PAST EVENTS
PROTEST! - DOCUMENTING DISSENT - ON THE SCENE
A ONE-NIGHT-ONLY IMMERSIVE EVENT THAT MERGES QUEER CLUB NIGHT, HISTORICAL RE-ENACTMENT, AND FILMMAKING.
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WEDNESDAY 20 AUGUST 2025
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19:30 22:00
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FAIRFIELD SOCIAL CLUB IRK STREET, MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, M4 4JT
A One-Night-Only Queer Party x Live Film Set Experience
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Step into February 1988.
You’ve just marched through the streets of Manchester in the UK’s largest-ever LGBT+ protest. Now? It’s time to dance, defy—and make history.
ON THE SCENE is a one-off immersive queer party, part of the SCENE festival—and also a working film set. You’ll be transported to a lovingly recreated 1988 gay bar, where you’ll party like it's '88, guided by our fierce resident drag queen and surrounded by the iconic sounds and fashion of the era.
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But this is more than a party.
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You’ll also be part of the set for a brand-new short film about Section 28—capturing your joy, defiance, and best moves in the background (or maybe even the foreground) of this vital story of queer protest.​​​​​​​
Oral History Training
Saturday 21st June
10am - 4pm
Location: Manchester Central Library, St Peters Square, City Centre, M2 5PD
Please arrive at the front, main entrance to the library, where somebody will be able to direct you to the training room.
Access:
The library is open 9am-5pm on Saturday if you wanted to arrive/ stay beyond the stated times.
Please find the Library's information on accessibility here.
If you have any access requirements or requests, please get in touch.
As this is an all day event, there will be breaks, and please do what you need in order to make yourself comfortable and able to participate on the day- e.g moving around/ bringing fidgets/ taking breaks or using reader guides.
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The training is FREE, and provided on the premise that it will be used for your engagement in PROTEST! collecting oral histories.
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By attending the training, you are committing to arranging at least one time slot to interview somebody for PROTEST!
All interviewers need to have completed oral histories training to take part.
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We are really excited to share this day and work together as a team, thinking about how we can capture the incredible stories surrounding Section 28 and Manchester's Protests.​​​​​
QUEER PUB QUIZ!
On the 10th June at 6pm, at Aviva Studios, we will be joined by Louise Wallwein to celebrate pride month with a special quiz exploring protest, Queer history and Manchester’s anti-Section 28 demonstration.
Louise is a legendary poet, performer and one of the organisers and front liners of the 1988 anti-Section 28 protest.​
Connect, learn and join the PROTEST!
Trafford Archives session
Saturday 5th April 2025 11.00 am – 3.00 pm
Sale Library, Waterside, Sale M33 7ZF
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Come and join us and get connected and to your local LGBT+ History. All of us have a personal archive – In a special box, in a messy drawer, in a cherished album…
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We are looking for YOU to share your memories of LGBT+ heritage in Trafford and beyond – Badges, gig tickets, posters, home-made banners, zines and almost anything else. We want to digitise and share these important pieces of our shared heritage.
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Come and meet our PROTEST! team and get involved – drop in anytime between 11.00 and 3.00.
AN AFTERNOON OF FUN AND ACTIVISM!
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Everyone welcome.​
Film Screening
HOME MANCHESTER
Wednesday 12 March, 6.15 - 8.00pm
Film Screening + Post-Screening Discussion: Reframing AIDS (Pratibha Parmar, 1987, 35mins) and Video 28 (Vera Productions, 1988, 20mins), followed by a discussion and Q&A with Monica Pearl (University of Manchester), Jackie Stacey (University of Manchester) and Joshua Val Martin (IAP:MCR)
Images: Vera Productions, Video 28
​Join us for a screening of two films foregrounding the campaigning spirit and activism of feminist protest in 1980s UK. Combining archival footage, interviews, and media clips Pratibha Parmar’s Reframing AIDS (1987) and Vera Productions Video 28 (1988) explore the histories of widespread collective movements around the slow government response to the AIDS crisis, and Section 28 of the Local Government Act which prohibited ‘the promotion of homosexuality’. A post-screening discussion with Jackie Stacey, Monica Pearl and Joshua Val Martin will bring first hand experiences with AIDS activism and protest against Section 28 into dialogue with current debates about the fight against ongoing oppression.
This event is co-sponsored by IAP:MCR, The University of Manchester and HOME. This is one of a series of film screenings accompanying the Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990 exhibition currently touring from Tate Britain and on view at Whitworth Gallery 7 March – 1 June 2025.
