The queer Asian performers making history at Manchester Pride 2023

Closing out the cabaret stage at Manchester Pride last year was a moment that performer Jason Kwan says he will never forget.

As one part of the UK’s first queer pan-Asian collective The Bitten Peach - and a fully-fledged singer-songwriter in his own right - Jason was taken aback by the huge turnout for the performance.

“It was such an amazing vibe,” Jason tells the M.E.N. “It was incredible to see so many Asian people in the audience. I think Eastern and South East Asian queer people can be very invisible in the UK so It was a chance for us to disrupt that perception and be vocal and be loud about who we are.”

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Not only will the Bitten Peach return to this year’s Manchester Pride but they will also take part in the festival’s first ever Queer Asian Takeover. Alongside the collective, it will feature Gok Wan, Gracie T, Val The Brown Queen and House of Spice, an LGBTQ+ South Asian and Middle Eastern performance house.

Lucky Roy Singh, a Manchester-based Indian Sikh drag performer and mother of the House of Spice, says the Queer Asian Takeover is long-overdue and will showcase the wealth of Asian performers who do not often get the same bookings as others within the LGBTQ+ community.

“I became a performer as a way of taking back control of my identity,” Lucky, who will be hosting the takeover, says. “It was a Black trans woman who took a chance on me and booked me for my first gig eight years ago.

“I think the Queer Asian Takeover is important as it’s the first of its kind. We are very underrepresented in film, TV and fashion but also when it comes to drag and queer spaces.

“We belong in these spaces, and the Takeover represents us taking up the space and showcasing