In a city where one in five men are gay and the Brighton LGBT community accounts for 13 percent of the city’s population, there are no surprises that Brighton is officially the gayest city in the UK! This was reflected in the fun, flamboyant and rather extravagant Parade Carnival - comprising 50 plus floats - which travelled through the 125,000 people lining the streets of the city on Saturday 1 August to celebrate Pride In Brighton and Hove.

"The parade looked fantastic, with large crowds lining the street, and there were some superb floats," Judith Manson from Brighton Pride told us.

The parade was lead by members of the Gay Police Association,which included more than 100 officers and staff from forces across the UK. Sussex Police Ch. Supt. Graham Bartlett spoke to us on the day and said, "Each year we take part in the Pride parade, we receive overwhelming support from members of the public and the lesbian, gay and bisexual and transgender community."

A rather excitable Michael Stratford, 34, said, “I love Brighton Pride. I am not gay myself, but I just love the way the whole community comes out (no pun intended) to support and to cheer them on.”

The fun continued at Preston Park, as the carnival merged with stalls, music tents, DJs, cabaret tents, funfair rides and the guys from GaydarRadio. The park closed at 8pm and the slightly depleted crowds - thanks to the rain that fell from 1pm - headed over to Kemptown, Brighton’s busy gay scene, as the clubs continued into the small hours.

Re-live the day by taking a peek at our gallery. Can you spot yourself in our pics?

Brighton Pride 09 Gallery
As usual, click on the images below to reveal the full picture
 

Photos by www.mediaattention.co.uk. Click here to view their full Pride gallery.


Brighton Pride
Saturday 1 August 2009
www.brightonpride.org

For a list of all the UK Prides taking place in 2009 click the button below.