The theme of family unites the two hundred events of this year’s Prague Pride festival, which officially began on Monday evening on Strelecky Island in Prague. The weekly show about the lives of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people (LGBT+) is taking place for the fourteenth time. It culminates on Saturday with a rainbow pride parade. The organizers expect that 70,000 people could participate in it. They reported it to the Prague municipality.
Prague
21:41 August 5, 2024 Share on Facebook
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Opening of Prague Pride 2024 | Photo: Michal Kamaryt | Source: ČTK
“Family is where there is love. This is the motto we have chosen for this year. It is also a term that is used against us – the traditional family. It serves to put us on the back burner,” said Veronika Dočkalová, the festival’s program director, at the opening. According to her, the show is also intended to help LGBT+ people “take the word family back a little”.
The opening program was introduced by the Prague artist Tasya. After her, the organizers included in the program a half-hour performance by DJ Lil Autotune, a dance performance by the House of Nora group with a waacking disco dance, and a set by the French DJ Lazy Flow. The US ambassador and the French charge d’affaires spoke on stage at the opening.
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According to Dočkálova, the festival offers a total of 213 events. This time, there are nine festival venues, including the village on Strelecky Island. The Fishery of the Scout Institute in Kampa with events for young people has recently been added. “This week is and should be about the fact that all families are beautiful, whether the chosen ones or the biological ones,” said drag queen Just Karen at the opening, who accompanied the evening with Radio Wave head Bára Šichanová.
The Prague police announced last week that they are strengthening security measures at the festival compared to previous years. The reason is information about a possible attack on a recent similar event in Bratislava. There are more police and criminal investigators than before to supervise the festival. Police said they had no information that there was any specific danger.
Pro-Palestinian announcements caused conflicting reactions this year activists from the LGBT+ ranks that they want to march in an “unofficial block” with Palestinian and black and pink flags. At the same time, experts on the Middle Eastern region remind us that Palestinian society is very conservative and LGBT+ people are threatened with threats and violence, which is why many of them prefer to live in Israel.
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The organizers said that the inclusion of pro-Palestinian queer activists in the parade is not an official festival event and they do not organize it. “We will not prevent anyone from participating in the parade if they follow our rules, safety guidelines and the laws of our state,” the Prague Pride management wrote on sewing X. It added that it welcomes diversity of opinion. It called for respect and calm.
Rainbow flags line Prague’s Národní třída, they are on lampposts. The Prague municipality, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior posted them on their buildings. The transport company decorated tram lines 17 and 27 with them. On the other hand, it distanced itself from the festival after criticism from the conservative organization Alliance for the Family ministry labor and social affairs under the leadership of the people.
The festival with a parade was held for the first time in August 2011. At that time, it caused stormy protests from conservatives. According to them, the show was obscene and inelegantly imposed the ideology of homosexuality. The term was used by the then president Václav Klaus, according to whom it was necessary to fight against this phenomenon. In the following years, the protest actions weakened.
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