UP to 3,500 festival-goers will pack into the Penistone area for gay pride music event on a 30-acre farm site.

Pinkfields festival will take place at Cuckold Carr Farm in Gunthwaite, owned by the Peace family, on the weekend of May 24 and 25.

Headline acts include boy band A1, which had two UK number one singles in 2000, MOBO award-winning hip hop group Big Brovaz and former X Factor contestant Amelia Lily.

The event has been organised by Andy Edmondson, a former pub landlord who used to run the Forsters Arms in Lower Cumberworth, near Denby Dale, to support the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement after it helped his family cope with the sex change of his nephew Matthew, 18.

 

Andy, 43, who plans to discuss the festival with nearby residents in the next few days, said: "LGBT have been an absolute tower of strength to my family.

"It wasn't just Matthew who had questions, it was the whole family. I genuinely don't know where we'd be without them. They have stopped my family splitting up on more than one occasion.

"I wanted to put something on a little bit different and see if we can do it - this is not a guy who's just having a party in a field."

Other artists booked for the farm, on Coach Gate Lane, include Angie Brown, of The Voice, and 1990s' dance act Bizarre Inc, singer-songwriter Tina Cousins and former Hacienda DJ Dave Booth, while there will also be circus entertainers and an open mic stage.