Mardi Gras reprieved after police extend alcohol zone

The gay Mardi Gras will go ahead in Manchester tomorrow after organisers reached a compromise with police over drinking restrictions.

The event, the biggest gay festival in Britain, had been cancelled earlier in the week in protest at a police decision to limit an alcohol tolerance zone to one street in Manchester's gay village.

Street drinking is banned in Manchester city centre, but the by-law is relaxed in certain areas for special events. The Village Business Association, which is organising the festival, claimed police were being homophobic because larger tolerance zones had been allowed for smaller events.

The tolerance zone covered the whole of the gay village during last year's Mardi Gras, but police initially wanted to limit it to Canal Street this year, hoping to avoid overcrowding.

Yesterday the association joined the police and Manchester City Council to announce a compromise in which street drinking would be allowed throughout the village during the day but in Canal Street only during the night. A parade of 90 floats has been rescheduled and a protest march called off.

John Hamilton, the association's chairman, said organisers regretted the accusations of homophobia and acknowledged the support the gay community had received from police. "The planned demonstration has now turned into a celebration of gay pride in Manchester and will now be part of the usual Mardi Gras parade," he said. "The businesses and community that make up the gay village are now committed to putting on the UK's biggest, most spectacular, most outrageous free gay party in history."

Chief Superintendent Tony Kane, divisional commander for Manchester city centre, said: "We welcome the resolution of the problems and we are now getting on with finalising the plans for what we hope to be a safe and enjoyable event."