EuroPride

EuroPride is a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, hosted by a different European city each year. The host city is usually one with an established pride event or a significant LGBT community.

EuroPride
StatusActive
GenreLGBTI pride event
Date(s)Midyear
FrequencyAnnual
Location(s)Europe
Inaugurated1992 (1992)
Participants at the Europride London 2006 event
Float of East London's Lesbian and Gay Centre, London 2006
Rainbow flag at Piccadilly Circus, London 2006
Naval personnel, London 2006

For up to a month, numerous sporting, artistic and human rights events are staged throughout the host city. EuroPride usually culminates during a weekend with a traditional Mardi Gras-style pride parade, live music, human rights conference, special club nights, and an AIDS memorial vigil.

History
Europride Madrid July 2007
WorldPride 2000 in Rome

EuroPride was inaugurated in London in 1992, attended by estimated crowds of over 100,000. The following year, Berlin hosted the festivities. When Amsterdam hosted EuroPride in 1994, it turned into a financial disaster, leaving debts of approximately 450,000 euros. In 1996, EuroPride moved to Copenhagen, where it enjoyed strong support from city leaders. The organisers were successful on all fronts but not able to achieve a financial surplus.

Lady Gaga at Rome Europride 2011

Paris hosted EuroPride in 1997. The festival had numerous commercial sponsors and was widely hailed as a success. During the parade, over 300,000 people marched to the Bastille. Stockholm was the host city in 1998. London was to host EuroPride again in 1999, but the event was canceled when the organisers went bankrupt.

In 2000, WorldPride took place for the first time and, as has happened each time since, when WorldPride is in Europe, no separate EuroPride takes place. The event took place in Rome and was well-attended by LGBT people from all over the world. After initially supporting the event, city leaders pulled their support just days before due to pressure exerted by the Vatican, which was organising its Great Jubilee.

Vienna hosted the 2001 EuroPride, drawing large crowds from Central Europe. In 2002, Köln (Cologne), Germany, held the then-biggest ever EuroPride; officials estimated crowds to number well over one million. EuroPride was hosted by Manchester in 2003, and Hamburg in 2004.[1] Oslo hosted it in 2005, with Ian McKellen as the guest of honour.

London hosted the event in 2006, organising a two-week festival culminating in a parade on the final day (1 July) in which marchers were invited to walk down Oxford Street, one of the city's busiest shopping streets, the first time they had been legally allowed to do so. The parade was attended by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Conservative MP Alan Duncan, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, and the first transgender MEP, Italian Vladimir Luxuria.

Following the parade, events were held in three of the capital's squares: a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Ian McKellen, and entertainment in Leicester and Soho Squares. EuroPride 2006 marked the first time that London's main pride rally and entertainment areas were staged within the city itself, rather than in open parks.

In 2007, Madrid hosted EuroPride, which took place in Chueca, the capital's gay village, during the last week in June. Madrid was chosen because of the gay marriage and gender identity laws Spain had passed during the previous two years. More than 1.2 million people attended the final parade as it passed through the downtown streets of Alcalá, and Gran Vía, ending up at Plaza de España. For the first time, Madrid City Hall contributed financing to the MADO (Madrid Orgullo) organisation. In addition, a private event, the Infinitamentegay Party, took place in Casa de Campo Park.

In 2008, the Stockholm Pride organization[2] organised EuroPride for a second time, held from 25 June to 3 August in Stockholm, a decade after hosting EuroPride 1998.

Zurich hosted EuroPride in 2009 with a month-long roster of events from 2 May to 7 June, culminating in a parade through downtown Zurich on 6 June.[3]

The 2010 event was held in Warsaw, Poland.[4] Organisers prepared multifaceted events between July 9 to 18. The Parade took place on July 17. It marked the first time this pan-European LGBT celebration took place in a former communist country. The Warsaw EuroPride formulated, as its main theme, a demand for legalisation of same sex civil partnerships.[5]

In 2011, EuroPride returned to Rome. Hosted by Claudia Gerini, the parade closed with a performance and a speech by Lady Gaga at the Circus Maximus. That year one million people took part.[6]

The 2013 EuroPride was in Marseille, France from July 10–20,[7] focusing on gay marriage in France and celebrated the biggest gay wedding in Europe [8]

EuroPride in Riga in 2015

The 2016 EuroPride returned to Amsterdam. UK singer/songwriter Tara McDonald sang her single "I Need A Miracle" which was chosen as the EuroPride anthem and was remixed by Gregor Salto. [9] [10] [11]

There was no EuroPride in 2017 as WorldPride took place in Madrid.

Daniel Quasar's Progress Pride Flag being displayed at EuroPride 2019 in Vienna

In June 2019, President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen became the first head of state to address a EuroPride parade.[12][13]

WorldPride

The European Pride Organisers Association, which licences EuroPride and owns the trademark, has decided that a WorldPride event held in Europe also automatically carries the title of EuroPride.

The first WorldPride was held in Rome in 2000 (see above). The second WorldPride was held in Jerusalem in 2005–2006.

London, also hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics, beat out competing candidate, Stockholm, in the fall of 2008 to hold WorldPride 2012, which was held from 23 June to 8 July.

WorldPride 2017 was held in Madrid, and WorldPride 2021 was held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Madrid success

Madrid's EuroPride 2007 was the most well-attended event at the time, with an estimated 2.5 million visitors. This huge attendance was not only a success for Madrid, but for the whole LGBT Spanish community, due to the celebration of the change of terms in the laws related to gay marriage and adoptions.

Madrid was one of the first Spanish cities celebrating the legalization of gay marriage, with the support of all political parties, even the conservatives in the Government, headed by the ex-mayor of the city, Alberto Ruíz Gallardón from Partido Popular.

Due to these and other advances in same-sex freedom and social progress, Madrid was chosen in 2012 to host WorldPride 2017.

Host cities
Edn Year Location Organization Theme Dates Pax
1st 1992 United Kingdom London — 100,000[14]
2nd 1993 Germany Berlin —
3rd 1994 Netherlands Amsterdam — approx. 120.000
- 1995 Not held
4th 1996 Denmark Copenhagen Copenhagen Pride Association — approx. 35,000
5th 1997 France Paris —
6th 1998 Sweden Stockholm —
- 1999 Not held
7th 2000 Italy Rome Circolo di Cultura Omosessuale Mario Mieli - [15] In Pride We Trust 1 July – 8 July approx. 500,000
8th 2001 Austria Vienna —
9th 2002 Germany Cologne Kölner Lesben- und Schwulentag e.V. (KLuST) Cologne celebrates diversity 15 June – 7 July approx. 1,200,000
10th 2003 United Kingdom Manchester — approx. 37,000 [16]
11th 2004 Germany Hamburg Hamburg Pride e.V. Love breaks barriers 4 June – 13 June approx. 500,000
12th 2005 Norway Oslo Europride Oslo As — 18 June – 27 June 70–100,000
13th 2006 United Kingdom London — 600,000[17]
14th 2007 Spain Madrid Spanish LGBT Collective Organization Now Europe, Equality is possible 22 June – 2 July approx 2,500,000
15th 2008 Sweden Stockholm Stockholm Pride Agency[18] Swedish Sin Breaking Borders 25 July – 3 August approx 80,000
16th 2009 Switzerland Zürich EuroPride 09 Organising Association[19] Celebrating 40 years with Pride 2 May – 7 June approx 100,000
17th 2010 Poland Warsaw Equality Foundation (Fundacja Równości) Freedom, equality, tolerance! 7 July – 17 July approx 8,000 - 15,000[20][21]
18th 2011 Italy Rome Circolo di Cultura Omosessuale Mario Mieli[22] Build Your Pride! 2 June – 12 June approx. 1,000,000
19th 2012 United Kingdom London Pride London — 23 June – 8 July —
20th 2013 France Marseille LGP Marseille L'Europe en marche pour l'égalité - Europe on the move for equality! 10 July – 20 July —
21st 2014 Norway Oslo[23] Oslo Pride AS — 20 June – 29 June[24] —
22nd 2015 Latvia Riga[25] LGBT and their friends association MOZAĪKA Be the Change! Make History! Changing history is hot! 15 June – 21 June approx. 5,000[26]
23rd 2016 Netherlands Amsterdam[27] Stichting Amsterdam Gay Pride JOIN our freedom, feel free to join us! 26 July – 7 August approx. 560,000[28]
24th 2017 Spain Madrid[29] Spanish LGBT Collective Organization For the LGBT rights over the world 23 June – 2 July approx. 3,000,000[30][31]
25th 2018 Sweden Stockholm and Gothenburg Stockholm Pride & West Pride (Gothenburg) Two Cities, One Festival - for a United Europe 27 July – 19 August approx. 60,000[32]
26th 2019 Austria Vienna HOSI Wien Visions of Pride 1 June – 16 June approx. 500,000[33]
- 2020 Greece Thessaloniki[34] Not held due to Covid pandemic[lower-alpha 1] Welcome to the future, where everyone can join —
27th 2021 Denmark Copenhagen Copenhagen Pride and Copenhagen 2021 You Are Included 12 August – 22 August
28th 2022 Serbia Belgrade[35] Belgrade Pride It's time 12 September – 18 September[lower-alpha 2] approx. 10,000[39][40]
29th 2023 Malta Valletta Malta Pride Equality from the Heart 7 September – 17 September over 38,000[41]
30th 2024 Greece Thessaloniki[42][43] Thessaloniki Pride Persevere - Progress - Prosper 21 June - 29 June
31st 2025 Portugal Lisbon ILGA Portugal, Variações, rede ex aequo, AMPLOS 14 June – 21 June
32nd 2026 Netherlands Amsterdam Pride Amsterdam 25 July – 8 August

European Pride Organisers Association
Kristine Garina, president of EPOA at Human Rights Conference, Stockholm Pride 2018

The European Pride Organisers Association (often shortened to EPOA or EuroPride) owns the EuroPride trademark and licenses its use to one Pride organisation each year.

Pride organisers from across Europe discussed the creation of a European network at conferences of InterPride and the International Lesbian & Gay Association (ILGA) in the early 1990s, and the first formal meeting of EPOA was convened in Copenhagen in 1995.

EPOA is a small organisation with eight elected board members, all of whom serve with Pride organisations in Europe. It has no paid staff, and has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The board meets several times each year, often holding a meeting in a city holding its Pride event that weekend.

Any Pride organisation can become a member of EPOA upon payment of a membership fee. This gives the organisation voting rights at the Annual General Meeting, including on votes on future EuroPride bids. Membership to EPOA automatically makes a Pride a member of InterPride, its international equivalent. EPOA has more than 130 members across Europe.

The current president of EPOA is Latvian human rights activist, Kristine Garina.

See also

Footnotes
  1. The EuroPride 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  2. The Government of Serbia initially banned the parade walk,[36] although on 17 September it approved that the parade could take place.[37] Incidents during the parade walk were orchestrated by the opponents of Europride.[38]

References
  1. "EuroPride Seeks to Break Barriers in EU | Culture | DW.DE | 13.06.2004". Dw-world.de. 27 January 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  2. "official Stockholm Pride organization website in English". Stockholmpride.org. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  3. "official Zurich Pride organization website in English". Europride09.eu. Archived from the original on 19 December 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  4. "Poland hosts landmark European gay pride". BBC. 17 July 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  5. "Warschau - Europride 2010". Europride2010.eu. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  6. "Un milione all'Europride di Roma Lady Gaga incanta il Circo Massimo "Non siete soli a chiedere amore" - Diretta aggiornata alle 22:05 del 11 giugno 2011". Repubblica.it. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  7. "Default Parallels Plesk Panel Page". Europride2013.com. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  8. "2013 Mariage pour tous l Ceremonie Europride 2013". Clubeuropride.com. Archived from the original on 6 July 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  9. "Tara McDonald's 'I Need a Miracle' is EuroPride Anthem | News". MN2S. 23 June 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  10. "Tara McDonald présente l'hymne de l'Europride 2016". Hellocoton.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  11. Newsdesk (1 July 2016). "Tara McDonald releases gay anthem for pride". THEGAYUK. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  12. "Twitter". mobile.twitter.com. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  13. "Halbe Million bei Regenbogenparade". ORF (in German). 15 June 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  14. Black, Peter; Robert Kuta, Stephen (2019). Jubilee - London Pride 2019. London: Black and Kuta Press. p. 28. ISBN 9781916273900.
  15. "official website Circolo di Cultura Omosessuale Mario Mieli - Roma World Pride organisation association (in Italian)". Mariomieli.org. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  16. "History of Manchester Pride". Manchester Pride. Manchester Pride Limited. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  17. Black, Peter; Robert Kuta, Stephen (2019). Jubilee - London Pride 2019. London: Black and Kuta Press. p. 28. ISBN 9781916273900.
  18. "official website Stockholm Pride organisation (in English and Swedish)". Stockholmpride.org. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  19. "official website EuroPride 09 Organising Association (in German, English, and French)". Europride09.eu. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  20. "8 tysięcy osób uczestniczyło w warszawskiej EuroPride - WPROST". Wprost.pl. 17 July 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  21. "News from Poland". Thenews.pl. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  22. "official website Roma Pride organisation (under construction)" (in Italian). Europrideroma.eu. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  23. "EuroPride 2014 goes to Oslo, Norway". Europride.info. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  24. "EuroPride Oslo 2014 - Oslo, Norway - Community Organization". Facebook. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  25. "BREAKING NEWS: RIGA WILL HOST EUROPRIDE 2015". Skapis.eu. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  26. "Liveblog: EuroPride 2015 in Riga". lsm.lv. 20 June 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  27. "Amsterdam 2016". Europride.com. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  28. "RTLnieuws: Recorddrukte Canal Parade geëvenaard". 6 August 2016. Archived from the original on 4 August 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  29. Littauer, Dan (8 October 2012). "Madrid to host 2017 World Gay Pride". Gaystarnews.com. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  30. "WorldPride Madrid 2017: all you need to know - goMadridPride". goMadridPride (in European Spanish). 1 February 2017. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  31. "Madrid Welcomed 3 Million for WorldPride | Hotspots! Magazine". Hotspots! Magazine. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  32. Wong, Curtis M. (22 August 2018). "EuroPride 2018 Is A Colorful (And Inclusive) Tale Of 2 Swedish Cities". Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  33. "Politik: "Alles gut gegangen": Halbe Million bei Regenbogenparade". wien.ORF.at (in German). 15 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  34. "EuroPride 2020 Thessaloniki (CANCELLED) - gay Pride in Greece - Travel Gay". www.travelgay.com. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  35. "Belgrade wins EuroPride 2022 in landslide vote". Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  36. "Vulin poručio da ostaje na snazi zabrana Evroprajd šetnje u Beogradu" (in Serbian). 16 September 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  37. Đurić, Vanja; Đurić, Dimitrije (17 September 2022). "Vlada garantovala bezbednost, organizatori kažu – parada odobrena, ali incidenti" (in Serbian). Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  38. "Protivnici Prajda gazili LGBT zastavu i pevali pesme" (in Serbian). 17 September 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  39. "Organizatori: Gotovo 10.000 ljudi u šetnji i borbi za ravnopravnost". N1. 17 September 2022. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  40. "Arhiv javnih skupova: U šetnji učestvovalo oko 4.000 ljudi, drugi najbrojniji beogradski Prajd". Danas. 11 September 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  41. "EuroPride Valletta 2023 'a success', organisers say". The Malta Independent. 17 September 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  42. "Application information". epoa.eu.
  43. "Στη Θεσσαλονίκη το Europride 2024 (Europride 2024 at Thessaloniki)". Newsbeast (in Greek). 4 October 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
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