With our Audio Always headquarters in Salford, Greater Manchester, we are proud of our deep and wide reaching relationship with Manchester Pride. As an official media partner, we have worked closely with the Pride team to bring The Gossip Gays podcast to the event once again for Manchester Pride 2025 working in partnership with Amazon Music. Below podcast producer Lillie-Mae Stubbs explains how this year’s parade came together.

By Lillie-Mae Stubbs

WOW. This year, Manchester Pride was an absolute explosion of pure love and joy. A couple of days later and I’m still buzzing. As a producer for The Gossip Gays, planning this year’s parade float was on a whole other level, and as an official media partner, we wanted to go bigger and bolder.

This is our second year in the parade, so, how do you top the effort from last year? How about a giant helium balloon?

The entire theme of Pride this year was LOVE, and with our slogan for this year’s event being”Lifted by Love, Carried by the Community”. Danny Beard, one of the podcast presenters, had the genius idea for a giant branded balloon, and that balloon became the undisputed star of our parade entry. We wanted to make sure we’re still showing up big, in a year where there’s been lots of headlines around the commercial challenges around pride events across the UK! 

Danny and co-presenter DJ Billy Andrew travelled in style in their iconic Rolls Royce from last year. We had a lovely reunion with our driver, and we also had way more volunteers made up of friends, family and Audio Always staff walking with us this time, which was truly amazing. Plus, Danny’s friend Sophie brought her drums, adding the most incredible, thumping beat to our parade entry. 

A big shout out to Amazon Music, who supported us for the second year running. It took every single person to pull off this epic collaboration!

Behind the scenes, it was a massive team effort! Pete Linney, our amazing Executive producer alongside Oli Seymour, Rosa Williams and Paul Fernley were the core team making all the magic happen. And we had an army of incredible helpers, including Ollie Young, Kimi Loftus, Beks Chapman, Bertie Moores, Ben Cartwright, Tom Hinkley, and Alex Barnes.

One of the most powerful moments was seeing so many families and kids lining the streets, full of joy and excitement. It’s never been more important to make sure the LGBTQ+ is represented, so seeing pure, unadulterated queer joy was the most powerful antidote. As queer people we have lived the effects of being told being this way isn’t okay and to be ashamed, so we want to ensure the next generations don’t feel that way.

Here’s hoping the next generation also appreciates our efforts of hauling up the balloon from the bottom of Liverpool Road to the top was a real mission! Pete, Kimi, Beks, and I had to wrestle with this massive, three-foot-wide balloon all the way, but watching everyone stare and take pictures of us struggling made every single second worth it.

The cheers, the smiles, the flags waving. The crowd’s reaction was everything I could have hoped for. Watching Danny and Billy sing and wave and seeing the crowd go wild when they waved back was so lovely. I also will NEVER get sick of the Gossip Gays community calling me ‘Mother Mae’ and hearing that, knowing its people who have welcomed me in was also really emotional for me. Often the LGBTQ+ has felt dominated by men. I was apprehensive when I became more of an ‘on-mic’ producer, of how people would react, but the love I have felt from people across the community has been beautiful and to be a voice for women in our community is an honour. Seeing so many women proudly adorning their lesbian, bi and pan flags made me burst with pride.

In the lead-up to Pride we were passionate about highlighting trans rights on the podcast. It’s been a scary, threatening and tumultuous year for the trans community, and it’s no coincidence that our podcast colours mirror the trans flag. Pride is about love, allyship, and community. This year’s Manchester Pride was a powerful reminder that when we stand together, we are unstoppable, but it doesn’t stop here and we will continue to have the conversations we need to have for our community and bring the joy we deserve on the podcast.