Sparkle
The National
Transgender Charity
Sparkle - The National Transgender Charity is a 21 year old, voluntary-led registered UK charity. Our reach extends to people who identify as trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming, their partners, families, friends, and wider society which they are part of.
Sparkle is run by a team of dedicated and passionate volunteers, over 85% of which identify as trans, non-binary or gender diverse. We have no paid staff or sessional workers.
The Annual Sparkle Weekend
26th - 28th June 2026
The Sparkle Weekend is the longest running celebration of trans lives in the UK, taking place in Sackville Gardens in Manchester's Gay Village.
The Sparkle Weekend is a family friendly festival-style event, featuring live entertainment, workshops, wellbeing activities, family and youth provision, sober spaces, market traders, food, drink, and much more! The event is open to all ages, backgrounds, and identities.
We want to bring together our gender variant community, to bring together joy, hope and celebration for the last weekend in June. The Sparkle Weekend has been a cornerstone of the LGBTQIA+ Community here in Manchester for the past 21 years. You can be sure of acceptance, celebration and a very warm welcome by our team, volunteers and other attendees. We aren’t just a community celebration, we are a family.
Sparkle Weekend Tickets
Sparkle Charity have made the decision to introduce paid tickets this year.
We have struggled with the rising costs of delivering accessible and safe events. Our team has tried very hard to secure sponsorship to keep the Sparkle Weekend free, but this has been difficult. This is partly due to a change in climate in the financial & corporate market, and the difficulty of being a grassroots trans charity.
These affordable tickets enable us to continue running the Sparkle Weekend and keep supporting the gender diverse community.
Contact Us
Sparkle - The National Transgender Charity
“I've been going for 15 years, and before I started living as my true self it was my safe place to just be me. Now I introduce allies to my happy place”