Maidstone welcomes first Pride event organised by thirteen year old girl

Pride flags and banners have been flying high in Maidstone, as the town is celebrating after holding its first-ever Pride festival.

Transcript

00:00It's been a day to remember for Maidstone, as the town celebrated its first ever Pride Festival.

00:07Starting off with a parade towards Jubilee Square, the party was then taken to the Lock Meadow,

00:13where visitors were treated to performances from a variety of LGBTQ plus artists.

00:20Well as you can see behind me, Maidstone's first ever Pride is absolutely packed,

00:27and while it literally rained on their parade earlier,

00:30it hasn't stopped them from bringing their own rainbow and sunshine to the town.

00:35Maidstone Pride was made possible because of a small group of young people

00:40with a £2,000 grant from the Borough Council. Maidstone Pride's founder is only 13 years old.

00:48Me and my mum went to London Pride and on the train back, I asked why was there a Maidstone

00:53Pride and my mum said she wasn't sure, and it was showing to me that they hadn't already had one

00:59and that Maidstone didn't have that sense of inclusivity or diversity that other towns did.

01:04Pride festivals are about bringing a sense of love and belonging to the LGBTQ plus community,

01:11and then there's the all-important question on whether or not the turnout met expectations.

01:17I expected it to be exactly like this, a lot more people turned up than I thought,

01:21and I thought a lot of people would turn up, a bit more than I thought would actually happen,

01:26and the parade went very well. Where we could have Maidstone Pride was pretty hard,

01:30so there was a lot of debate where we could have it. We finally settled on Log Meadow,

01:33which I think is a good venue. I asked visitors about the importance of Maidstone's first Pride.

01:40I think it's really good because there's a lot, especially in Maidstone, there's got a lot of

01:46acceptance for people a lot of the time. I think it's very important, especially with the parade,

01:56because people get to see that queer people are humans.

02:06Because it's not always known as the most accepted community in Maidstone,

02:10so it's even better to have, you know, a Pride event here.

02:15I think it's really lovely that Maidstone's actually doing this.

02:19It's like, well, I've seen so many Prides going on in other places, but never here.

02:23It looks like Maidstone Pride will be looking to stay,

02:27with supporters waiting eagerly for next year's celebrations.

02:31Henry Luck for KMTV in Maidstone.