Thousands of people flooded downtown for the annual Halifax Pride Festival on Saturday.

The parade kicked off with a celebration of the transgender community.

A large pink, blue and white trans flag was carried at the front, followed by Chris Cochrane, also known as drag queen Elle Noir, who was this year's trans pride ambassador and the grand marshal of the parade.

She wore an outfit inspired by Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

Parade officials said there were approximately 150 parade entrants in the 2019 event.

Water guns were a welcome sight to many who arrived early to get a good spot along the street to watch. A heat warning had been in effect for much of Nova Scotia on Saturday.

Angus MacKinley and Asher Kroezen watched the 2019 Halifax Pride Parade. (Anjuli Patil/CBC)

The Nova Scotia Health Authority confirmed to CBC News that as of 5 p.m. on Saturday there had been seven patients presenting with heat-related illnesses — about five per cent of the total patients seen — at the QEII emergency department.

The health authority said that number of heat illneses is higher than usual. It's unclear if any of those cases involved anyone at the parade.

Angus MacKinley and Asher Kroezen travelled in from the Kentville area to take part in the festivities.

"I want to feel comfortable being myself here," MacKinley said. "I don't feel like I can do that back in the town where I live as much."

"Having a day or a whole week or festival where we can be prideful and do what we want and not feel bad about it is really important to me," Kroezen said.

CBC, a longtime sponsor of the Halifax Pride Festival, livestreamed the parade, with the drag queen Rouge Fatale and CBC Mainstreet host Jeff Douglas describing all the action.

Donald Beals and Grant Hawboldt of Halifax. They come to the parade every year, this time with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lovewins?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#lovewins</a> shirts <a href="https://t.co/pv1OXE1998">pic.twitter.com/pv1OXE1998</a> —@AnjuliCBC

Pride Fashion — Mike Michaud and Julie Michaud of Fall River <a href="https://t.co/roLiGwwybs">pic.twitter.com/roLiGwwybs</a> —@AnjuliCBC

At the corner of Spring Garden and South Park - Halifax Pride Parade 2019 🏳️‍🌈 <a href="https://t.co/t5kR09s0Qz">pic.twitter.com/t5kR09s0Qz</a> —@AnjuliCBC

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