Prague Pride to offer 120 events
Fifth year of festival hopes to draw in more people from the majority
Prague, Aug 4 (CTK) — The fifth Prague Pride, dedicated to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, will start Aug. 10 and will offer 120 events this year, festival director Kateřina Saparová said today.
On Aug. 15, the Prague Pride will culminate with a march in the Prague center, Saparová said.
The organizers want to attract more heterosexuals to concerts, discussions, film screenings and theatrical performances than in the past years, she added.
“More than ever, this year's festival campaign will target the majority society,” Saparová said.
“It is the target of the message that all are equal. We are all people,” Saparová said.
This year, the organizers chose the slogan “We all have a rainbow inside” and chose snaps from a thermographic camera.
“Although gays and lesbians are denoted as queer, when seen by a thermographic camera, we are all same,” Saparová said.
“Suddenly, there are no differences between us. It makes no sense to search for them among people,” she added.
A thermo filter can be utilized by Facebook users. With it, they can change their profile photo in order to support the motto of the festival.
On Monday morning alone, over 500 people modified their Facebook photos, Saparová said.
This year, the festival will be concentrated in three places. The festival village is situated on the StřeleckýIsland, where a concert will officially open the show on Monday with Czech singer Aneta Langerová, who is openly lesbian, and the Austrian winner of Eurovision, singer Conchita Wurst, who describes herself as a drag queen.
Discussions will be held in the festival centre in the Langhans House.
The Pride Theater in the Švandovo divadlo will offer several performances and debates with their creators.
At first, two events were scheduled to be held in a parish. However, Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka has banned a discussion on bullying in the church and the screening of a Polish film on a Catholic priest who falls in love with a boy.
The one-week event will culminate with the Saturday pride march in the Prague centre. It will set out from Wenceslas Square at 13:00 and continue through the streets in the Prague center.
The Prague Pride festival was held for the first time in August 2011. It sparked off strong protests by conservative groups. Then-president Václav Klaus called for the fight against the ideology of “homosexualism”, which he said the festival promoted.
In the following years, the protests were rather small. Some groups plan to organize protests in places that the marchers are going to pass.
As this year, too, protests are expected, Prague Pride organizers are working together with the police.
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