Huge crowds turned out for Brighton Pride, with around 300,000 expected to participate in the celebration over the weekend.
Marking its 35th anniversary, it drew headline act Raye on Saturday and it is set to welcome Diana Ross on Sunday at its mainstage event, Pride in the Park.
Over the two-day music festival, Five, Jessie J, Self Esteem, Leigh-Anne and RuPaul will perform, including a DJ set.
The first Brighton Pride march took place in July 1973, organised by the Sussex Gay Liberation Front.
But only a small part of the community felt safe enough to take part, organisers have said, and Pride did not return to the seaside city again until 1991.
For this milestone year, Brighton and Hove Pride sought to honour early activists and “remember the courage it took to be visible” as a member of the LGBT+ community.
Some 300,000 people are expected to participate or watch the parade, while up to 450,000 people are estimated to turn out city-wide for Pride, making it the biggest in the UK.
The event brings a big boost to the local economy, and organisers say it has raised more than £1.4m for LGBTQ+ causes.
The Pride parade set off from Hove Lawns at 11am on Saturday, travelling along King’s Road, West Street, North Street and London Road.
It ended near Preston Park, where the two-day Pride on the Park festival is taking place.
Organisers say roads will be closed around Preston Circus to allow the parade to disperse, as in previous years. They are set to reopen at around 4.30pm.
Brighton and Hove Pride comes just a week after a van and stabbing attack in Berlin left one person dead and injured at least 29 others.
People carried placards in support of the German city, saying, “We stand with Berlin.”
Following the fatal attack at the Berlin event, which defence secretary Wes Streeting condemned as “absolutely horrific”, police confirmed that armed officers would be present.
Speaking ahead of the events, managing director Paul Kemp said he knows the community is thinking of the people affected and that “we are coming out, and we are not going away”.
He has been managing director of the city’s Pride since 2013 but first became involved with it as a club promoter for the first dance tent on the level in the mid-1990s.
Mr Kemp said, “I think it’s kind of poignant because this year our parade is the 35th anniversary; it’s the power of love and I think it’s really focused minds from a community perspective and the general climate of the feeling that LGBT rights are being rolled back.”
