Gay Pride events of 2021: Calendar
Pride events – both demonstrations in defense of LGBTQ rights and fun carnival parades – have long been a must-attend event for most continents of the world. In 2021, the coronavirus situation will probably still make adjustments, but we’ve still compiled a list of highlights, from Baltic Pride to fetishist and “bear” festivals.
Johannesburg Pride, April 7-11
The largest Pride in Africa: however, all the others are also held in the Republic of South Africa, The first Pride in Johannesburg was organized in August 1990 by black gay anti-apartheid fighters, about 800 people came. Today it is a celebration of many thousands, not forgetting its social and political roots.
Tokyo Rainbow PRIDE, April 25-26.
The Tokyo Rainbow Procession is the most crowded in East Asia (although it competes with Pride parades in Hong Kong and Taipei). Launched in 2011, Rainbow is the successor to 90’s Pride, only it’s less political and attracts more ultra-brightly dressed queer youth.
Munich Fetish Weekend, May 28th
Munich Fetish Pub Crawl and Leather Social Munich is a brand new event in Bavaria’s capital city. A paradise for leather, latex and other fetishes, and the BDSM-community not only in Munich and Germany, but all over Europe. Expect plenty of club-bar and open-air parties, if the German states don’t declare a new lockdown.
São Paulo Pride, June 6.
The biggest gay pride parade not only in South America but in the world: taking place since 1997 on Avenida Paulista in the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo, the
Pride attracts between 3 and 5 million participants each year. One of the most colorful events of LGBT life on the planet, with columns of luxury drag queens and gay communist marchers.
TheQueens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival, June 7
An alternative to the big New York Pride Parade, which has long been a big advertising banner for corporations. Held since the early 1990s in Jackson Heights (a neighborhood in northwest Queens), the parade originated as a tribute to Julio Rivera, a 29-year-old
Puerto Rican gay bartender who was brutally murdered by a gang of homophobes. Today it is the most multicultural and queer event of the East Coast’s mass LGBT celebrations.
Sitges Pride, June 9.
Once a quiet Catalan fishing village in the 2000s, it has become one of Spain’s most expensive resorts and a veritable mecca for gays.
The parade here takes place a month before the hottest season and is an apotheosis of beach-disco fun and sex parties, where carefree people consume let’s not say what or how much.
Tel Aviv Pride, June 9.
The most important Pride parade in Israel (much more modest parades are also held in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beer Sheva) and in the Middle East: up to 250,000 participants, of whom almost a third are tourists.
The prototype emerged in 1979, and was at first a radical political demonstration. Today it is the most colorful entertainment finale of LGBT Week in Tel Aviv, and indeed a tourist attraction, which is criticized by local gay activists.
Magical Pride at DisneyLand
Disney’s grandiose giveaway at its Paris theme park: a big party with superstar concerts (2019 was Boy George and Years & Years) and, so to speak, a riot of rose-puppets and fireworks.
Athens Pride, June 13.
Gay Pride has been held in the Greek capital since 2005, confirming Athens’ status as the most tolerant place in fairly conservative Greece (more recently Pride events have also been held in Thessaloniki, Patras and Heraklion on Crete).
Athens’ fun Pride parades are also characterized by beautiful slogans each year: “We’re everywhere” or “Love me, it’s free.”
Cambridge Pride, June 20
Invented by the LGBTQ community at the University of Cambridge, Pride is a typically British celebration, with English food and alcohol, lively crazy bands and a specific boozy coziness.
KyivPride, June 21.
Because of the coronavirus quarantine Kyiv Pride held two Pride events at the same time in 2020: the virtual Pride in an entirely online format and PrideMonth, which combined online and offline events. This year the format of the main demonstration for the Ukrainian LGBTIQ community is still unclear. In previous years, Kyiv Gay Pride gathered several thousand participants and activists.
In 2019, for the first time a column of LGBT soldiers marched, there were guests, diplomats from European Union countries and members of the Rada. “Equality Marches” in Kiev, despite the fact that they are coordinated with the authorities, are still accompanied by protests by nationalists and clashes of homophobes with the police.
Helsinki Pride, June 27.
Since 1975, there have been human rights demonstrations by Finnish LGBT activists, since 2006 there has been a march through the city center financed and supported by Helsinki City Hall. Due to its proximity to St. Petersburg, this Pride march is most often attended by our activists.
New York City Pride March, June 27
No matter who says what, last year the main LGBT Pride march on the planet celebrated its half-century anniversary: the first march to Central Park took place exactly one year after the heroic Stonewall riot. The center of the world’s Pride industry, dozens of events under its umbrella, for optimistic gay liberals a shining Grad on the Hill, for gloomy queer radicals a corrupt Babylon.
Cambridge Pride, June 20
Invented by the LGBTQ community at the University of Cambridge, Pride is a typically British celebration, with English food and alcohol, lively crazy bands and a specific boozy coziness.
UK Black Pride, June 28.
For a long time, white cisgender gays and lesbians have been at the forefront of the LGBT movement and culture. Black Pride, taking place in London’s Haggerston Park, addresses queer people of African, Achiat, Middle Eastern, Latino and Caribbean descent as well as their white friends and girlfriends.
One of the most nontrivial Pride events, combining a concert stage, dance floor, political manifestation, and a space for happening.
Budapest Pride, July 3
The pride of Central and Eastern Europe, a week of large-scale LGBT events in the Hungarian capital, constantly under attack by right-wing radicals and the not-so-friendly cops of Viktor Orban’s regime.
The week begins with a Queer Film Festival and ends with a procession of thousands through the streets of Budapest, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Istanbul Pride, July 4
The largest LGBT march in the Muslim world, Istanbul Pride has been taking place since 2003. The crowd gathers in Taksim Square and walks along the largest pedestrian street in the ancient city of Istiklal.
In the recent years of the conservative turn of the Turkish regime, it costs a fair amount of courage to come out to this event.
Provincetown Bear Week, July 10-18.
Provincetown, Massachusetts, week on the beaches of Cape Cod is a paradise for “bears” (big, hairy, brutal and fun gay men). The themed gathering has been going on since 2001 and includes anything from pool tournaments to staged dives at hardcore concerts.
Berlin Gay Pride CSD, July 24.
Berlin Pride, Europe’s oldest Pride festival since 1979, has long been a multidisciplinary urban event with everything from fierce political slogans, to wog-balls, to platforms with the most cosmic freaks, to techno parties to the point of exhaustion.
Plus, the week before Christopher Street Day, on which Pride is held, Berlin will host a week-long small festival of gay queer culture, visual arts and film.
Stockholm Pride, August 2-8
A full week of quiet celebration of LGBTQ culture and its allies in one of the most comfortable countries for gay, lesbian, trans and queer people.
Baltic Pride, August 2-7.
Baltic Pride has been held since 2010 alternately in one of the three capitals of the Baltic states which were formerly part of the USSR. The debut march in Vilnius drew about 300 participants, while the counter-demonstration of religious homophobes had eight times as many.
Last year, Tallinn Pride was canceled due to the pandemic; at the end of this summer, the Baltic Pride march in beautiful Riga is expected not only in the Baltics, but in all post-Soviet activists.
Belgrade Pride, September 13.
Public LGBT actions in Belgrade can hardly be recommended to fans of a quiet pastime. Pride events have been held intermittently in Serbia since 2001, but the most memorable one was in October 2010, when homophobic extremists, enraged by Pride, got into a mighty brawl with police and trashed half of Belgrade. Srdjan Dragojevic’s rather famous film “Parade” was made about this madness. But in recent years things have become much more civilized, with Serbia moving further and further along the path of equality on the eve of its accession to the EU.
Delhi Queer Pride Parade, November 4.
A vibrant and violent demonstration held on the first Sunday in November since 2008 in New Delhi. In the past dozen years, the government has repealed Section 377 of the penal law that criminalized male homosexuality, the government says discrimination is unacceptable.
Bollywood and Kollywood are increasingly making movies about non-heterosexual heroes and heroines. But the problems of India’s LGBTQ community are still many. In addition, Delhi Pride is also about feminism, ecology, and defending the rights of Dalits (lower castes, untouchables).
