Pride Helsinki: the one day when my city is more colorful than I could imagine and when my friends and I head to a wonderful summer-y picnic. Amidst all the hate and mistrust, which breeds things like Brexit and the attack at the international Istanbul airport, there’s nothing more wonderful than joining in to a celebration of love and equality!
The march was only an hour long but it went great: there were no hateful incidents (at least none that I saw or read about afterwards) and the weather was unbelievably sunny and hot. Most times that I’ve attended Pride, the weather has been great, which I take as a sign of approval from the universe…
The main event of Pride Helsinki after the march was in Kansalaistori, a park area right in the center of town. A stage was set up for artists to perform and speeches to be made. The area is quite small though, and with the 35 000 attendees trying to squeeze there, it got very crowded very fast. We ended up choosing a more quiet area further away from the booths that had food, balloons, and various storefronts as well as from the stage. The music was background noise while we sunbathed on the grass. We even had ice cream that came with little “fortunes” and didn’t mind paying 4,5 € for the yumminess that came in the form of butterscotch ice cream in between salted peanut cookies.
Did you attend Pride this year?