“Family”: theme of this year’s Prague Pride Festival
The 14th Prague Pride Festival has kicked off, featuring 213 events spanning a wide range of genres across ten official venues and numerous other locations throughout the Czech capital. The festival’s slogan for this year is "Family is where the love is." I spoke with Kamila Fröhlichová, the Festival Director, to learn more about what to anticipate from this year’s event.
First, I wanted to ask you about the theme of the festival this year, which is "Family is where the love is." Why have you chosen this theme?
“There are two reasons we chose this theme for this year. One of them is we want to celebrate the diversity of families and also because queer families have been here forever. The second point is that we want to point out that sometimes the word ‘family’ has been used to oppress LGBTQ+ people, for example by saying that family only applies to a mother, father, and children. Of course, we don’t agree with his statement.”
What are some of the highlights of the festival? There’s over 200 events, what are some highlights you could speak to?
“The biggest highlight is an Italian singer called M¥SS KETA. And she is one of the biggest queer idols in Italy. She’s coming to join us in Pride Park this year, so you can come and see her at the red stage. Also, this year we have opened a venue called Pride Gallery. We are having a contemporary art exhibition there with eight artists. It will be there for the whole week of the festival.”
How many people are you expecting this year?
“We are expecting about 60,000 people. It is actually the same number as last year in 2023. Of course, this depends on the weather and other issues, but we would be happy with this number.”
Since you’re mentioning last year, how does this year differ from previous years?
“Well, one of the changes that we have is that we opened a new venue. We call it Pride Youth. The reason we opened is that many young queer people are coming to our festival and why wanted to open a venue that would be directly for them. So, we will have some workshops, some trouble-shooting meetings, and some psychologists. It will be at Kampa Park at Skautský institut. ”
