UK AIDS Memorial Quilt on display in Manchester for Pride weekend

A historic block of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt is going on show at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel during Manchester Village Pride, offering a chance to remember those lost to HIV and AIDS.

A powerful block of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt is going on public display in Manchester this week, giving visitors a chance to honour those lost to HIV and AIDS during the epidemic.

Block 47 of the historic memorial is on show at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel from Monday 24 August until Monday 31 August, coinciding with Manchester Village Pride, which runs from Friday 28 to Monday 31 August.

The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt tells the stories of many of those lost in the early days of the HIV AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s. Each individual panel commemorates someone who died of AIDS and has been lovingly made by their friends, lovers or family.

The Quilt is part of the largest piece of community folk art in the world. It was conceived in 1985, during the early years of the AIDS pandemic, when social stigma prevented many AIDS victims from receiving funerals. Gay rights activist Cleve Jones made the first panel in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman in the USA.

Activist Ally Van Tillo (formerly Alastair Hume), founder of The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, began coordinating the UK version in the late 1980s. Individual panels measuring 3ft by 6ft — symbolic of a typical grave plot — were stitched together to form 12ft by 12ft blocks, with the UK Quilt representing over 600 people lost to HIV and AIDS.

At a time when intense stigma meant many died unnamed and unmourned in public, the creation of the Quilt was a profound act of defiance. It declared that these individuals existed, they mattered, and they will never be forgotten.

Today, thanks to medical advances, people on effective antiretroviral treatment can live healthy, long lives, and those with an undetectable viral load cannot pass the virus on — a fact known as U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable). However, stigma and inequality remain significant barriers.

Seven UK HIV support charities formed the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt Partnership in 2014 to conserve and display the quilt publicly as much as possible. The partnership includes George House Trust, Terrence Higgins Trust, The Food Chain, Sahir House, Positively UK, Waverley Care and Positive East.

The display at the Kimpton Clocktower is free to view throughout the week. Manchester Village Pride CIC, the community-run organisation behind this year's Pride celebrations, is hosting the memorial as part of the weekend's events.

More information about the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt is available at aidsquiltuk.org.