LGBT activists are holding a day of action and a march today as an alternative to “corporate” Brighton Pride.

Some 40 campaign groups from Sussex and London are coming together in protest against the annual festival which they say has lost touch with its original purpose as a protest movement.

They say it serves the interests of corporate sponsors instead of representing LGBT lives.

Flick Lopes, a member of Brighton-based group Queer AF, said: “We oppose the idea that any queer person should have to pay to enter Pride. It should be accessible.”

A demonstration with speeches and performances by LGBT artists will take place at The Level at 11am before a march through the city and a DIY Pride event in Queen’s Park from 2pm.

Brighton QTIPoC (Queer, Trans, Intersex and People of Colour) Narratives Collective will have a vigil space in Brighthelm Garden, North Road, from noon to remember those who have been deported or lost their lives due to persecution.

The groups also want to draw attention to the reported rise in transphobic and homophobic attacks in Brighton and remind people “there is still a lot to fight for”.

Flick said: “With the rise in right wing ideology there has been an increased number of attacks in the trans community.

“When I first moved here people stepped in to stop it, but nowadays they do not.”

Earlier this year a woman was jailed for throwing a bottle of wine at a man in a homophobic attack that took place after last year’s Pride.

The Argus has reported on a series of recent attacks on LGBT people in St James’s Street. It was reported that one man was left in intensive care after a violent robbery.

A member of the QTIPoC Narratives Collective said: “I have lived in Brighton for 36 years and have seen Pride move from a grassroots space into a corporate event.

“There are trans women of colour who live here in Brighton, but a lot of them leave the city during Pride because they do not feel safe.

“There are hardly any queer people at Pride anymore. It is a rainbow-plastered festival for straight people.”

A Pride spokesman said: “Pride In The Park and LoveBN1Fest at Preston Park are our main fundraising events. Without these, we would be unable to safely deliver Pride and fundraise for The Brighton Rainbow Fund, Pride Social Impact Fund and Pride Cultural Development Fund who support the many local LGBT organisations and community groups.”

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, in which members of the gay community demonstrated against a police raid in Greenwich Village, New York. It was a significant turning point in the fight for LGBT rights in the US.

Brighton Pride began as a demonstration by Sussex Gay Liberation Front in 1972 but has been ticketed since 2011.