I will probably get myself in trouble for saying this, but I have to:  is probably my favourite pride. Now, now, before all those heads explode, let me emphasise that all the prides that I have been to so far have something special, that makes them unique and worthwhile. In terms of a party weekend away with great house music and an entire city celebrating Pride, Amsterdam has to be the winner.

It was my third time attending Amsterdam Pride and each year I fall more in love with it.
Last year I went with two of my close high school straight ally friends and this year I was going with one of my femme friends from London. We booked everything ages ago, because hotel and apartment prices in Amsterdam are no joke, so a very early booking is highly recommended. When we arrived we quickly dropped our bags of at our nice canal-located Airbnb and 13872963_10157147542520456_3308239544673379518_nrushed over do the Homomonument to see the opening party, including the famous drag queen olympics. You can imagine that we were slightly disappointed when we realised that the opening party was cancelled last minute – that was when we were standing right in front of the Homomonument with another confused handful of tourists.

After an early night we were ready on Friday to celebrate. 13936579_10157154339115456_1047625911_nThe entire city transforms itself into a pride extravaganza with around 15 stages to choose from. We quickly re-discovered my favourite stage the Afro-Caribbean one, which is not the biggest but definitely offers a great range on entertainment – and if you are lucky even some salsa.

Saturday is always the grande finale of pride with a unique and well attended canal parade, were differently themed boats present for hours a spectacle on the water- if you really want to watch it be prepared to either have an apartment by the route or get up really early, cause it will be PACKED.

We watched the parade a bit and then mingled around at different stages. After hours of day time raving, I ended up in a quirky gay night club called NYX where I danced till 4 – which is for me nowadays a rather rare occurrence. Sunday the two femmes had a bit of a slow one but we managed to attend the closing ceremony in the evening and met our new found friends for a quick drink at Viva La Vie, the local lesbian bar.

Now this time we did just the mainstream events but I know that there are a lot of alternative parties happening in and around pride, so it is definitely worth a visit, in addition to the truly picturesque city and beautiful humans.

Fab time, highly recommend – book early and enjoy.

To see a little sneak peak click here.

 

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