Big name stars at Leeds Pride's tenth anniversary party

Events will be taking place across the city over the Leeds Pride weekend from Friday August 5 to Monday 8.

Sunday August 7 will be the main Leeds Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Pride celebration day.

The party will get underway at 12pm on the Sainsbury’s Parade stage in Millennium Square with two hours of entertainment headlined by Soft Cell frontman Marc Almond.

At 2pm, the hugely popular parade will weave its way through the city centre with the thousands of people and more than 50 floats taking to the city’s streets to fly their rainbow flags with pride.

Five-hours of entertainment will start at 3pm on the Trinity sponsored main stage on Lower Briggate.

UK Eurovision duo Joe and Jake will perform as well as Girls Aloud member Sarah Harding.

X factor winner and West End star Alexandra Burke will be headlining what promises to be the most successful Pride to date.

Around Lower Briggate there will also be a market place, funfair rides, a family and Children’s area and a chill out zone run by the Time to Shine project.

Liaqat Ali, vice chair of Leeds Pride, said: “We have got more than 50 parade entries this year. There will be at least five open-top buses and four or five large vehicles with either a live bad or a DJ.

“Last year we had 32,000 people throughout the day, this year we think there will be more. The parade is about 30 per cent bigger than it was last year.

First Direct are the official partner of this year’s Leeds Pride with other sponsors including Sainsbury’s, Trinity and Asda.

Mr Ali said: “They (First Direct) have put a lot of money into it so we are getting a lot more acts than we used to. It is going to be absolutely huge.”

For more information, go to www.leedspride.com