Wakefield Pride celebrates 20th anniversary

Wakefield Pride included a parade through the city centre featuring a large rainbow flag

Thousands of people, many dressed in rainbow colours, have taken part in the 2024 Wakefield Pride event.

This year marked the 20th anniversary of the event and featured a parade through the city centre.

The parade included a drum band, rock choir, drag artists and a huge rainbow flag which was carried through the streets.

The march was led by members of the Lesbian & Gays Support the Miners to mark the 40th anniversary of the miners' strikes.

MP Simon Lightwood, Mayor Darren Byford and Deputy Lieutenant Jon Hammond launched the event

The parade set off at 12:00 BST from Trinity Walk and marched through the city centre before heading down Northgate Road to the event space at Borough Road car park.

The headline sponsor for the event was YPO, a publicly owned supplier for schools, local authorities, charities and emergency services.

Thousands of people from various organisation in Wakefield took part in the parade

During the miners’ strike in 1984, a group of miners from the Dulais Valley in South Wales were supported by the campaign group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM).

In return, miners joined the Pride march in London in 1985.

The story was depicted in the 2014 film Pride.

Members of Lesbian & Gays Support the Miners led the parade

Two of the founding members of LGSM, Mike Jackson and Jonathan Blake, attended the Wakefield Pride event.

Mr Blake, 75, described it as an "honour" to be invited and said: "I think it's amazing - all of these prides.

"No one would have ever thought back then that this would have happened."

Mike Jackson, the co-founder of LGSM, said: "For us it is just fantastic that, 40 years since the miners' strike in a mining community like Wakefield, people are so proud of their heritage and the fight they put to keep the pits going."

"Forty years ago we had absolutely no legal rights whatsoever.

"People could lose their jobs for being out. If you do not have rights anyone can do anything to you."

The 70-year-old added: "Now, 40 years on, we are all astonished by how far we have come."

The parade began at 12:00 BST

The parade was a sea of rainbow flags and bright colours