Crowds flock to Canterbury for Pride parade

Plus we see what Pride means to those attending. Kai Wei reports

Transcript

00:00June marked the start of Pride Month, a month taken to celebrate everyone in the LGBTQIA plus

00:09community, and here in Kent there aren't a short of celebrations. Now despite the

00:18gloomy weather it seems nothing is gonna rain down on this parade. As you can see

00:22hundreds are lining the streets to celebrate Canterbury Pride. Canterbury

00:26Pride is one of the county's biggest celebrations for this month and this

00:30year will be their tenth one although it looks quite different to the others as

00:34this year they've had to move due to construction. We've got a temporary home

00:37over here in the Westgate Gardens and it but it's still as busy we're seeing

00:41thousands of people coming. It's more of a festival kind of feel so we're actually in

00:44two parts of the Westgate Gardens. We've got Bit and Toddler's Cove which is a lot of our

00:47family stalls, we've got Bouncing Castles, people like Kempfire and Rescue and the

00:52Police, we've got a wedding chapel where people can come and get unofficially

00:56married. We've got everywhere you can write a note to yourself and we'll send it

01:05back to you in the future and so it's just a really lovely calm friendly vibe

01:10today. While I was there I also asked people at the event what Pride means to

01:14them. What does Pride mean to you? Everything. It's showing up for yourself and it's

01:20showing up for your community. Pride is like inclusivity, everybody's welcome, you

01:26know no one's judged, it's a judge-free zone. It's a protest, it's really important

01:31that we keep Pride like a positive welcoming space for everybody because

01:36it's the sort of thing that a lot of people here don't get that a lot of the

01:40around. Acceptance, visibility and kind of being who you are. Someone to come where

01:46they feel comfortable and appreciate love is love at the end of the day. Pride is

01:52really important to us because we're an inclusive organisation. I feel like I'm with

01:56people that know kind of what I'm going through in a way and how proud it is to

02:02be different, that you don't have to hide yourself. In a time when politically and

02:07socially it's a bit tenuous at the moment, it's nice that we can be visible. It's

02:14about putting on a bit of colour, coming out and reminding people that we still

02:17need to carry on. Whilst we've come so far and a lot of people are very grateful we

02:21still have to keep those rights and keep pushing for the rights of those who are

02:25less, you know, who don't have as many as we do. It's clear that this festival was

02:29more than just a rainbow of colours, as Canterbury stands together with pride.

02:33Kai Wei for KMTV in Canterbury.