Like every year, the LGBTI+ community will be honoured in Brussels throughout May. The Belgian Pride Festival will take place from 4 to 20 May and will offer a range of activities. The unmissable Belgian Pride and the Parade will round off the festival and bring the streets of the capital to life over 4 days.
This will be the 23rd edition of Belgian Pride , opening the European Pride season, as it does every year. The gay-friendly capital of 500 million Europeans will demonstrate its diversity, its openness to the LGBTI+ community, and its zest for life. For this new edition, Belgian Pride will be 4 days long and cover new initiatives and activities.
The traditional Pride Kick-Off (formerly MiniPride), on 4 May 2018, will mark the beginning of the festivities. The parade will go through the streets of Brussels to the fanfare of the Meyboom. On the way it will salute the Manneken-Pis, which will be dressed in a costume specially designed by Belgian Pride for the occasion.
Over the following two weeks, the Belgian PrideFestival programme will feature a variety of activities focused on the theme of “ Local Change and Local Politics”. That’s because, aside from being a festive event, Belgian Pride and its festival are the ideal time for putting forward the community’s appeals and suggesting new lines of political thought. All to make society more egalitarian and more open-minded.
In addition to the unmissable parade that will make the centre of Brussels sparkle with the colours of the rainbow, and the PrideVillage, with interactive and information stands, Belgian Pride, the culmination of two weeks of celebration, will be full of new developments this year:
• This year’s theme is “ Your Local Power ”.
• The event will now last for four days, from Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 May
• The silent Ihsane Jarfi march against intolerance, discrimination, and homophobia will take place on Thursday. That same day, BOZAR, the Centre for Fine Arts Brussels, will host round tables and talks on the theme “ Your Local Power ”.
• On Friday, it will be the Rainbow Village’s turn to kick off the weekend’s festivities. The bars in Saint-Jean will host DJ sets and other performances put on for the occasion.
• On Sunday, there will be several concerts in the centre of the capital. Young and old will come together to celebrate diversity in music together.
