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VMFC at Manchester Pride 2015
31 August 2015
Manchester Pride is always a busy time for Village Manchester FC and 2015 was no different! What started 25 years ago as a few stalls outside a Canal Street pub to raise money for gay rights, and went through years as a campaigning and protesting movement, is now more about celebrating diversity and equality, along with raising money for a range of charities.
As a gay and inclusive football club, VMFC is keen to show our commitment to diversity and get involved wherever we can!
Thursday
Pride started for VMFC on Thursday 27 August with Manchester City Football Club once again very kindly allowing us to take our annual club photo at the Etihad Stadium. We would very much like to thank MCFC and their community arm City in the Community for their ongoing support. And, it was great to see the rainbow flag flying outside the stadium as we arrived!
Click here for more photos of the lads in the stadium.
Thursday evening continued with the fun of Polly's It's a Gay Knockout at New York New York, where VMFC took on the Spartans, NYNY, Frontrunners, Manchester Pride, Bolton Pride, G-A-Y and a host of other teams at games such as Get the Sausage in My Hoop, High Heeled Egg & Spoon and Handbag Tossing.
VMFC entered two teams, with one of them making it to the final where we took on the might of the Village Spartans rugby team in the Tug 'o War. It was a surprise to many, but our footie lads, half the size of their rugby counterparts, were victorious, making VMFC the Knockout champions for the third year running!
Friday
Friday evening saw us take a team to Wright Robinson where we welcomed Mersey Marauders and Yorkshire Terriers to the second Manchester Pride Cup. Whereas last year was a straightforward match against Mersey, this year's mini tournament was made up of three half hour games. The results were:
VMFC 0-0 Yorkshire Terriers
Yorkshire Terriers 0-4 Mersey Marauders
Mersey Marauders 0-2 VMFC
giving Terriers 1 point, Mersey 3 points and VMFC 4 points, making VMFC winners for the second year.
We would like to thank Terriers and Mersey for taking part (Friday evening on the M62 anyone?) and also to Jason, Gavin and Andy for refereeing.
Saturday
And then it was to the parade itself, where we proudly marched with dozens of other groups and hundreds of other participants, in front of thousands of cheering Mancunian spectators. With colour, spectacle and a serious message of diversity and inclusion, the parade is still important and we were delighted to be part of it.
Proud!
Words and photos Steve Joyce.