The opening day of Stockholm EuroPride 2008 offers lots of activities and the opening will be a sing-along at Skansen and when the sun sets the Hötorget skyscrapers will be lightened in the colors of the rainbow. In a joint debate article on Politikerbloggen today, Stockholm Pride’s chairperson Jonah Nylund together with Sören Juvas, president of RFSL and Linda Elstad, chairperson of SFQ, writes that EuroPride will be the take-off for a society where everybody will be treated equally.
- During the festival, the LGBT issues will be in focus, but the work with human rights and attitudes of the society has to continue throughout the year, says Jonah Nylund.
The festival’s opening gala, with Marit Bergman, Veronica Maggio, Sarah Dawn Finer, Anne-Lie Rydé, Jan Johansen, Therese Grankvist, Östen med resten and other artists, will mix sing-along with seriousness. This year’s three opening speakers, the Indian prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, Cecilia Malmström, the Swedish EU minister, and Tiina Rosenberg, gender science professor, will talk on different topics, all deriving from this year’s theme, "Swedish Sin, Breaking Borders".
Skansen’s first official same-sex wedding will be held in the afternoon between Marcus Vesterlund and Kristoffer Bonde Poll. They are the first same-sex couple to book a wedding ceremony at Skansen, which is warmly welcomed.
- I have heard that same-sex couples have married here in secret, says Urban Wallin, programme manager at Skansen, with a smile. Therefore it’s extra nice to have our first official booking of a same-sex wedding. Skansen is for everyone, and we want it to be a place for joy, encounters and party.
Stockholm EuroPride will be more visible in the city compared to previous festivals, as the city buses will be flagged with rainbow flags, and the Hötorget skyscrapers will be lighted with the rainbow colors throughout the festival’s ten days. Rainbow flags will also decorate flagpoles all around the city, and Taxi Stockholm gives attention to their cooperation with the festival by labelling all their cars with a EuroPride decal.
On Friday, the Pride Queer Film festival starts and the photo exhibition "State of Mind" has its première. Farnaz Arbabi, director of the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, opens the film festival with a fiery speech at Kulturhuset. In the lounge at Klarabiografen, Marit Bergman and Nina Natri will DJ with a film music theme. Films that will be shown are, among others, the movie version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the Academy award winning documentary Freeheld, about Laurel Hester who suffers from cancer and whose partner Stacie is not allowed to inherit her pension.
State of Mind is a photo project by the artist duo Annica Karlsson Rixon and Anna Viola Hallberg, whose art piece is portraiting 38 people in S:t Petersburg, Russia and takes off from human rights and examines the space between legislation and ethics. Many of the twelve museums that have special exhibitions during the festival open tomorrow, as well as private galleries. Visit the festival’s website for more items from the programme. Stockholm EuroPride presents more than 800 programme items during 10 days.
Stockholm EuroPride is celebrate from July 25 – August 3. Pride House opens at Kulturhuset and Stockholms stadsteater on Monday July 28 and is open until August 1. Pride Park, in Tantolunden at Södermalm, opens on July 30 and the Pride Parade will go through Stockholm on August 2.