Prague Pride announces full schedule and a car-free parade route

Prague Pride has announced the full schedule for this year's festival. The 12th annual festival runs from Aug. 8 to 14 with over 150 events. While the highlight for most people is the parade, there are many events to catch before that including an open concert, a comedy night, and several chances to hear people share the stories of their journeys.

The festival in the past two years was scaled down due to the pandemic and had to forego the parade. This year, the Prague Pride festival returns with all its traditional events. The focus will be on safety, accessibility, and minimizing the ecological impact of the festival.

One of the largest multi-genre queer-themed human rights festivals in Central and Eastern Europe, Prague Pride will offer music, theater, films, discussions, lectures, exhibitions, film screenings, and evening parties.

The festival’s main motto of #heartmatters reflects the festival's new visuals: a heart-shaped logo symbolizing the 8 billion hearts beating around the world. The heart is also a symbol of humanity, mutual love, and life.

There is a lot to celebrate this year. A recent Gallup poll shows that more people in Central and Eastern Europe say that their city is a good place for gay and lesbian people to live. In the Czech Republic, that figure is now at 70 percent, up from 44 percent in 2011. There is still a lot to be done, however. In neighboring Poland, only 52 percent said it was a good place to live, though that is up from 23 percent in 2007.

The Rainbow Parade on Saturday will be a bit different this year, too. It will start at Wenceslas Square and end at Letná park, as usual. But this year the parade will be free of vehicles. That will allow it to take a new route that includes Old Town Square and Pařížská Street.

People will gather for the parade on Aug. 13 starting at 11:30 a.m. at Wenceslas Square. The front of the procession will leave Můstek at 1 p.m. and pass through Na Příkopě and turn into Celetná Street, then go through Old Town Square and turn into Pařížská Street before going over Čechův Bridge into Letná park.

Loudspeakers broadcasting music used to be on motorized floats, but this year portable speakers will be on bikes, and live music will be provided by marching bands.

Once at Letná, a large party will take place in an area that will temporarily be called Pride Park, where music and events will take place on six stages. The entertainment lineup includes British singer/songwriters Tom Aspaul and Girli, Czech bands, drag artists, and DJs.

"The safety of the festival and its visitors is essential for us. In the past two years, we checked how to make the festival as safe as possible from the point of view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Safety is also one of the main reasons why we are organizing this year's parade through the historic center of Prague without cars,” Prague Pride festival director Tom Bílý said.

He added that the festival has been in close contact with the state’s security forces to help minimize risks. Information on how to safely enjoy the festival is on the festival website.

While the parade and following party get most of the attention, there is a full week of events before then, including an opening party and concert. London-based Slovak singer and dancer ADONXS, a.k.a. Adam Pavlovčin, will perform during the opening on Monday, Aug. 8 on Střelecký ostrov. He will be joined by the popular group Pinkbus, the Berlin band Sado Opera, and Prague-based DJ Elskë. Střelecký ostrov throughout the week will serve as the Pride Village.

In between the opening and the parade, and even on the day after the parade, the festival will offer many events that visitors already know from previous years. These include the talk show Pride Voices, where several prominent queer personalities will share their life stories with the audience, picnics in the Pride Village, and more.

There will also be new attractions this year. Among them, for example, is the Andaz Lounge event at Hotel Andaz. The evening of satirical comedy on Aug. 12 is free, but people should register in advance.

The festival will also have a section focused on Germany, supported by the Czech-German Future Fund. The topic of Germany’s transformation after 1989 will take place Friday evening at Pride House on Strělecký ostrov as part of Pride Talks.