Vienna Pride 2024: Celebrating Unity, Diversity, and Progress

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From the end of May until the 9th of June, Vienna hosted another year of Vienna Pride Parade and its related events. The main Pride Ride demonstration took place on the 8th of June on Saturday. Over 300,000 people came to celebrate diversity and unity. The main point of interest was the Rathausplatz. During those days, LGBTIQ artists, organizers, and partners came together.

Insight from history

It was the year 1996 when the first official event happened in Vienna. There were around 25,000 people, although police reported only 5000. Since then, Vienna Pride has become an annual event that has grown in size and importance.

One of its co-organizers, Andreas Brunner, says that he was inspired by his trip to New York City in 1994 when the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots took place. Besides the Parade being a demonstration, Brunners informs that Vienna Pride is also a festival and a party for the community in Vienna.

Some other significant facts from the history of the LGBTIQ community involve the year 2003. In that time same-sex unions became legal. A law that allows registered partnerships for people of the same sex passed in the parliament.

Later, in 2006, Vienna hosted EuroPride for the first time (in 2019 for the second time), bringing more attention to an international level. It became another essential milestone for Vienna, establishing itself as a key location for LGBTIQ events. In 2015, the court ruled in favor of marriage equality, which led to the legalization of same-sex marriages.

Since 2010, Vienna Pride events have started to adopt different themes or mottos each year. In 2024, the main slogan was Pride is a demonstration.

Events

The day before, you can join the Pride Run as a participant or an observer. There was also a free-of-charge conference at the Rathaus. It brought together experts, activists, and people from different fields to discuss new and innovative approaches. Some of the themes they discussed were queer diversity within corporate worlds, LGBTIQ-friendly corporate culture, outings at the workplace, rainbow movements in Asia, fertility issues, mental health, older people, and being queer.

Vienna Pride 2024

The demonstration started at noon at the Rathausplatz. They slowly moved around the entire Ringstrade against the traffic. It passed such places as parliament, Urania, Karlplatz, Stadpark, Schwedenplatz, Franz-Josefs-Kai Street, and the University of Vienna and returned to the starting point.

I started my journey and joined the event at the Stadpark. In the beginning, people were gathering on both sides of the road. As the participating groups came closer, many of them stood right next to the road. After some time, the place started to be more crowded. Some people were moving and following the passing cars and participants. The biggest mass of people could be seen and experienced at the Schwedenplatz heading towards the starting point.

People were not only holding flags, or wearing colorful clothes. But also you could spot many intriguing signs. For example:

Jesus’ Playlist: Only Love Songs.

Fundis zur Hölle jagen.

I have 99 Problems, and white hetero normative Patriarchy is all of them.

Intersex Solidarity.

Proud and Loud for the Oppressed in Russia, or another which shows Vladimir Putin in front of rainbows and writing that says: Vladimir, it’s Time.

My queer anus.

No pride in deportation.

Embrace the cake.

Kinderrechte sind bunt.

Donations for top surgery.

Spenden for mastektomie.

Liberation.

My all-time favorite was the title “Pride is a Demonstration” displayed on a cinema marquee where movie titles are usually shown.

The weather tends to be hot during the event, leading to higher temperatures and some attendees feeling unwell. As a result, ambulances were periodically passing through the crowds.

After the Vienna Pride ride at 18.00, the evening program started at the Rathausplatz in Pride Village. You could hear speeches from activists and politicians. Unfortunately, the Pride Village was quickly filled with many people and closed. You could watch the program from the big screen outside.