Thousands join colourful Pride parade in Spain's Madrid

Thousands of revellers gathered in Madrid for the Pride parade on Saturday afternoon.

They were full of excitement to join the first full-scale parade since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Although there was a small one last year, it didn't feature the colourful floats that are the highlight of the popular event.

Madrid Orgullo, as it's locally known, is considered to be Europe's largest Pride event.

It features a week of parties, concerts and community events in and around the capital's Chueca neighbourhood.

The celebrations culminate in a huge parade, with participants from all around the world.

So many revellers showed up on Saturday that the start of the parade was delayed by police, reportedly for security reasons.

The crowds were left to keep themselves cool as temperatures reached into the mid-30s Celsius (mid-90s Fahrenheit) by late afternoon.

Spain's cabinet last month approved a new draft of a LGBTQ rights bill.

If backed by parliament, it will allow people as young as 16 to change their gender freely, and those as young as 12 to do so with a judge's authorization.

This version of the bill is very similar to the one that was initially presented by the government a year ago but was held up due to debates within Spain's left-wing ruling coalition.