Chesterfield Pride: Party of the year is celebrated in 25 colourful photos

Brightly coloured outfits, accessories and face painting themed on the rainbow spectrum were worn by many of the 5,000 visitors who supported the event at Stand Road recreation ground on Sunday.

Organiser Dan Walker said: “It was fantastic to see so many people, when they knew it was going to be wet, turn up and party and celebrate. It was amazing – probably the best atmosphere we’ve had at the event."

Dan said there were many different attendees ranging from the LGBTQ+ community to families. “A lot of people have heard about the event in the past and came along for the first time,” he said. “From what we can see in ticket sales, we had visitors from Italy, Germany and Aberdeen.”

The furthest travelled entertainers were two members of the Eighties chart-topping boy band a1, who flew in from Norway especially to headline the celebration. Lead singer Ben Adams is married to a Norwegian and bandmate Christian Ingebrigtsen is a native of Norway.

A host of bands including Stooshe and Alex Party, singers Tinchy Stryder and Cher tribute artist Tania Alboni and drag queens, led by Baga Chipz from Ru Paul’s Drag Race, entertained at the Pride party.

Wet weather vanished by the time that the big names hit the stage. Dan said: “We had a spell of rain for about an hour and then it stopped; the skies cleared and it was pretty nice. We were lucky; Northern Pride, which is in Newcastle had to cancel their two-day event halfway through because of the rain.”

Tickets for Chesterfield Pride 2024 are expected to go on sale in the autumn.

Meanwhile, a petition launched at year’s event asserted that Chesterfield was proud to reaffirm that trans rights are human rights. The petition stated: “We believe that Chesterfield should be a safe place for all members of the LGBTQ+ communities and we shall stand together to protect all members of our communities. We utterly condemn the hostile media environment that has grown up around trans issues and we have seen national transphobic hate crime quadruple and homophobic hate crime has tripled (2017-2020 figures).”

The petition is to be presented to Chesterfield Borough Council and Derbyshire County Council.

County councillor Ed Fordham, who is co-ordinating the petition for Derbyshire LGBTQ+, said: “The aim is to unlock a discussion between local authorities and services such as the borough council, bus and rail providers, and employer networks to ensure that the small measures that make a difference to trans people are put in place in Chesterfield. The ambition is to make Chesterfield a safe place for the trans community and all those who identify as LGBTQ+.

“I was especially pleased that this attracted all party support with myself for the Liberal Democrats, Cllr Ludwig Ramsay for Labour and that we were joined by Zack Polanski, the deputy leader of the Green Party. Zack has been a personal friend of mine for many years and I have always maintained close links despite being in different parties - I was very excited and proud that he chose to join us at Chesterfield Pride for this launch of the petition.”