The march at Ballarat Regional Trades Hall will follow an address from state government Equality Minister Martin Foley.

Ballarat City Cr Belinda Coates will also be at the event.

Equal Love Ballarat’s Kirsten Holden said the group wanted to make sure there was a regional focus on marriage equality.

“I guess with the current climate around marriage equality we felt like it was an opportune moment to get the regional message out there,” she said.

“A lot of the time people focus on the big city message, rather than the regional message.

“If we can get a lot of small voices sending messages out and making themselves heard it has a bit more impact.”

Council passed a motion to support marriage equality at its meeting on July 12.

The motions was passed 5-4, with one councillor absent from the meeting.

Cr Belinda Coates said the march showed marriage equality supporters were consistent in their efforts in Ballarat.

“Council voted to reaffirm support and, even though it was not unanimous, it was reflective of community opinion where the majority of people are in favour of marriage equality,” she said.

“It has been a long haul campaign but people are optimistic we are getting close.

“Public have support has never higher.”

GetUp’s Sally Rugg, and Ballarat residents, will also speak at the event.

Ms Holden said not being able to marry caused real problems for people in the LGBTQI community.

“Some people who are in same sex relationships are not accepted by their family, which means if a partner does pass away, the other partner could be left out of a family’s mourning process,” she said.

“It also affects a family’s legal right to access assets left behind.

“If there is a marriage in place, legally, that cannot happen because the partner is legally entitled to those assets.

“I have to say in the nine months I have been in Ballarat, I have definitely seen changes, but Ballarat still has a long way to come.”

The Equal Love Ballarat march will start at the trades hall at 1pm on Saturday.