Canal Street Online Manchester

Latest names for Manchester Pride 2016

Latest names for Manchester Pride 2016

HEATHER SMALL AND SHURA JOIN THE LINE-UP FOR MANCHESTER PRIDE’S THE BIG WEEKEND

**PLUS MNEK AND KAREN HARDING WILL TAKE TO THE STAGE AT THE BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND FESTIVAL**

Today The Big Weekend organiser, Manchester Pride, has announced two more big names as Heather Small and, in a UK Pride event exclusive -Shura, add to an already stellar line-up. Plus The Big Weekend favourites MNEK and Karen Harding will join them as they take to the Thomas Cook Airlines USA Main Stage for a second time.

The Proud soul singer is best known as lead singer in the band M People, who have sold over 10 million albums worldwide.

Hits such as 'Moving On Up', 'One Night In Heaven' and 'Search For The Hero' and albums like Elegant Slumming, Bizarre Fruit and Fresco achieved massive worldwide success and Heather became one of the seminal British voices of the 1990s.

Heather has since had great successes with two solo albums – the title track of her 'Proud' album became the soundtrack to a whole host of very special events including London's successful 2012 Olympic bid, the 60th anniversary of VE Day in Trafalgar Square, the launch of Queen Mary 2, the Tsunami Relief Concert, England's victory at the Rugby World Cup celebrations, and the official ceremony marking the handover of the Olympic Games from Beijing to London.

Singer, songwriter and producer Shura, who grew up in Manchester, produced a remix of  Jessie Ware’s single ‘Say You Love Me’ before releasing  hits ‘2Shy’ and ‘White Light’. She has also performed to acclaim at Bestival, Festival No6 and Latitude. Her debut album ‘Nothing’s Real’ is due for release in July.

Uzoechi Emenike, professionally known as MNEK, is a British artist, singer, songwriter and record producer. His recent writing and production credits include Beyonce, Madonna, Kylie, Rudimental, Little Mix and The Big Weekend performer, Karen Harding, to name a few.  The Grammy-nominated 21-year-old recently revealed in an interview with Attitude Magazine that he wants to be the role model for gay black kids he never had.

Fresh UK chart sensation Karen Harding has certainly made her mark on the music industry. In 2015 her debut single ‘Say Something’ debuted on the UK singles chart at number seven. Karen first showcased her talents when she reached the Penultimate Stage of the ‘Eurovision: Your Country Needs You’ competition and then went onto ‘The X Factor’ where she reached the boot camp stage.   

Mark Fletcher, CEO for Manchester Pride, comments; "Heather Small, Shura and MNEK are not artists that you'd expect to find on the same line up anywhere other than by Manchester Pride. We do our best to cater for many music tastes. I'm proud to see MNEK returning to The Big weekend. It's brilliant that he's stepping out to become a role model for young black LGBT people."

Plus San Francisco DJ crew, Honey Soundsystem, is confirmed to play The Big Weekend Dance Arena. The self-titled queer DJ collective and production group is the made up of Jason Kendig, Jacob Sperber aka Jackie House, Josh Cheon, and Robot Yang aka Beziér. 

Joining them in the Dance Arena will be Seamus Haji, Homoelectric stalwart, Jamie Bull and Manchester favourites, Neil Diablo and Sian Bennett.

Other acts added to the line-up include The Big Weekend favourite, Lucy Spraggan; Britain’s Got Talent finalist Danny Beard, X Factor favourite Seann Miley Moore plus Anne-Marie, Imani Williams, Frankmusik, Jordan Gray and Eli Cripps.

The huge raft of artists will join multi-million selling Brit Award winning singer-songwriter, Will Young and international DJ Judge Jules who will perform at the event alongside Pride-favourite and singer/songwriter, Heather Peace and the popular ‘Heather Peace Presents’ Boutique Stage line-up in Sackville Gardens.

Plus Katy B, Fleur East, K-Klass, Underground DJ Ben Pearce, David Dunne and Paulette.

The Manchester Pride Festival is an award-winning four-day event celebrating LGBT life. The event takes place in August, with The Big Weekend running from Friday 26 to Monday 29 August and the Parade on Saturday 27 August. 

The Big Weekend tickets are on sale now, priced at £25 for weekend tickets. Day, family and children’s tickets are also available. Tickets are exchanged for Pledge Bands at the festival providing guests with access to the event, including the Main Arena, Sackville Gardens, the Gaydio Dance Arena and the Expo and help Manchester Pride raise essential funds for LGBT and HIV causes in Greater Manchester.  For more information on The Big Weekend visit the new website at bigweekend.manchesterpride.com.

Manchester Pride asks the community to wear their bands with pride as they pledge to; help Manchester Pride create a safe, world class LGBT celebration, support Manchester Pride’s commitment to raising essential funds for LGBT and HIV causes in Greater Manchester and support the organisation’s campaign for greater LGBT equality. 

To find out more about the Manchester Pride you can follow the charity on Twitter @manchesterpride or visit the website at manchesterpride.com.

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Published: 27-Jun-2016: (3795)

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