Pride Events Around the World: A Journey Through Celebration
Gary Nunn has travelled the world through Pride events – from São Paulo to London, via Amsterdam and Malta, he shares his greatest takeaways from the most unique marches and parties.
26 June 2024
Experiencing São Paulo Pride
Standing on São Paulo’s sprawling, skyscraper-lined Paulista Avenue on Pride Day earlier this month, I scratched my head.
Several sources – including the Guinness Book of Records – claim it’s the world’s largest Pride, attracting up to 5 million attendees. However, an hour before the parade begins, there are nowhere near that many people here. Have I got the right location? The right day?
Buenos Aires Pride: A Different Atmosphere
Eight months prior, I attended another Latin American Pride – in Buenos Aires, Argentina. That was a different story altogether.
Within minutes of exiting the subway onto the Plaza de Mayo, I found myself in a scary crowd crush. The chin of the person next to me brushed my neck. There was no way out, not left nor right. I saw panic spreading in people’s faces and heard Argentinian expletives.
Somehow, we all started moving in a similar direction, an unspoken unanimous solution. After 20 minutes, I escaped. I ran to a street parallel to the official parade street, where I found myself next to Argentina’s competitive cheer squad, muscular-armed men tossing athletic cheerleaders into the air with impressive grace. A drag queen squad practised their dance routine nearby; what they lacked in choreography, they compensated for in charisma. Later, I found a clearer stretch of the parade and watched people break into merengue alongside floats with scantily clad dancers, pumping unfamiliar ‘reggaeton’ music. A stranger grabbed my hand and spun me into a pirouette.
Discovering the Festivities of São Paulo
Back in Brazil, I asked someone if the parade was indeed on Paulista Avenue; they assured me it was. But how? The street swarmed with vendors selling beers, sweetcorn, sunglasses and, bizarrely, penis-shaped headpieces. Then I heard in the distance the thud of samba music and glimpsed the first float approaching.
Suddenly, stallholders darted to one side. Marshalls with a long rope stewarded people on either side of the oncoming floats, and then, the promised millions descended. Float after float, all with rainbow balloon garlands, freestyle dancing, and the odd drag queen MC revving up the crowds. They all sounded similar, too – almost unfeasibly loud, playing ‘circuit music’ popular in Brazil’s gay clubs – nicknamed ‘pots and pans’ music for its rambunctious clattering noise.
Political Messaging in Pride Celebrations
Both Latin American Pride events retained a political flair amongst the festivities. In Buenos Aires I saw placards warning against voting for radical right-wing populist Javier Milei, calling him homophobic and transphobic – he won the election weeks later. Organisers of São Paulo’s Pride this year asked participants to wear yellow and green, reclaiming the country’s national colours from now-ousted far-right President Bolsonaro who, from 2019 to 2022, incited homophobic hatred, infamously warning Brazil mustn’t become a “gay tourism paradise.”
The Experience of Pride Events Across Continents
Unusually, São Paulo Pride happens on a Sunday, so many of those five million disperse quickly rather than party through the night in the city’s gay village; some told me they needed to travel back to their home cities for work the next day.
I’ve attended Pride events on three continents, each with a different flavor. For example, Pride in London is a more traditional street march – community groups, corporations, and some political protests. It’s less spectacular than other Prides. However, the placards alone are enough to move my mum to tears each year she attends, marking her journey from acceptance to embrace of her gay son.
Amsterdam is the most unique – barges adorned with costumed revelers and rainbow garlands float down the city’s famed canals – a visually extraordinary and wonderfully imaginative spin on the usual on-foot parade.
The Joy of Brighton and Sydney
Brighton’s Pride event ends in spacious Preston Park with fairground rides, vast dance tents and big-name acts – it feels like the end scene of Grease, but gay.
Nothing compares to the wow factor of Sydney’s Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras. Unlike other parades, it’s at night, so expect to see many illuminations. It’s a choreographed spectacle; dance rehearsals headed by a power-hungry amateur choreographer started three months prior…
The slick, synchronized routines and elaborate, creatively themed and wildly diverse costumes and floats, months in the making, create a piece of theatre so spectacular that every Pride you attend afterwards feels anticlimactic. However, to see the big-name performers at the official party – like Cher and Kylie – comes with a steep price, almost AUD $200.
EuroPride in Malta and Unexpected Friendships
Last year I attended EuroPride in Valletta, Malta. It was a slightly smaller affair but still offered ample performances and parties, also more affordable – most performances were free, including headliner Christina Aguilera. I befriended Joseph, who let me get on his shoulders for a better view. One song in, he collapsed under my weight – and broke his leg. Medics rushed to his aid, and later, I bumped into him at the airport – in a wheelchair! I was mortified and extremely apologetic.
Reflections on Local Pride Events
He has since recovered. We’ve struck up one of those unlikely friendships that only happen because of Pride. Two years ago, the homophobic small working-class British town I grew up in – Medway – hosted its first-ever Pride. Last year I attended. It was the smallest and least sensational I’ve been to – but the most meaningful.
The Norman castle I’d gaze at longingly from my bedroom window growing up, which hosted the backdrop to my formative years, containing all the tears and trauma of the closet and my self-loathing, was draped in the biggest progress flag I’ve ever seen.
For all the glamour of Sydney Mardi Gras, the popstar-led thrills of Malta, and the kaleidoscopic hoards of São Paulo, it was a small suburban Pride in Kent that gave me the biggest goosebumps.
