Pride organisations from Lisbon (Portugal) and Magdeburg (Germany) are competing for the right to hold Europe’s most significant LGBTI+ event in 2025.
As Prides across Europe return to the streets this summer, two organisations are preparing bids to host EuroPride in three years’ time.
ILGA Portugal and Variações are jointly bidding to bring EuroPride to Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, whilst CSD Magdeburg are bidding for EuroPride in their city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is the first time that either city would host EuroPride.
EuroPride is the European continent’s most significant LGBTI+ event and this year marks 30 years since the first EuroPride was held, in London in 1992. The event is licensed by the European Pride Organisers Association to a different city each year. This year EuroPride takes place in Belgrade, Serbia, from 12-18 September.
President of the European Pride Organisers Association Kristine Garina (she/her) welcomed the bids, saying:
“For thirty years EuroPride has been a beacon for LGBTI+ equality across Europe, and I am delighted that Lisbon and Magdeburg both hope to continue creating that history in 2025. I know that their bids will be very different but equally impressive and I look forward to learning more about their plans over the coming months.”
Executive Director of Variações, Diogo Vieira da Silva (he/him) said:
“Since the end of Portugal’s dictatorship in 1974, particularly in the last two decades, the country made accelerating progress on LGBTI rights, particularly for a long-closed country and conservative culture. As a result, in 2019, Portugal ranked #7 on ILGA Europe’s Rainbow Map. However, Portugal remains with Eastern Europe near the bottom of OECD countries for LGBTI social acceptance. Stigma, discrimination, isolation, and victimisation remain the reality of many.
Lisbon EuroPride 2025 bid represents a joint effort by three national organisations who, together, offer LGBTI people a path to self-determination, autonomy, and community in all aspects of life. The vision of a pan-European Pride movement will mark 50 years of Portuguese democracy. In 2025, we will celebrate not just Pride, but pride in our accomplishments as a movement that has changed the landscape for LGBTI lives in Europe. At the same time, such a landmark anniversary invites us to look forward, to see how we can expand the vision of EuroPride beyond today and beyond boundaries, in order to transform LGBTI lives beyond recognition.”
Spokesperson for CSD Magdeburg Leonie Herzog (she/her) said:
“Magdeburg is beautiful, romantic and complex, but no one in Europe travels to Germany to see Magdeburg. Especially not if you belong to the queer community. But the more I listened to the others planning and anticipating their ideas and thoughts I understood why Magdeburg needs EuroPride.
Our community needs hope. We need safe zones, anchor points and people who give us the feeling of being accepted and loved. But that is not possible if there is no community. No one to enlighten. No coverage and only ignorance.
Bringing EuroPride 2025 to Magdeburg also means bringing it to the small towns in the region. To the countryside that surrounds the city and to its inhabitants, who have hardly any contact with big events, let alone queer life reality. Here it is particularly important to break down resentment and fear of contact.
Magdeburg’s worldwide partner cities should feel the effects and possibilities of a EuroPride. Cities like Radom, Harbin, Le Havre, Sarajevo, Saporoshje and Nashville, where it is in some instances even more urgent to show flag and presence. Enlightenment, love, pride, strength and hope must not remain reachable only for cities like Berlin and Cologne!”
The full bids for EuroPride 2025 will be published on 12 August, and members of the European Pride Organisers Association will vote on the bids at their annual general meeting in Torino, Italy, in October.
Media enquiries: Contact details can be found on this page.
Image: NIM / Unsplash