The week-long Cape Town Pride Festival, which celebrates and highlights the city's proud lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, culminated in a parade through the streets of Green Point on Saturday morning.

The parade has steadily grown in popularity, and has since become a regular feature in Cape Town's busy annual events calendar. This year's attendance was one of the highest, and with large sponsors like MTN on board, and the fact that the Mayor of Cape Town, Alderman Patricia de Lille, officially opened the ceremony (flanked by two fabulous drag queens, it must be added), it's clear that Cape Town is making a name for itself as a gay-friendly destination.

This year's parade also highlighted important social issues. The NO H8 Campaign, a charitable organisation whose mission is to promote marriage, gender and human equality, which began in California, helped to publicise this year's event around the world, and other local groups taking a stance against rape were also noticeably visible in the line-up.

Check out some of the pictures and video from the event below:

The start of the parade. All photos by Stuart Buchanan

Having fun on the Pink Tongue float

Beads, boas and leis – all part of the Pride Parade

Many charitable organisations were visible in the parade line-up

Traffic came to a standstill as the parade made its way through Green Point

A huge crowd of people follow behind the main floats as the parade makes its way through the city