Huge turnout for Gay Pride

Rainbow banners at PrideOver 50,000 people attended the this year’s Reykjavik Gay Pride festival which took place over the weekend.

Every year during the second weekend in August, Reykjavik hosts the Gay Pride Festival. This year was the eighth year the festival was held in the Icelandic capital with events filling the days and nights from Thursday until Sunday.

The main event of the festival was the Pride Parade, which was held on Saturday this year. The parade began at the Hlemmur bus station and concluded with an outdoor concert at the old city centre next to the Prime Minister’s office. More than 50,000 people lined the streets of Laugavegur, Iceland’s main shopping district, both participating in or watching the parade.

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York City, the first major protest against the discrimination faced by the gay community. History was the focus of this year’s celebrations in Reykjavik with a particular focus on the gay rights movement in Iceland.

The Gay Pride Festival has become one of the most popular festivals in a country which is known for its progressive legislation in favour of social and legal rights to the gay community.

The closing of the festivities included an advance screening of Hairspray, a film starring John Travolta which will not be available in theatres in Iceland until the middle of September.

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