West Ham United were delighted to be in attendance at Essex Pride on Saturday afternoon!
Hundreds of people filled Central Park in Chelmsford to celebrate the long-awaited Essex Pride festival. With the pandemic forcing the festival to move online last year, it was fair to say that the wait was certainly worth it!
The Pride of Irons and our Supporter Liaison Officers (SLOs) joined the celebrations throughout the day. Two of West Ham United women’s players, Maisy Barker and Anna Leat were also in attendance, as well as General Manager, Aidan Boxall, and Assistant Manager, Paul Konchesky.
It was a great chance for some of our women’s team to meet our fans, talk about the upcoming season and most importantly, show our support to the LGBT+ community.
Music, singing, dancing and laughter filled the day as people enjoyed all that was on offer, from the star-studded line-up of Drag Queens to a Christina Aguilera tribute act.
At the heart of it all though was the sense of community, love and excitement shared between everyone attending Essex Pride and we were honoured to be a part of it.
Speaking at the event, Boxall said: "It's great to see so many people here at the event, particularly those from our Pride of Irons supporters group and those within the West Ham community.
"It's vitality important that the club continues to support events like this.
"There's a huge LGBTQ+ community within the women's game and I feel as though it's important that we promote and support that. The more that we can do to show that football is for everybody the better."
West Ham United's Equality, Diversity and Inclusive Lead, Nadia Bowman said: "It was fantastic to be at Essex Pride and for some of our women's team and staff to be able to meet our supporters.
"It's a big part of what we believe as a club to be able to make everyone feel welcome and have that whole West Ham family feel."