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UK. Flying the rainbow flag loud and proud, Manchester Airport brings brilliant technicolour to our Images of the Day column as the company celebrates its headline sponsorship of Wilmslow Pride 2026, taking place this weekend in the Cheshire town.
Returning after the success of its inaugural edition in 2025, Wilmslow Pride will once again bring together residents, visitors and local organisations for a two-day programme of live entertainment, performances, community stalls and family-friendly activities across different venues.
As headline sponsor, Manchester Airport is supporting this key community event through its Fly With Pride colleague network.
The group is working with event organisers to promote the festival while advancing inclusion and diversity within the local community and across the airport’s 20,000-plus workforce.
Manchester Airports Group Talent & Diversity Director Cat Davys said: “We are delighted to be supporting Wilmslow Pride this year as its headline sponsor.
“This is an event rooted in its local community that is going from strength to strength. It’s important to us that we support community-led initiatives in areas like Wilmslow, ensuring they feel the benefit of having a major hub like Manchester Airport on their doorstep.
“Equality, Diversity and Inclusion are also extremely important values to us as an employer – last year we launched a five-year EDI Strategy with ambitions to become an industry leader in this area – so partnering with Wilmslow Pride is a great fit for us.
“We share the event’s ethos of connecting local people from all walks of life and encouraging them to celebrate difference and be their authentic selves.”
Fly With Pride leader Brian Wood added: “We are absolutely thrilled to be the headline sponsor of Wilmslow Pride, a beautiful, blossoming celebration happening right on our doorstep.
“From its very beginning, this event has been rooted in love, inclusion and community, and that’s exactly why it matters so deeply to us.
“Wilmslow Pride is proudly family-led, joy-filled and welcoming, creating a safe and affirming space where LGBTQIA+ people of all ages can be visible, celebrated and embraced for exactly who they are.
“It brings neighbours, friends and families together under a shared rainbow, reminding us that pride is about connection, kindness and belonging. Supporting Wilmslow Pride is our colleague community’s way of standing loud, proud and united with the LGBTQIA+ community today, tomorrow and always.”
Wilmslow Pride Co-founder Richard Dash commented: “Wilmslow Pride was born from something personal. Growing up in a small town in Cornwall with very little queer representation around me, I know firsthand how much it matters to see yourself reflected in the community you call home.
“Together with an incredible group of people, we built Wilmslow Pride from the ground up. What we didn’t fully anticipate was just how much this community would embrace it and the response has been overwhelming.
“Pride isn’t just an event. It’s a message to every young person in this town who might be quietly wondering whether there’s a place for them here. There is, and there always was. Wilmslow Pride exists to make sure they know it.” ✈
AIRPORT INCLUSIVITY WORLDThis story forms part of our Airport Inclusivity World coverage, the latest addition to our diverse, market-leading travel retail and airport non-aeronautical revenues content. Airport Inclusivity World embraces a wide array of key subjects including airport Accessibility, Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity and Mobility. With the World Health Organization estimating that 1.3 billion people – about one in six worldwide – experience significant disability, we see this subject as a key element in our world-leading passenger experience content.
More widely, we regard airports as a crossroads of humanity, gateways of the world that theoretically are unshackled by class, cultural, racial, religious, gender, age, nationality or sexual orientation barriers. We feel a deep commitment to and responsibility for championing and advancing that status. Keep an eye out for our Airport Inclusivity World LinkedIn newsletter, coming soon. Read the permanently archived website stories from our Airport Inclusivity World coverage here. Please send relevant material, including images, to Martin Moodie at Martin@MoodieDavittReport.com for instant, quality global coverage. |
