SWINDON and Wiltshire Pride is returning in style this weekend.

Stay Another Day hitmakers East 17 and Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK star Veronica Green will headline the event in the Town Gardens on Saturday.

Though the usual parade through Wood Street has been called off, there will still be plenty of colourful decorations and family fun including a Fandangos circus zone, shopping stalls, a deckchair zone, a wellbeing tent and an arts and crafts area.

East 17 are best known for their Christmas number one, while Veronica Green has some singing experience herself as a musical theatre performer who appeared in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat before joining Ru Paul’s reality TV competition.

Level 3 will be hosting the after-party with Danny Beard – tickets are available for £8.50 from the Pride website swindonwiltshirepride.co.uk

Swindon and Wiltshire Pride chair Jo Wilson said: “Many thanks to everyone that has supported this, and our amazing sponsors that have stood with us.

“A lot of planning and changes have been made to ensure our event can return. Help us make Pride 2021 a safe and amazing event by following the guidelines we have in place.”

There will be international and UK performers entertaining the crowd throughout the day on the Nationwide Main Stage and Stephen G Sloan Stage.

All profits from the bar go back to the Swindon and Wiltshire Pride charity and help to keep the event free.

Safety guidelines in place include guests checking in with the track-and-trace app and having their temperatures checked on arrival, hand sanitiser stations, queue management, and mask wearing is recommended in crowded spaces. Contactless payments are encouraged and anyone with coronavirus symptoms should stay home.

Organisers have made the event more accessible by coning off a disabled parking zone along Quarry Road, recruiting Arval-sponsored sign language interpreters for the main stage, and setting up a Mobiloo pop-up changing places facility which has a hoist and adult-sized changing bench.

Nationwide Building Society is the main sponsor for the event, which first launched in 2008 in Swindon and expanded to include and represent all of Wiltshire in 2009 then attained charity status in 2019.