Totally Stockholm 1
Between 29 July and 3 August it’s yet again time
for the biggest Pride festival in the Nordic countries. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Stockholm Pride. Words: Sara Jones Icona Pop, Pussy Riot and Melanie C are some of this year’s prominent guests at Stockholm Pride. Towards the end of July, the six-day long celebration will commence, with this year’s theme being ‘We’re needed’. At Pride House at the Clarion Stockholm in Skanstull, the week-long festivities kick off with seminars, workshops and talks. During Wednesday, Pride Park opens at Östermalms IP with a cabaret dragshow with Spice Girl Melanie C, in collaboration with the club-cabaretcollective Sink The Pink. The opening ceremony also offers a performance by electro duo Icona Pop who will take over the big stage of the festival area. Pride Park is the heart of the festival. There you’ll find exhibitors, restaurants, food trucks and all the performance stages. It also houses The Kinky Quarter for anyone with a keen interest in leather, BDSM and fetishism. But there, in contrast to the rest of the Pride Park area, you need to be 18 years of age to enter. Friday 2 August is when the Village People will rule the area with YMCA, In The Navy and Go West. And on the last day of the Pride Week, Saturday 3 August, there is the usual Pride Parade with 45,000 marching through the central parts of town before it comes to an end in Pride Park where The Weather Girls and Pussy Riot await as the festival’s closing acts. Disco duo The Weather Girls made a name for themselves during the 80s with hit single It’s Raining Men (even if the line-up has changed since then). Russian punks and activist collective Pussy Riot have mainly attracted headlines through criticism of the Putin government, through actions like last year’s pitch invasion during the World Cup Final. They shot to fame back in 2012 when three members were jailed for ‘hooliganism’, after they staged a performance in a 15 Moscow church. As late as February they visited Fasching for a controversial music performance. Now they return for an exclusive appearance during Stockholm Pride. To get to Pride Park you’d be best off using public transport of course, but the alternative is Stockholm Pride’s own shuttle bus going in between the central station, Pride Park and Pride House. To gain access to Pride Park you need an armband. Full week access costs 600 kronor, with 450 kronor concession. The full schedule is available on stockholmpride.org.