Gay Pride 2017: How to experience it in Madrid

This year Madrid Gay Pride 2017 will be the global World Pride event.This year will be extra special because the city will host the global World Pride event and it is also the 40th anniversary of the first LGBT pride marches in Spain. Don’t miss it!

Madrid is once again getting ready for the LGBT Gay Pride 2017 festival. This year will be extra special because the city will host the global World Pride event and it is also the 40th anniversary of the first LGBT pride marches in Spain. The festival will take place between 22 June and 2 July.

The world’s biggest Gay Pride in Madrid

Year after year, Madrid has thrown itself into this celebration of diversity. 2017 will be even better since it will be Madrid’s great festival and all the locals will participate. Although the celebrations are still a few weeks away, the capital is getting ready to host three million tourists. Join the party! Find your hotel in Madrid.

There will be Gay Pride activities throughout the city but the epicentre of the festival has always been the Chueca district, a symbol of liberty. The stages installed in the three main squares of this neighbourhood—Plaza de Chueca, Plaza del Rey and Plaza Pedro Zerolo—will be used for the opening speech of the festival as well as the many guest artists.

Madrid throws itself into World Pride Madrid 2017

World Pride 2017 is the biggest global Pride event and Madrid is the fifth city in the world to host this event. The capital was selected thanks to the major effort the city has made since its first Gay Pride event in 1978, which has taken place every year except in the 1980s, allowing it to overtake Barcelona as Spain’s homosexual capital.

The first marches for LGBT rights in Madrid took place in the mid-1980s. During the early years, everything was centred around Calle Pelayo in Chueca. The opening speech was made at Plaza de Chueca and the initial stages progressively became consolidated into what is now Madrid’s great festival. The first great march took place in 1997 with a few floats. Since the 1980s, Madrid Pride has slowly grown and expanded beyond its neighbourhood.

As always, this year’s event will take place in the Chueca district as well as in the city centre at spots such as Plaza de Colówn. However, this year there will also be activities at Madrid Río. The festival will be for celebrating, exchanging ideas and expressing global diversity through concerts, dance, theatre and exhibits at Plaza de Chueca and the surrounding area.

Why is World Pride being held in Madrid this year?

2017 marks the 40th anniversary of Spain’s first LGBT pride march, which took place in Barcelona and marked the beginning of the gay movement in Spain. It has also been 30 years since the first Gay Pride festival in Madrid’s Chueca district and 20 years since the movement’s earliest floats made their way through the city. This year is also the 10th anniversary of Europride 2007, when more than two million people visited the capital.

World Pride Parade, the great march

More than three million people and organisations from around the world will come together at the World Pride Parade. The world’s largest LGBT pride march is expected to take place at 6:30 pm on Saturday, 1 July. The parade and all the floats will make their way through the streets of Madrid, from Atocha to Colón. It will be a time to celebrate, exchange ideas and express diversity.

World Pride Park will open for the first time

This year marks the first time that the World Pride Park will open and it will be located adjacent to Puente del Rey at Madrid Río, only 15 minutes from the Chueca district. It will serve as a meeting point in the mornings and as a venue for seminars, workshops and roundtables involving a variety of groups and associations that will have informative booths.

There will also be time for leisure and fun thanks to the food trucks, handicraft stands and a space for kids—Chueca Kids & Family Parade— with countless family activities. There will also be performances on an open stage in this area.

The first Race for Diversity at Madrid Pride

There will be room for sports as part of the World Pride Sports throughout the event. A number of sports competitions will be held along with basketball and tennis championships and other sports activities.

This year will mark the first ever Race for Diversity, the first official World Pride Race inspired by a society that is proud of its sexual diversity, that will confirm Madrid as the gay-friendly capital of the world.

More than 20,000 runners will participate in the race, which will take place at 10:00 am on Sunday, 25 June, and the start and finish line will be located at Plaza de Colón.