Pride festival returns to Leamington

Daniel Browne (centre) with supporters at last year's Warwickshire Pride festival in Leamington.

But organiser Daniel Browne is keen that people of all ages and from all walks of life come along on the day. He said: “Last year was a bit of an experiment to see if Leamington was ready for a gay pride event, but it went better than I expected.

“This year I wanted to go bigger and better. I’m really keen that there will be something for everyone.”

So as well as live entertainment by the likes of drag queen Sassi Afrika and talks about LBGTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) issues throughout the day, there will be a variety of stalls, pamper treatments, massages, body piercings, reiki, children’s activities, food and music by local bands and artists.

Daniel, who runs his own charity Push Projects which supports LGBTQ people under 25, said: “There seems to be a lot of demand for this in Leamington. I was at the Peace Festival last weekend to promote Warwickshire Pride and I was surprised by how many people already knew about it and said they were really looking forward to it.”

Around 2,000 people went to last year’s inaugural event. This year, the festival runs from 11am until 7pm, with an after-party at ei8ht bar in High Street (tickets £5). Proceeds will be donated to Push Projects.

To find out more, visit www.warwickshirepride.co.uk