Annual Pride Village on Střelecký Island faces cancelation due to lack of funds

The organizers of Prague’s annual Pride Village at Prague’s Střelecký Island are reaching out to the public to help ensure the event – planned for August 2023 – takes place. The annual, island-based celebration began in 2011. Pride Village is part of the Prague Pride Festival, which this year will last between Aug. 7 and 13.

Prague Pride, which is the organizing company of the event, writes that the costs of this year’s celebration may climb up to CZK 1 million. Owing to the fact that the majority of events on the island are free, the organization is asking for donations to ensure that this continues to be the case.

Organizers set their campaign goal on darujme.cz at CZK 500,000, which has now been met (CZK 550,000 has been donated at the time of writing). There are six days left to donate.

Despite improvements in recent decades, Czechia’s relationship with its LGBTQ+ community has multiple flaws. A 2021 study by Rainbow Europe, a pro-LGBTQ+ research company, found that Czechia ranked 32nd out of 49 European countries in their annual review of LGBTQ+ human rights. A separate study also found that over 50 percent of LGBTQ+ people in Czechia experience public hate. 

Offensive statements from political representatives are widespread, 71 percent of people in Czechia’s LGBTQ+ community say, according to Czechia’s National Institute of Mental Health. As many as 20 percent of LBGTQ+ people in Czechia have faced physical violence based on their sexuality.

Prejudice from parts of Czech society against LGBTQ+ people became apparent this week when the Jiří Mahen Library in Brno received a barrage of complaints from members of the public after allowing a man in women’s clothes to read queer fairly takes to children.

Prague Pride will hope that it receives the necessary amount of donations to ensure the Střelecký Island village continues for another year, which will signal good news for Czechia’s LGBTQ+ community and contribute to the country’s acceptance of it.