The most colourful and sparkling gay pride parades

in Europe

Madrid Pride Parade, known as "Orgullo Gay", is held the first Saturday after June 28 since 1979. The event is organised by COGAM (Madrid GLTB Collective) and FELGTB (Spanish Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals) and supported by other national and international LGTB groups.

The first Gay Parade in Madrid was held after the death of Franco, with the arrival of democracy, in 1979. Since then, dozens of companies like Microsoft, Google and Schweppes and several political parties and trade unions, including Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, United Left, Union, Progress and Democracy, CCOO and UGT have been supporting the parade. Madrid Pride Parade is actually the biggest gay demonstration in Europe, with more than 1.5 million attendees in 2009 according to the Spanish government. (Copyright CC).

Paris hosts annual Gay Pride Parades with attendances of over half a million. Eighteen other parades take place at cities throughout France in: Angers, Biarritz, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Caen, Le Mans, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nancy, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Tours.

The Berlin Pride Celebration, usually known as CSD Berlin, is a parade and festival held at the end of June each year in Berlin to celebrate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies. CSD stands for Christopher Street Day. Since 1979, the event has been held each year. Berlin Pride is one of the largest gay and lesbian organized event in Germany and one of the biggest in Europe. Its aim is to demonstrate for equal rights and equal treatment for LGBT people, as well as celebrate the pride in Gay and Lesbian Culture. (©CC).

London LGBT+ Community Pride is the name of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community interest company which arranges LGBT events in London, most notably the week long 'Pride Festival' in the run up to the annual gay pride parade which is held in June/July. It is known as 'Pride in London'. It is one of London's biggest public events, second only in size to the Notting Hill Carnival (©CC).

Stockholm Pride is an annual gay pride festival held in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Since the start in 1998, Stockholm Pride has grown. In lasst years, some 55.000 to 60.000 participated and 600.000 followed the parade at the streets.

The celebrations normally starts with lectures and exhibitions all over the city on the Monday. Pride House is the festival's cultural centre. It is packed with seminars, debates, workshops, exhibitions, film, theatre and other performances.

On the Wednesday it's the grand opening of the closed of Pride Park which is the festival arena for tens of thousands of people, and in the park organisation stalls, stages, restaurants, shops, and other attractions are built. Pride Park is open Wednesday through Sunday and every afternoon and evening a wide variety of famous artists and shows appear on the main stage. (© CC)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in Belgium have been seen as some of the most progressive in Europe and in the world. Same-sex sexual activity was legalized in 1795 and the age of consent was equalized in 1985. After granting same-sex couples domestic partnership benefits in 2000, Belgium became the second country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage in 2003. Same-sex adoption was completely legalized in 2006 and is equalized with that of opposite-sex adoption. Lesbian couples can get access to IVF as well.

Belgium has frequently been referred to as one of the most gay friendly countries in the world, with recent polls indicating that a majority of Belgians support same-sex marriage and adoption. (©CC).

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The highlight of Vienna Pride is the Rainbow Parade on Saturday. On trailers, motorbikes, in carriages or on foot: gays, lesbians, drag queens, leather boys, transgenders and many more celebrate themselves in the Rainbow Parade and send out a signal against discrimination. Vienna's Ringstrasse will therefore be closed to traffic. The Rainbow Parade will make its way around the entire ring road this year against the flow of traffic, starting at 2.00 pm (start and end: City Hall Square). More than 100,000 visitors are expected.

Those who want to continue partying afterward will also be superbly looked after: Numerous parties at different locations will turn night into day from Saturday to Sunday. (©Wien.info). 

Amsterdam Pride is a citywide gay-festival held annually at the center of Amsterdam during the first weekend of August. The festival attracts several hundred-thousand visitors each year and thus one of the largest publicly held annual events in the Netherlands. Amsterdam Pride was originally organized in 1996. The peak of the festival is during the canal parade, a parade of boats of large variety on the first Saturday of August. (©CC)

This year will be 5th anniversary of one the most fun Pride festivals in Europe: Prague Pride! Join the most LGBT-friendly event in Central and Eastern Europe and enjoy a week long program with exhibitions, debates, concerts and great parties! And of course the main event of the week: the Pride Parade through the historical city center and the open air party in Letna Park on Saturday August 15th.

Prague Pride grew tremendously over the last five years. From a small, local pride festival this pride became one of the most interesting and inspiring Pride festivals in Europe.  This year the festival will again have the popular and unique Pride Village on the beautiful Strelecky Island in the Vltava river next to the Charles Bridge. It will be accessible during the entire week, where people can join in various activities, watch movie screenings, enjoy concerts and get all the information about Prague and its community.