Up to 5,000 people had gathered in the city's Bute Park by the end of the festival on Saturday night.

BBC Wales's Nick Palit reports on a celebration of diversity.

The event was designed as a celebration as well as an opportunity to highlight equality issues.

It is hoped the giant party will become an annual symbol of gay pride in Wales to rival similar events in London and Manchester.

The festival coincided with a conference on hate crime which sets out to urge gay and lesbian people in south Wales to report homophobic crime to the police.

It is hoped the event will become an annual festival

A recent survey showed that while a third of all homosexuals had experienced more than one violent or abusive incident, two thirds had not reported it to the police.

Eliminating that distrust and suspicion is a key aim of the new Safer City Partnership.

Karen Ingram, a co-ordinator of the partnership, said tolerance and openness were very important.

"Cardiff needs to come up to date with other European cities, which are very open on the issue," she said.

Chief Superintendent Gerry Toms said South Wales Police recognised that problems do exist and efforts were being made to tackle them.

The BBC's Gail Foley reports on a first for Wales

"I think there is an awful lot of crime committed against gays and lesbians, not so much violent crime, but harassment and abuse," he said.

"They should not have to put up with that."

New legislation requires councils to implement measures to cut crime.

In Cardiff, result of that legislation is the setting up of the partnership. One of its first projects is a campaign against homophobic hate crime.

A conference on the subject kicked off the Mardi Gras weekend.