Barcelona claims LGBT culture as universal in Pride celebrations

Rainbow flags, a lot of music, a demonstration with hundreds of thousands, and a lot of chants in favor of the LGBTQ+ community. Barcelona will see hundreds celebrating Pride from Thursday until Saturday.

"Without protest, there is no Pride," Ferran Poca, president of the Pride organizing committee, told Catalan News ahead of the weekend events.

This year's edition focuses on LGBTQ+ culture, as "it was very important for everyone to be aware of our culture and we thought that using famous people, it was a way of reaching more people," Poca added.

The posters feature singer Lady Gaga, artist Andy Warhol, singer Freddie Mercury, and Drag queen RuPaul, to name a few.

"It is a way of exemplifying that our culture is universal," Poca said. He leads the team of Pride which features 39 civil society groups "who decide the theme of the year."

"Culture has served us to protest, to be able to exist, and to become the people that we want to be," the president of the organization said.

Demonstration and concerts

Pride Barcelona starts its major events on Thursday by reading the manifesto by theater producer and director Àngel Llacer. Aside from the manifesto, some concerts are scheduled from Thursday to Saturday, including Saturday's Chanel, Edurne, Nebulosa, Mónica Naranjo, or the Barcelona Gay Men's Chorus.

These are some of the dozens of activities scheduled for the Pride! events, which started on June 28, and will finish on Saturday after a massive demonstration planned to go from Plaça Universitat to Arc de Triomf, ahead of major concerts.

Overall, organizers expect between 400,000 and 500,000 people, including the 200,000 demonstrators for Saturday's rally, to participate in one of the several activities.

Rainbow washing and far-right

"There is no pink washing, nor rainbow washing," Poca said when asked if the organization is monetizing the protests from the LGBTQ+ community.

"Pride is a civil society project that welcomes everyone," he added before explaining that the group urges companies that sponsor the events to set up internal protocols for the LGBTQ+ community.

Aside from the law that "forces companies to have diversity policies."

This edition of Pride arrives when far-right groups are "mainly against culture, people with difficulties or those who have had a hard time, such as migrants, but after that, they will then focus their attention on the LGBTQ+ community," Poca said.

He exemplified the situation seen in Hungary, where thousands, including dozens of Catalans, demonstrated in an LGBTQ+ rally considered illegal.

"We are an easy target; we have already been one. Things have changed, but as we are seeing, they have not changed that much; we are going backwards," Poca concluded.

World Pride 2030

Barcelona is planning to launch its candidacy to host the World Pride 2030, "which is the largest worldwide event in terms of LGBTQ+ and human rights."

"I still get emotional," Poca said when explaining that there is the opportunity to rethink and to face all those "populist attitudes and people who are against us."

"Barcelona has an opportunity to speak to the world and explain

Hosting the event means that the city will host dozens of activities to champion more LGBTQ+ and human rights during the year, as it will be the "place of reference of the movement."

Previous World Pride cities include New York, Madrid, Washington, D.C., Sydney, Toronto, and London. The 2026 edition will be held in Amsterdam, and the 2028 edition in Cape Town, South Africa.