BOLTON Pride has announced the nominees of its Diversity Awards and its main-stage line up.

The weekend festival will begin on September 23 and a host of entertainers have been signed up to perform.

Kicking off the colourful event will be the Diversity Awards, at Bolton Whites Hotel.

On Friday the nominees for the five different categories were announced.

The Charity/Organisation nominees are: Bolton LGBT+, BiPhoria — a social support group for bisexual and bi-curious people, Bolton YMCA — a youth and community centre for young people, Sparkle – The National Transgender Charity, Bolton Healthwatch and Bolton Wanderers Football Club Community Trust.

The Youth Diversity Champion nominees are: Euan Holmes of LGBT+ Bolton and Lauren Ingram of Bolton Student Union LGBT Group.

In the Adult Diversity Champion category the nominees are: Steve Sherry of LGBT+ Bolton, Pierette Squires of BiPhoria and Bolton LGBT Partnership, Zoe Kirk Robinson and Petra Fehn of BAND—Building A New Direction that works with people with mental health conditions.

The nominees for the Outstanding Contribution to the Community are: John McSwiggan of Unison, Diane Rodgers of Dee Selecta — a cross dressing/transvestite, t-girl shop, Susie Baines of George House Trust and Joe Whittaker, campaigner for LGBT inclusion and equality.

And The Business of the Year nominees are: The Venue, Serenity Security, Bolton at Home and Octagon Bolton.

To vote for the above nominees or purchase tickets for the awards go to: http://boltonpride.co.uk/vote.

Votes must be cast by August 31.

Two awards, The Sir Ian McKellen Award and the Darren Batey Award will be voted for by Bolton Pride organisers.

On the second day of the festival the celebrations will begin at 2pm until 6pm in Victoria Square.

Performances from The X Factor’s Misha B, Celebrity Big Brother star Christopher Maloney, Divina Di Campo and Joe Keegan from The Voice and local artists REDD and new boyband Fourth Intake.

Closing the show will be 90s dance diva, Angie Brown, and The Voice 2016 finalist, Lydia Lucy.

The festival is free to attend and there will be a beer tent and food supplied by The Venue in —Churchgate one of the main event sponsors.

Bolton duo Father and Son will be presenting the afternoon alongside artist Soraya Vivian.