Shining stars of Blackpool Pride stage revealed

American pop star and former beauty queen CeCe Peniston, Steps lead singer Claire Richards, 80s legend Chesney Hawkes and Blackpool’s own Betty Legs Diamond will take to the stage at the Comedy Carpet this summer in a huge celebration of the resort’s diverse LGBT community.

The festival will begin on the night of Friday, June 7, when Flamingo, on Queen Street, will host the first semi-final of Pride Stars, an international competition to decide the headline acts of Maspalomas Winter Pride in the Canary Islands.

The Pride march will set off from South Pier on Saturday at 11am and head down to the Tower Headland, where the main stage will be alive with music and entertainment from noon until 9pm.

The festival will continue on Sunday on Queen Street in partnership with The Flying Handbag and Kaos clubs.

Blackpool Pride organiser Callum Gillies said: “The Comedy Carpet is the new home for Pride this year and it’s going to be bigger and better than ever.

“We are expecting an aucidence of around 10,000 this year, and we have got a line-up of six headliners in total, and that includes performers from our local community.

“We’ll be dropping the rest of the acts this weekend over social media.

“The theme this year is ‘Pride beside the seaside’, so we’re really bringing Blackpool into it. The aim is to make sure there’s something for everyone with a diverse selection of acts.”

“Out of all our acts there will be one someone will know and relate to no matter what age they are.”

A special guest host, who Callum said was a ‘well known TV presenter’ will be announced at a later date.

Tickets for the Saturday main stage start at £10.50 and are available from www.worldtravellounge.co.uk or from the World Travel Lounge on Birley Street, Blackpool.