Chester's Eastgate Clock to be lit up with Pride ahead of annual LGBT+ diversity festival

You might notice Chester's iconic Eastgate Clock illuminated in all the colours of the rainbow this weekend.

That's because the landmark is flying the flag for the city's upcoming Chester Pride Festival which takes place on Saturday (August 11).

The UK's second most photographed clock after Big Ben will be illuminated in a continuous loop of the rainbow colours of the Pride flag from Friday, August 10 to support the celebrations.

Cllr Karen Shore, Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC)'s cabinet member for environment said: "The Eastgate clock is lit with LED technology, so it’s usually quite easy for our street lighting engineers to alter the colours inside the clock face.

"This has taken a bit more work as the colours will be changing and I am grateful to the highways lighting team for their work in making this happen.

“I’m delighted that we are able to support this weekend’s Chester Pride celebrations in such an attention-grabbing location."

She added: "Previously, we have turned the Eastgate Clock face blue for the NHS’ recent birthday, pink for Breast Cancer Awareness week, green for Macmillan Cancer Support and switched it off totally for Earth Hour.”

The lights will change colour every three to five seconds using a radio frequency controller which operates the colour change in each light unit. There are four lights, one for each clock face, using energy-efficient LEDs supplied by a local manufacturer.

Read all about this weekend's Chester Pride festival in our definitive guide here