Bit of a shorter one from me this week, as I’m forensically making my way through a number of documents and chatting to performers who took part in this year’s Manchester Pride.

On Wednesday afternoon, it was announced that the organisation behind the North West LGBTQ+ event had gone into liquidation and said it had no longer been deemed ‘financially viable’ to operate due to rising costs and a reduction in ticket sales.

But this also casts doubt on the hundreds of performers - including many stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK - still awaiting payment. I spoke to a number of drag queens, DJs, and dancers last week (before Wednesday’s announcement) about this, who said there had been a lack of communication and clarity about when, or if, they would get paid.

Some said they had agreed to 60-day terms, which had concluded this week, whilst others were on shorter terms which had exceeded weeks ago. But they claimed that payment had still not been forthcoming.

One of the first performers to go public about their lack of payment last week was Zahirah Zapanta. She said she was ‘disappointed’ that she hadn’t been paid - and her Instagram post sparked many more comments.

“It’s just really frustrating as an artist to have put the work in, and then to be treated this way by what is one of the biggest Prides in the UK,” she explained.

“There are so many smaller performers who rely so much on events like this to financially cover themselves on a day-to-day basis. When it comes to gigs right now, people just aren’t turning up as much as they used to. For them to take so long and to not even give us a response to say they’re working on it, or to explain there are issues going on, is just really disrespectful.”

Lucky Roy Singh had led a collective celebrating queer Asian performers at this year’s event and said she felt responsible for the fact that she, and the artists she had selected to appear as part of the curated show, had not yet been paid. She even said she was considering selling her drag to help support her co-stars.

There’s a lot to unpack here, and there’s still a lot of information that will come out in the next few days. But what is known is that a number of staff have, through no fault of their own, lost their jobs and been made redundant. And hundreds of performers are still chasing money they deserved for a show they did two months ago.

Pride events are held for the LGBTQ+ community, to celebrate and uplift one another and it is genuinely heartbreaking that, through a few poor decisions, it is now that very same community that is being made to feel the brunt and potentially lose out.

The Equity union said it is working hard to get owed money for those who haven’t been paid, whilst the appointed liquidators will also be given details of performers, but it feels like it’s going to be a long, drawn out process before that money is where it belongs. And, until then, these performers will be out of pocket.

If you’re in, or around, Manchester in the next few weeks, or know any queens, dancers, singers or performers who took part in this year’s Manchester Pride, ask if they’re okay, ask how we can support them right now and just show them love. It’s not their fault this has happened.