ORGANISERS of Bolton Pride are planning a parade through the town — but need £3,000 to make it happen.

The three-day festival, which is in its second year, will take place over the last weekend in September.

More than 2,000 people attended the gay pride festival last year and organisers have promised to make this year's celebrations much more visible in the town.

To do so, £3,000 is needed for a Pride parade to take place in the town centre and an open air concert to be held.

The costs will cover road closures, highway patrols and stewarding — and a fundraising page has been set up to help the cause.

Mark Geary, co-founder and director of Bolton Pride, said: "Bolton Pride is now in its second year and plans are well underway for a bigger festival.

"After the huge success of last year’s festival we held several focus group meetings with attendees and with our partners and one of the main subjects to come from those meetings was the need for Bolton Pride to be more visible and the need for Bolton Pride to have a parade.

"Seeing the town come together as one to stand up to hate crime with this parade is one of our core objectives for this year’s festival — and to make that happen we really need the public's support.

"We need £1,000 urgently so we can book the road closures for the event which would secure the parade and ensure that it will happen."

Details of this year's events were released earlier last month with a variety show performance, a candlelit vigil and a Pride party among just some of what is in store.

A number of live acts and guests are yet to be announced.

Mr Geary added: "The public's support will mean that Bolton Pride shall have a parade which will unite the town with an event which shall not only be a celebration but it will also be an historic event —Bolton’s first ever LGBT Pride parade, showing that we can all stand together against hate crime."

To donate to the cause go to www.gofundme.com/boltonprideparade