Worldpride and Eurogames

WorldPride, licensed by InterPride and organized by one of its members, is an event that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ pride) issues on an international level through parades, festivals and other cultural activities. It is organised usually every two years. The inaugural WorldPride was held in Rome in 2000. WorldPride celebrations tend to be the largest LGBTQ Pride events for their year.

For the first time in history, WorldPride was held in two cities in two countries from 12 to 22 August 2021—Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, and the Swedish neighbouring city Malmö, both in the Øresund Region. WorldPride was hosted by Copenhagen Pride, with Malmö Pride as a partner. The cities are a twenty/thirty-minute commute apart.

WorldPride was combined with EuroGames and other activities held simultaneously in that same area, with the event branded as ‘Copenhagen 2021’. The WorldPride event coincided with two LGBTQ danish anniversaries: seventy years since the world’s first successful genital reconstructive surgery in Denmark in 1951; and fifty years after Gay Liberation Front’s Danish chapter was founded in 1971.

Huge success besides hesitations due to pandemic

For a long time, people had been worrying, and many had been very hesitant as to the possibility of arranging Pride in Copenhagen and Malmö this last summer, in the middle of the Pandemic. But, thanks to initial quite hard restrictions in Denmark, followed by a hard vaccination rate, the number of cases and deaths went down considerably during the summer of 2021 and the organisers were given the permission to arrange an almost full-scale event. Some parts had to be reduced though, such as the final Parade, that was divided up into several small parades leading up to a final party at the main Pride Park, Fælledparken, where all could meet and celebrate, but under certain restrictions to completely free movement. A so-called COVID passport, guaranteeing that you were either vaccinated or recently tested negative, was required for all indoor events. For the events in Malmö, Sweden, other restrictions were in place, since Sweden at that time, had not yet opened up to the same extent as Denmark. However the Swedish restrictions were all the time much milder than the original Danish.

Tens of thousands of people joined more than 1,100 events in Copenhagen and Malmö. They took part in both the WorldPride 2021 events as well as in EuroGames.

“In the most difficult circumstances imaginable we have delivered the most beautiful, loving, life-affirming and change-making event Denmark and Sweden have ever seen,” said Katja Moesgaard, Chair of Copenhagen 2021. “We are beyond proud of how our vision for Copenhagen 2021 WorldPride and EuroGames evolved.”

More people than expected travelled every day on the bridge between Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden, to be able to enjoy a bit of what both cities were contributing with.

Some hightlights from the week

• The Patron of the Pride Week, Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of Denmark, attended several events at UN City, the Human Rights Conference, the City of Copenhagen reception, the EuroGames tournament and last but not least on the last she Saturday spoke at the Closing Ceremony at Fælledparken. She was the first member of the Danish Royal Family to give patronage to a LGBTI+ event and we are most grateful for her support.
• Copenhagen Main Square was turned into a “Pride Square” during the whole week and the park Fælledparken became the main Pride Park where many festivities took place. In Malmö the equivalent was Folkets Park.
• 2,000 athletes competed in 22 sports tournaments all across both cities in Eurogames, and more than 70 sports organisations run public activities across Copenhagen.
• 3,000 people joined the WorldPride Opening Parade in Malmö (not more due to COVID restrictions) (see video). During the last Saturday more than 10,000 people joined six WorldPride Marches in Copenhagen. The low number here were of course due to COVID restrictions, several people wanted to walk but did not manage to get tickets; The Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen joined the Human Rights march from WorldPride Square.
• More than 50,000 people joined events in WorldPride Square and at Fælledparken for concerts.
• WorldPride House and WorldPride Park in Malmö welcomed several thousand visitors to debates, discussions, lectures and performances
• Fluid Festival at Gammel Strand was a joyous celebration of women, genderqueer and non-binary identities, attended by thousands of guests
• Hundreds of young people participated in events at Huset 2021 and Rainbow Children @ BLOX
• The Human Rights Forum brought together a truly global audience of activists and human rights defenders
• More than 300 scholarship recipients were supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Commission and others
• On social media, more than five million people engaged with our content during the event, and more than 16,000 people joined our live streamed events

see also on twitter and listen to the podcasts series.

Libraries can raise your voice

Libraries did have a part in this programming. Almost every municipal library had some Pride exhibit and created special shelves dedicated to the events.

Copenhagen City Library for example, had one specially dedicated website to Gender diversity and another one on Sex, sexuality and identity. They also gave out reading tips for children and younger adults. For exemple, Copenhagen Main Library invited the two authors Aaiún Nin and Niviaq Korneliussen to participate in a talk about gender, identity, borders and representation in literature, from Greeland and Angola to Denmark (Can sexuality become a place to belong?).

They also published a podcast about Herman Bang, one of the few publicly known homosexuals in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Det Kongelige Akademi Bibliotek, in Copenhagen hosted an exhibition called ‘Bearded Queens of Copenhagen: The Library is Open. Officially ‘, where three whimsical queens – Bryhildr, Jaxie Bearcunt and Maj Mokai – celebrate through images, objects and their own words. The exhibition is based on a research project by Anders Larsen and Maria Mackinney-Valentin, who have curated in collaboration with Cengiz Güdücü.

Stadsbiblioteket i Malmö offered a digital writer’s conversation with Emil Åkerö! A conversation based on Åkerö’s book “For those who are looking – a handbook for those who are related to a hbtq person”. On how to become a better ally to the close one who explores themselves and norm-breaking identities.

They also hosted a digital Drag Queen Story Hours, a digital party with Lady Busty and Miss Shameless alongside their fabulous North American sisters – Lady Shug, Joss JimAr and Ona Louise – share norm-creative stories and songs with each other. High glamour factors are promised.

You can also Pick up a map guide at the library and go for a walk in the city to discover the lives of LGBTQI people. In the new map guide, A Ride to Pride, you can discover Malmö’s LBTQI history for over 100 years. The guide is based on archive materials, literature, and conversations with people who shared their memories, and sheds light on history through people, buildings and places.

Indeed, the event is a time to celebrate LGBTQ+ culture, essay, movies, musics, authors, or queer history. See the whole program to find a list of events. The hashtag of the event was #YouAreIncluded to shine a light on the situation for LGBTI+ people across the world.

At last, the Refugees, Borders & Immigration Summit took place in the city of Malmö (Sweden) on Friday 20 August. At the summit, activists and politicians discussed challenges regarding refugees, borders and immigration, both physically and digitally. The extensive programme included a long list of speakers, such as Filippo Grande (the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), a music performance, a film screening and a number of ‘breakout’ sessions on various relevant topics.

The Copenhagen 2021 Human Rights Forum was an international LGBTI+ experience consisting of multiple high-level events and a broader program open to the public. And an event on « Parliamentary Caucuses on #LGBTIQ Rights » brought together MPs from different Intergroups and different political networks from all over the world.

Human rights should be at the core of all LGBTI+ events. That’s why Copenhagen 2021 will feature several human rights-focused events to push our agenda of equality and diversity forward.’

WORLDPRIDE | COPENHAGEN 2021

and see you in 2023 in Sydney !