Check out photos from the amazing Stockholm Pride parade

Stockholm celebrated its annual Pride festival on Saturday. It’s the biggest Pride event in the whole of Scandinavia, and the past weekend’s festivities did not disappoint.

The Swedish capital’s Pride week always kicks off on the last Monday of July. The start of the event includes panel events discussing LGBTQ+ rights. The whole city gets involved. Pride flags fly from above many buildings and hang outside businesses, whether they’re queer or not. Little flags are affixed to the front of the city’s buses. A colorful reminder promoting Stockholm Pride flashes up on transport jumbotrons.

Then a ‘Pride Park’ festival opens in Östermalms IP Park, consisting of a main stage, food trucks and marketplace. This runs from the Wednesday until Saturday.

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Pride parade day

This year’s big parade took place on Saturday, 2 August. It began at City Hall and was led by the traditional Dykes On Bikes. Thankfully, after rain the previous day, the sun shone brightly for the parade.

Unlike big Pride marches in places like London and New York, Stockholm allows anyone to join the parade on the day if they wish — not just the floats and walking groups who register in advance. It really makes for a different atmosphere and dismantles the ‘them’ and ‘us’ separation between marchers and spectators.

Around 50,000 took part in the parade, and an estimated 500,000 watched some or all of it. That’s impressive for a city with a population of just over 1million. It typifies how Stockholmers love the festival and how the city is open to all.

The Pride festival is also run entirely by volunteers. Its chairman, Michal Budryk, informed GayCities that the event experienced no downturn in sponsorships this year, unlike other Pride festivals in places such as the US.

“Electrifying”

Luxeria C, a trans content creator visiting the city from her home in Spain, captured video from the fourth floor of the gay-friendly Hotel Kung Carl. It captures the magnitude of the Stockholm parade. She was blown away by the atmosphere.

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“Stockholm Pride was an electrifying yet emotional experience for me,” Luxeria told GayCities. “It’s the single largest pride parade I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve been to a lot! With anti-LGBT voices being particularly loud in the West, I found it positively overwhelming but hugely reassuring to see so many people out, loud and proud.”

After the parade, many people descended on Pride Park for a full afternoon and evening of entertainment, speeches and partying. The headline performance came from Abba covers band, A-Teens, reuniting after 25 years. The partying continued well into the night at Stockholm’s various gay bars and clubs.

What an amazing day and what an amazing city.

All photos: David Hudson

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