Iâve taken pictures at Pride festivals all over the world, but none were as fun and energetic as the 15th annual Stockholm Pride, held in the capital city July 31 to August 4. I hit Stockholmâs Pride Park as soon as I arrived Friday morning, but realized comedian Margaret Cho and I were like ships passing in the nightâshe performed Thursday afternoon. (And was âwickedly funny,â according to the woman at reception.)
Roughly half-a-million people filled the streets for this yearâs pride: The parade kicked off at 1pm in HumlegĂĽrden, I was having a pre-Pride brunch at Hilton Stockholm Slussen but joined the crowd in front of Kolingsborg, a popular nightclub.
Like they do at most Pride parades, fun-loving dykes on bikes kicked off the reveling. Â I was on an island in the middle of the street for the first part of the march, then jumped in with a gang of Swedish rugby players and got swept up in the excitement. Â By the time I actually reached Pride Park I had encountered musclemen, proud parents, party leaders, cute boys in body paint, troops of Scandinavian drag queens, and some things I still havenât identified. Stockholm was up all nightâand so was I.
Photos: Jeffrey James Keyes
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Christian van der Jorgensen
Swedes are hot but also smart and have great perspectives on good living!
Look at Scandinavia especially Stockholm and Copenhagen; One of the most happiest places on earth even though we pay a sh!t-load of taxes.
I urge Americans to keep coming to our countries although come during Summer! (winters can be harsh and freakin’ cold)
Gays in Denmark has the highest respect and acceptance in the world. And another fun-fact; We are the happiest people in the world. (still paying nearly 50 % tax!)
Come to Scandinavia all you homos, straight, bi, transgendered and life-loving folks!
JP
@Christian van der Jorgensen: That sounds welcoming. I always Denmark is a fun place to go for gays.
DouggSeven
@Christian van der Jorgensen: Me and my spouse are planning on visiting in October (Stockholm). What is there to do around this time and what’s the weather like?
MartinDK
@DouggSeven: The weather is most likely cold like 2-10 degrees celcius by day and -2 to 5 at night in STH. Not really good time to out door things. Luckily STH has nice shopping and cafes/bars and lots of culture stuff.
Nicest cinema is Rigoletto where the interior is very cool. If the weather is sunny a trip to the archipelago is great. Also walking in the streets of Sodermalm, Gamla Stan is nice… Best of all would be all the hot swedish guys. Swedes are so hot!
Justin
@Christian van der Jorgensen: I have to be honest I have been Sweden and Denmark, Norway and the people are generally very nice but once I tell them that I’m from the Baltic states I’m automatically a prostitute, thief, burglar etc. or even worse they would just stop talking to me and walk away but you are probably right people are quite nice as long as your from the right country.
Scott
My mother’s grandparents emigrated from Denmark to the U.S. in the early 20th century. I’ve always wanted to visit. The men in my mother’s family have great heads of hair. Unfortunately I inherited my father’s thin, mousy hair.
Christian van der Jorgensen
@Justin:
I’m sorry about that, but facts are unfortunately that eastern european crime is overwhelming in Scandinavia.
We have very very little crime in all the Northern countries but 8 out of 10 criminals come from the Baltics or Eastern Europe ;-(
Justin
@Christian van der Jorgensen: I know that the facts speak against us but its still not right to treat tourists this way, for example about 70% of crime in Lithuania(I am Lithuanian) is committed by Russians but we don’t treat Russians like crap, we might disagree with them on quite a lot but we respect them. In any case lots of respect for our Scandinavian brother for being so progressive when in comes to lgbt issues đ
MartinDK
@Christian van der Jorgensen: Im sorry but that is bullshit. Stop painting the picture too rosy and blaming foreign people. I suppose you have statistics to back that claim…?
Justin
@MartinDK: @MartinDK: well there is truth to what he said, eastern Europeans have a reputation in western and northern Europe when in comes to crime but this is one of the reasons why western and northern Europe is known for being xenophobic especial when it comes to Islam, but is not an excuse.
Rusty
Thank you Jeffrey!!!! Kiss kiss! They were awesome.
AS
I love Sweden, the people are friendly and speak English better than most English speaking countries.