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Manchester Pride 'pricing people out' after doubling weekend pass cost

Getty Images Amelia Lily at Manchester PrideGetty Images
The main music event has previously been held in Manchester's Gay Village

Manchester Pride has been criticised for "pricing people out" after almost doubling entry costs to its main event.

Passes for Manchester Pride Live, which takes place on 24 and 25 August, will cost £64.50, while in 2018, a Big Weekend ticket cost £34.50.

People have been called the rise "shameful", "ridiculous" and an example of "utter greed" on social media.

However, a spokesman for the LGBT event said the two could not be compared as this year's was "a totally new event".

The festival will move its main music stages out of the city's Gay Village for the first time in 2019, instead hosting the weekend climax of the four-day festival to Mayfield, a former railway depot near the city's main Piccadilly station.

Google Mayfield depotGoogle
The former Mayfield railway station will host Manchester Pride Live

The venue will host the new Manchester Pride Live event, which the spokesman said would feature the "biggest line up of artists" they have ever had.

He added that there would also be plenty of free events included in the wider festival, including the annual Pride Parade and Candlelit Vigil and a programme of workshops, films and cabaret under the title of The Superbia Weekend.

After the tickets were put on sale, dozens of people took to social media, complaining that the festival was becoming "commercialised".

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Manchester Pride's chief executive Mark Fletcher said it was "always a talking point when we introduce change to our events and this year we have essentially added a whole new event to our programme in direct response to the requests of our ticket buyers".

He added that the £10 entry fee for the festival's The Gay Village Gathering, which will feature community performances, parties and markets, was "actually much less than access to the Village has cost previously".

The charity's spokesman added that a limited number of "hardship tickets" would also be made available.