Barcelona chosen to host WorldPride 2030

Barcelona has been chosen to host WorldPride 2030, beating Bangkok in the race to stage the international LGBTQ+ event, which takes place every two years in a different city.

The announcement was welcomed by Catalan and Barcelona officials, who presented the event as an opportunity to defend LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms amid what they described as a global reactionary wave.

Catalan Equality Minister Eva Menor said Barcelona was standing up to this "reactionary wave" through the event, adding that those who voted for the city's bid had seen Barcelona and Catalonia as "a beacon of hope in the face of a global offensive."

Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni said the city had won not by offering a destination, but by presenting a project in the service of the movement.

"We dreamed big and the dream has come true," he said, acknowledging that securing the event had initially seemed a distant prospect.

Collboni highlighted the support received from LGBTQ+ communities, particularly in countries where people cannot freely express themselves.

"We are here for all of them," he said, warning, like Menor, of a "global threat" that needed to be confronted.

He also described the decision as recognition of the activists who took to the streets in Barcelona in 1977, in the first demonstration for LGBTQ+ rights in Spain.

A month of events in summer 2030

WorldPride will run from June 28 to July 28, 2030, with a human rights conference at its centre. The programme will also include three marches – local, European and international – alongside a programme of celebrations and festivals.

The Catalan bid was led by Pride Barcelona and involved more than 40 LGBTQIA+ social organisations, Pride Barcelona volunteers and Barcelona Tourism. It also received backing from Barcelona City Council, the Catalan government and Spain's Equality Ministry.