do you want to know?'

This is the story of how I first realised things were going wrong with Manchester's annual gay event... Since then, as an ordinary member of the general public and the gay community, I have struggled to get any information from the arrogant people who now control Pride.

After the 1999 Manchester Mardi Gras, when no money was raised for charity, despite an income of up to £700,000 (according to some sources), we had meetings to try and discover what had gone wrong. One of the things that came out of that was the annual publication of this information about venues.

It meant the public could see which bars, clubs and other businesses had worked to raise money and which didn't bother much.

I started putting up on my website a list of the amounts raised by each venue in Manchester's Gay Village.

So, in Autumn 2003, I came to update my web page and began looking around for this info as usual. For the first time, I couldn't find it on the web, so I wrote some e-mails asking where it was.

'WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?'

Something didn't seem quite right. I was being bounced around from one person to another. The people I wrote to, wanted to know 'why' I was asking.

I wanted to know because this is supposedly an event to raise money for charity and that is partly how it is 'sold' to the public. I believe there should be complete openness about where the money comes from and where it goes.

And not just where the 'profit' goes, but how the rest of the money is spent -- in other words, the 'costs'.

I used to work as a magazine journalist. I think I am fairly good at gathering and analyzing information and writing letters. When I sense that something isn't quite right, it intrigues me.

Pride had started out as a way of raising money for HIV and AIDS. As recently as 2002 we had been told:

'"Operation Fundraiser" is the joint fundraising effort of George House Trust, the Lesbian and Gay Foundation and Body Positive North West to raise funds over the bank holiday weekend. It is the first time that the charities have been directly invovled in the fundraising over the weekend, and the first time that the communities HIV and LGBT charities have worked together in this way. Cutting out any uneccessary extra structures has meant that for the first time 100% of what is donated over the weekend will go to charities with noting deducted for administrative expenses or the cost of the event.'

You can still see this press release here.

Like most people, I assumed things were still the same. I began to look further into the whole way Europride had been funded and I was shocked by what I discovered. For the first time, I realised how little of the money given by the public had actually ended up with the good causes.

In fact, some of the publicity material seemed to be downright misleading. For instance, here is the Manchester Pride 2004 website:


You can see it says that 'all' the money raised from ticket sales will be distributed to charity.

I was a bit confused about that, so I wrote to Emma Peate of Operation Fundraiser to check:

'Is the following correct...? The money raised from the tickets
goes into the overall pool of Operation Fundraiser money. A
contribution is given for the running of Pride and then what is
left is distributed to the good causes?'

And she replied:

'Yes that’s correct all the money from the big weekend tickets (and other fundraisers) comes directly to Operation Fundraiser. We then take out the costs that Operation Fundraiser incurs and what is left over is all charity money.'

So, all the money from tickets is not distributed to charity. It is the money after costs and what many people don't realise is just how much money is taken out of that Operation Fundraiser pot of money...

OPERATION FUNDRAISER: TWO THIRDS GOES ON COSTS

In the end, only about one third of all the Operation Fundraiser income from Europride 2003 actually went to good causes. Fairtly early on, I came across these Operation Fundraiser figures:

�371,600
Ticket Sales

�15,610
Other Fundraising at EuroPride: (Parade, Vigil, nightclubs etc)
-----------
�387,210 TOTAL INCOME

LESS
�200,000
Contribution to EuroPride to pay for the security and costs of the "Big Weekend"

LESS COSTS
�30,341
Tickets, Wristbands and Box Office
�12,314
Staff Member and Admin
�16,865
Advertising, Marketing and Information

�127,690
TOTAL AMOUNT RAISED

THE COSTS

The previous year, it seems the costs of Mardi Gras 2002 were £106,000 (with £65,000 raised for good causes).

In fact, in the end, when finally I got figures (see below), Europride 2003 cost £556,000 and Operation Fundraiser gave £200,000 towards those costs, Operation Fundraiser spent a further £59,520 on its own expenses leaving a 'record' amount of �127,690 for charity.

This was not all that much more than was raised in some previous years from much smaller events which were free to attend (£105,000 at GayFest 2000).

Admittedly, Europride 2003 ran over ten days, though the Bank Holiday weekend formed the major part of it by far as usual.

ASKING FOR DETAILS OF THE 2003 COSTS

I first emailed Manchester Pride on 14 December 2003. I asked what that £200,000 that was given by Operation Fundraiser to pay for Europride 2003 covered and how much had been raised by each bar and club. A Festival Organiser is employed and she wrote back on 9 January, saying:

'We are still in the process of finalising all costs and accounts. As you can imagine, there is a huge amount of paperwork involved in the process of putting on a ten day festival. Once the accounts have been agreed and signed by the auditors they will be made public, as in previous years. Individual venues did not collect money this year, instead the Village Business Association provided a contributing sum of �40,000 towards the cost of running the event'.

By May, and eight months after Europride finished, there was still no sign of this information being made public. So I wrote again:

'Please can you tell me where I can get details of total income and a breakdown of costs for the 2003 event? I notice on your website you list how the profit was distributed but
you don't seem to give details of total income and costs.'

And, on 10 May 2004, I received the following reply:

'The income and expenditure costs for Europride 2003 were audited last week (finished on Friday) so we will be publishing the details very soon on the website.'

It is disgraceful that the audit still hadn't been completed eight months after the event finished. Especially when you consider that a full-time person is employed.

When I checked the website two months later, on 10 July 2004, there was still no sign of this information. I wrote again and received no reply.

By the beginning of August 2004, the 2003 website had been replaced by details of the forthcoming 2004 event. So it seemed unlikely the cost information for 2003 would ever be put up on the site (I don't think it ever was).

I had previously submitted my questions via the form on the Europride 2003 website and had received no reply. Nor had they been added to the 'Frequently Asked Questions' section which I guess is intended to create an air of 'openness' about how the event is run. Yeah right...

So, on 3 August 2004, I submitted my questions again and, on 9 August the Organiser told me in an e-mail:

'...we have been in the process of finalising income and expenditure for last year and getting the accounts audited. Unfortunately this takes a long time and we will be publishing this information very shortly - Manchester Pride has only just
been running for one year as a company.'

Yet in May (three months earlier) she had told me the audit had been completed. And, while it is true that Manchester Pride has only been 'running' for a year. That is because it changed its name from 'Europride 2003 Limited' on 29 April 2004.

Information from Companies House shows that the company Europride 2003 Limited existed from February 2003.

She added:

'...I am not sure what you mean by the £240,000 as this does not relate to any item of our expenditure. The information about the £127,000 raised for charity is detailed on the Operation Fundraiser website.'

But you can see for yourself in the figures I've shown above, £200,000 was given by Operation Fundraiser as a 'contribution' to costs and she herself had told me that the Village Business Association had given £40,000.

Note how she tries to turn attention to the profit yet again. But we know how that was distributed. They never stop tell us that. What we are asking about are the costs.

And my questions about costs still didn't make it onto the website.

I ASK TO SEE THE ACCOUNTS FOR 2003 - IT TURNS OUT THERE ARE NO SEPARATE ACCOUNTS!

I sent a letter by mail to the Festival Organiser on 5 August 2004, in which I asked to see the accounts for 2003. I received no reply. I sent a copy of my letter to my Member of Parliament.

By March 2005, I still hadn't seen the information I had asked for. My Member of Parliament had sent me an initial response and had written to Manchester Pride.

So I submitted my questions via the Manchester Pride website again and received a reply the following day (22 March 2005). One year and four months after I first asked.

Manchester EuroPride 2003 was managed by Marketing Manchester and, as such, I was told (for the first time) 'does not have separate financial accounts'...

On its website, Marketing Manchester describes itself as 'the tourist board for Greater Manchester' -- 'a public private partnership... charged with promoting Greater Manchester on a national and international stage'.

I was sent a breakdown of expenditure for 2003, but no figures for where income came from.

'Manchester Pride is legally established as a not-for-profit company and no payments are made to the voluntary Directors or to shareholders.'

Of course this has no relation on whether they are spending that £556,000 in the most effective manner. But, quite honestly, I only care about the £200,000 that the public gave to the running costs, through Operation Fundraiser.

MANCHESTER EUROPRIDE 2003 EXPENDITURE

TOTAL EXPENDITURE £556,000

Staff team £59,611
Big Weekend site management, production, £46,670
stage management, site electricians etc
UK Marketing £31,136
Office expenses, postage, phone £10,804
Staging, lighting etc £43,600
International marketing £40,000 *
Community parade project £23,433 $
Road closures £2,067
Hire of car parks £10,000
Cleansing (inc parade) £19,656
Box Offices & ticketing £6,500
Fencing £32,380
Security £64,221
Toilets £9,820
Heritage project £22,995 @
Manchester Comes Out weekend £40,000 #
Big Weekend artists £17,388
General expenses £3,221
Greater Manchester Police £20,000
Greater Manchester Ambulance & St John's £3,526
Performing Rights Society Fees £5,000
Public Entertainments Licenses £5,314
On-site power £18,182
Public Liability & equipment insurance £7,245
Car park hire in the site £8,010
Radio hire £1,895
Pass production £1,700
Architect's drawings for site plan £578
Lost children facilities £540
Site signage £1,628
Petty cash on site £4,008
Event site crew catering £2,054

* Grant from the Regional Development Agency
$ Grant from Arts Council of England North West
@ Grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund
# Grant from Manchester City Council

Manchester EuroPride 2003 made no profit.

Manchester Pride is legally established as a not-for-profit company and no payments are made to the voluntary Directors or to shareholders.

So, in a nutshell, the total expenditure on Europride 2003 was a staggering £556,000. Five times the amount spent on costs in 2002 (£106,000). And while all the stuff about non-profit and unpaid directors and shareholders is undoubtedly true, dozens of commercial businesses and individuals benefit from the fact that Manchester Pride has more than half a million Pounds to spend. £200,000 of which has come from the public via Operation Fundraiser ticket sales and from out of collection buckets.

PERSONAL VIEW

In its official promotional literature, Manchester City Council boasts that the 1999 Mardi Gras gave an estimated $20 Million boost to the local economy. With that much money at stake, I don't accept that there is any need for the public to pay £200,000 of the cost of this event. Businesses and development agencies could, and should, fund the entire thing.

They don't, because they know the gay public is foolish enough to do it for them. This whole twisted arrangement lets the organisers 'talk up' the charity and fund raising aspect of Pride, to obtain the maximum amount of cash from the public. This prevents Manchester's businesses from having to contribute more and it maximises their profits at the expense of the good-causes.

In 2001 and 2002, the amount raised for good causes fell dramatically. No doubt the charities were desperate to increase the total in 2003.

I used to think that the charities had probably been dragged into this arrangement reluctantly. But I don't believe that anymore... I have struggled to get information over the past three years and everyone involved seems to sing from the same hymn sheet. In other words, it seems to be a deliberate, organised policy to keep information about costs out of the public domain.

So now I think that this deceptive little arrangement was cooked up by all involved, in league with the businesses and Manchester City Council. As a means of relieving the public of as much money as humanly possible. No doubt, some of them, with an eye on protecting their own jobs in the gay charity sector too.

There should be a line drawn between money that is given to charity and money that goes to fund the costs of this now overwhelmingly commercial Pride event.

I believe that if I asked 100 people in Manchester's Gay Village how much of the price of the wristband/ticket went to good causes, very few would guess one third. Maybe I'll go down there and ask some of them one day soon.

The whole arrangement and lack of openness has tarnished the reputations of the charities involved and the signs are that Pride and the gay village are in decline. People are sick of it all.

Even my Member of Parliament has found it difficult to get information from the various parties involved in Manchester Pride. At the time of writing this (February 2006) the Charity Commission is looking into the way Operation Fundraiser accounts for the gross sum given by the public.

OTHER PAGES

Read more about the cynical event this has turned into, on my page about Manchester Pride 2004.

Read my letter to the Festival Organiser, asking to see the accounts for 2003.

Read the latest here at the bottom of my page about Manchester's gay events.

Contact