What is Red & Wild?

Red & Wild is Manchester's annual World AIDS Day Festival raising awareness and funds for HIV and Aids related charities in the North West region. It began on World Aids Day, back in December 2004.

Why is it called Red & Wild?

As you can imagine with any event of any size, many names are thrown into a hat until the name that stands out at you resonates with everyone involved.

Red & Wild was selected to be the name of the original one night only event back in 2004 when the event was held at The Thompsons Arms. It was chosen by Festival Director Chris Hague, and originally came from the motion picture "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar" starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze and John Leguizamo.

The reason why this name was selected was because the movie featured an event called Red & Wild that brought together a diverse community of individuals together on one day for a cause. This was at the very core of the future aims of the Red & Wild Festival.

In 2006 when the event became a ten day festival, the name remained. Even though World AIDS Day is key in the remembrance of those who have lost loved ones, it is also important that we celebrate the lives lost and focus on awareness of safe sex to a new generation, still unaware of the full facts of how HIV can be transmitted.

When is Red & Wild on?

Red & Wild returns on Friday, 23rd November until Sunday, 2nd December 2007.

Although this is our main ten day fundraising period covering World AIDS Day, some companies providing fundraising and support are holding Red & Wild events outside of our ten day period. To discover more, see our What's On section provided by RealManchester.com.

Is it still a fundraising event?

Absolutely, yes! Red & Wild has worked closely with the former Operation Fundraiser initiative and is now continuing to work closely with officials from The Lesbian & Gay Foundation and the George House Trust to ensure that all donations received from the general public go to the causes that need it the most.

This year, your donations will once again be divided equally between The Lesbian & Gay Foundation (LGF) and the George House Trust (GHT). The LGF will use the funds received to keep the Safe Sex Pack free to the public and GHT will use the funds to help those currently requiring support from The Community Welfare Fund.

Is Red & Wild a charity?

No. But don't let that put you off donating. All our volunteers are officially checked by the charities and all our donation buckets are sealed independently by the charities.

All donations received are counted by the charities in the presence of an independent witness to allow us to give you an accurate total at the end of the festival and to allow the donations to be distributed equally.

The Lesbian & Gay Foundation - reg. charity 1070904
George House Trust - reg. charity 700 364

How is Red & Wild paid for?

Red & Wild receives no initial funding to put on the festival. Everything we need comes from generous donations from businesses and organisations within Manchester.

For example, in order to keep stationery costs to a minimum, Red & Wild communicates more by email than any other means.

Visiting businesses and groups across Manchester is kept to a minimum to ensure travel expenses are reduced (these costs are covered by the individual visiting).

All our posters have been kindly printed by businesses within The Village who have absorbed any costs incurred. Our flyers each year have been donated by local printing companies that Red & Wild works closely with on other projects. In 2005, our flyers were donated by AlphaGraphics, in 2006 by ProntaPrint and in 2007 by Printing.com.

Our banners, which will remain the same in 2007 have been designed for free by AXM Media and paid for with funds from Amicus The Union. Our T-shirts and high visability jackets for our volunteers were paid for together by Operation Fundraiser and AXM Bar.

This year, our festival guide has been paid for through advertising revenue and our charity cd album has been donated to us by Liberty Music Records.

As you can see, it is our belief that we can cover any costs that are required helping us to keep the promise of donating 100% of all collections to charity. In 2006, we covered all our costs, which resulted in not a single penny being taken out of the £23,785.48 total.