It’s that rainbow-coloured time of the year again! Stockholm opens its heart to biggest event of the year in celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights. Join the party in YOUR living city!

So what’s it all about, then?

Gay Pride (as opposed to shame and stigmas from the past) is the name given to the platform for LGBT rights, in order to promote equality, build the community and celebrate diversity. Stockholm’s Gay Pride event, first held in 1998, is a week packed with information, events and entertainment. For the young, there is a special (free) section of the event dedicated specifically for 13-25 year olds: click here for more details.

Pride House is the festival’s cultural centre (actually held at Stockholms Stadsteater, Kulturhuset and Östermalms IP), where seminars, debates, workshops, exhibitions, film, theatre and other performances are held. For the full programme, click here.

Pride Park is the festival arena, where artists gather to perform to tens of thousands of fans. This year, the line-up includes Helena Paparizou, Gina G, Emmelie de Forest as well as Swedish Melodifestivalen acts such as Anton Ewald, Sean Banan and Oscar Zia. For the full programme, click here.

It all culminates in the famous Pride Parade, around 50,000 sponsors trekking a 3.5km route through the city from Medborgarplatsen to Östermalms IP on August 3rd at 13:00. Around half a million people came to cheer the parade along last year, so you’ll be in very good company!

Sounds like quite the party. What are the highlights?

Did we mention Gina G? Ooh aah, just a little bit excited about that at YLC.

But one of the main things to get behind (in a manner of speaking) is the Go West Campaign. Last year, a Moscow court rejected all applications for LGBT parades for a hundred years, so it is almost impossible to celebrate Pride in Moscow. Stockholm Pride is therefore striking a blow for justice through the website www.gowest2013.com. You are encouraged to compose an invitation which is then translated to a Russian tweet, with geo-tagging attached; the more tweets sent, the greater the chance of it becoming a “trending topic” on twitter in Russia. With this campaign, Stockholm Pride hopes that Russian friends should feel welcome to participate here since they can not celebrate in Moscow.

Another special part of Stockholm Pride is the dog tag, which has been designed this year by none other than Jean-Paul Gaultier himself. They are available to those who buy a festival pass (limited number).

Can’t wait! How do I buy tickets?

Easy-peasy. Just order them through ticnet.se (45 SEK avgift) in advance or at Pride House or Pride Park during Pride week. There are a few options to choose from:-

Festival Passes – Price 

Weekly Pass Adult – 1 100 SEK

Weekly Pass Youth (15-18 year olds – must show valid ID) – 600 SEK

Weekly Pass Senior (retirees must show valid ID) – 600 SEK

Group – Buy 4 and pay for 3 – 3300 SEK

Combo 2 persons and pay 1650 SEK

Day passes

Adult – 485 SEK

Youth (15-18 year olds – must show valid ID)  – 330 SEK

Senior (retirees must show valid ID) – 330SEK

Under 15s get into everything for free, but must be accompanied by a guardian.

YLC wishes you a fantastic time at Stockholm Pride 2013. And since the theme this year is family, we’re going to leave you with a song that mirrors the tagline for the festival.

Have a good one!

Farrah Gillani