Top things to do during Queer & Pride Amsterdam

In 2023, Pride in Amsterdam is expanding to a two week event. With one week of programming, Queer & Pride festival, organised by Queer Amsterdam and the second week organised by Stichting Pride Amsterdam. The Queer & Pride festival will take place from 22 to 28 July 2023, and Pride Amsterdam from 1 till 6 August 2023, together the two weeks are called Queer & Pride Amsterdam.

Queer Amsterdam sees Pride as a means to create equality and fight inequality for the LGBTQIAP+ community. This year the festival will focus on sports by promoting more intensive and efficient use of sports parks, gymnasiums and sports halls and also make them safer for the community. With the aim that everyone can play sports safely in the near future.

While the Queer & Pride festival starts fresh this year, Pride Amsterdam has over 25 years of history and is using 2023 to take stock. This year they want to put everyone in the spotlight with the theme #YouAreIncluded. The theme will highlight the uniqueness of Amsterdam, show that everybody counts and that together the world will be a safer place.

Over the course of Queer & Pride Amsterdam, there will be over 300 activities and events to attend throughout the city. Something to fit everyone’s interests and ideas. These are our top things to do during Queer & Pride Amsterdam in 2023.

The Queer & Pride festival starts on 22 July and the Pride Walk is definitely the main event of the day. The demonstration and walk is intended to draw attention to the situation of LGBTIs in countries where homosexuality is included in the penal code, by carrying the flags of those countries. The Pride Walk starts with a demonstration at noon on Dam Square, an hour later the walk moves through the city to Museum Square.

In past years, thousands of people participated in Pride Walk and it is sure to be a popular event again this year. What you should know about participating in Pride Walk: show yourself in all colours and make enough noise, while giving everyone enough space and respecting each other. When Pride Walk arrives at Museum Square a mini-festival will take place, Queer Fest, with music, sports and market stalls.

Art and culture are an important part of Pride Amsterdam, with amazing theatre, film, music, books, shows, visual art and photography for all to enjoy. There are expositions which are on show throughout all of Queer & Pride as well, for instance at the Stedelijk Museum which will feature several exhibitions with stories by queer artists, including Keith Haring and Felix de Rooy.

Over in the Westerpark you can visit the Pride Photo Exhibition at any time of day. The annual international photography contest gives a platform to imagery about sexual and gender diversity. If you prefer to express yourself instead of watching the expressions of others, you can learn how to dance like Madonna at the Vogue dance workshop.

Amsterdam has frequently been named as one of the most LGBT-friendly cities in the world. The city is rich when it comes to LGBT emancipation, history and gay icons. To learn more about this connection we recommend the LGBTIQ+ Historical Amsterdam Tour. This two hour tour covers 400 years of Amsterdam gay history.

The tour starts at the Homomonument, the first monument in the world dedicated to the gay and lesbian victims of the Holocaust. From there you’ll make your way through historic Amsterdam as the guide tells you about being gay in the 17^th-century, about prosecution over the centuries and how gay men and women found ways to live their lives. The tour ends at Café ‘t Mandje, a gay bar that opened in 1927.

If there is one event that sets Amsterdam apart from other pride events around the world it is the world famous Canal Parade. This year the parade will take place on 5 August, starting at noon from the Oosterdok near the Maritime Museum. From here the floats will make their way via the Nieuwe Herengracht to the Amstel river, under the Skinny Bridge, and on to the Prinsengracht all the way to the Westerdok.

During the parade around 80 boats or floats, representing everything from small LGBTI foundations through to pink networks within multinationals, cruise through the canals celebrating the past, present and future of the LGBTI community. The bridges and canal quays are packed with people watching the parade and partying to the music coming from the boats.

In the final days of Pride Amsterdam, the city sees street parties wherever you go, especially on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 August. The street parties start in the afternoon. One of the biggest street parties is Prik Pride, a two day street party on the Spuistraat. Entry is free and on stage will be famous local DJs, MCs, Queens and performers.

The closing party of Pride Amsterdam is also a street party, at the mainstage on Dam Square. From 2 in the afternoon on 6 August until 11 at night, Amsterdam’s main square says goodbye to Pride and starts counting down till next year. Of course, after the closing party, the after parties take over in the clubs all over the city.