PRAGUE PRIDE 2019 FINAL REPORT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, THE PRAGUE CITY HALL FLEW THE RAINBOW FLAG. ↓

↑ WE MANAGED TO ENLARGE IMPORTANT THE FESTIVAL AUDIENCE BY ATTRACTING ELDERLY LGBT+ MOMENTS PEOPLE, WHOM WE OFFERED A SPECIAL PROGRAM AT THE NEW FESTIVAL VENUE PRIDE LIFE – ZIVOT90. OUR PROGRAM WAS INCLUSIVE ALSO IN RELATION WITH THE MARGINAL GROUPS OF THE QUEER COMMUNITY – NON- BINARY PEOPLE, BISEXUALS, ASEXUAL PEOPLE, THE PANSEXUAL. ↓

↑ ↑ WE OFFERED THE CZECH AMONG THE FESTIVAL GUESTS AUDIENCE, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WAS THE FIRST A POPULAR CONCEPT FROM THE PERSON ELECTED TO U.S. – DRAG QUEENS READING A PARLIAMENT IN EUROPE FAIRY TALES TO CHILDREN. – THE ITALIAN POLITICIAN VLADIMIR LUXURIA. WE REGISTERED 75,000 VISITS DURING THE PRIDE WEEK. WE WERE HINDERED BY THE RAINY WEATHER, ESPECIALLY DURING THE ON SATURDAY. ↓

↑ ↑ AT THE OPENING CEREMONY ONE THE RAINBOW PARADE RETURNED OF THE SPEAKERS WAS THE EU TO OUR PREFERRED ROUTE, COMMISSIONER FOR JUSTICE, LEAVING VACLAVSKE NAMESTI CONSUMERS AND GENDER VIA NA PRIKOPE STREET. EQUALITY VERA JOUROVA. THE OPENING CONCERT FEATURED THE OLDEST DJ IN THE WORLD – THE 80-YEAR-OLD DJ WIKA, FROM POLAND. ↓

↑ ↑ WE INVITED TO PRAGUE THE THERE WERE 30,000 PEOPLE ORGANIZERS OF THE BIALYSTOK IN THE PARADE. AT THE LETNA PRIDE IN POLAND, WHERE PRIDE PARK DURING THE PEAK PARTICIPANTS WERE ATTACKED TIME FROM 2 P.M. – 4 P.M. THERE BRUTALLY BY EXTREMISTS. WERE OVER 22,000 IN THE THE POLISH ACTIVISTS WERE ATTENDANCE. RECEIVED BY THE PRAGUE MAYOR ZDENEK HRIB. THE OBSERVATION TOWER ON PETRIN HILL AND THE DANCING HOUSE WERE LIT IN THE COLORS OF THE RAINBOW. ↓

↑ ↑ FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 9 YEARS FOR THE FIRST TIME AT THERE WERE ATTEMPTS TO LETNA, WE INTRODUCED THE DISRUPT THE PRAGUE PRIDE, COMMUNITY ZONE DEDICATED INCLUDING BURNING THE TO THOSE WHO PREFER TALKING, RAINBOW FLAG, THROWING GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER FLARES AND POURING OIL ON – TO DANCING TO THE MUSIC AT THE LETNA STAIRS ON THE DAY THE STAGE. OF THE PARADE. 50 YEARS SINCE THE

This year people at Pride festivals around the world paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which lead to the creation of the LGBT movement. The events after the police raid at the Stonewall Inn in 1969 moved onto the streets the fight for LGBT rights – the queer people gained a voice and visibility.

Because of the Iron Curtain our country moved in a different direction. Homosexuality was decriminalized in Czechoslovakia already in 1962. That being said, Stonewall has an important meaning for us too: it is about openly claiming to be part of the queer community, which is very colorful and diverse.

The media campaign for the festival, designed by the 2fresh agency, showed the hands of two women or two men striving to make a contact that doesn’t happen. The headline Together within reach was meant to remind us that even today many or couples prefer not to hold hands in the street. The festival tried to tell the members of our community, but also our allies and the rest of the society, that it’s time to change that. THE FESTIVAL PROGRAM Pride Life

The 9th edition of the Prague Pride festival took place 5-11 August. The program In cooperation with the ZIVOT90 organization, we created a new festival location, included 140 events. 56 non-profit groups, companies and individuals helped and focused its program on elderly LGBT+ people. The goal was to give them a safe organize the festival. The events took place at 35 different locations throughout space where they could meet and get to know not only members of the same age the city. group, but also of the younger queer generation. The program included debates, authors’ readings, theater, film screenings, but also an intergenerational brunch Opening concert and a retro party. As usually, the festival was opened by a concert in the Pride Village on Strelecky Pride Voices Island. The main star was Daniela Sea, who plays the transgender character Max in the cult series The L Word, in duet with the Swedish DJ Gunn Lundemo. A new This year the traditional talk show featuring inspiring personalities, an event that has generation of proud LGBTQ* artists was represented by the promoter of genderless been traditionally popular within the festival, was moved to the charming Theater fashion Leopold from Germany and the Czech rising star Renato. The older Royal. Among those who came to talk to the queer community about their lives generation had its own representatives in the 80-year-old Polish DJ Wika and the were: ’s trans politician Vladimir Luxuria, the asexual model Yasmin Benoit, Elpida choir accompanied by the Never Sol in the OLD’s COOL project. The host of the transgender stand-up comedian James Jurgensen, the historian Anna Hajkova the event was Adela Elbel. from the Queer Memory Society, the American singer Tom Goss and Alvaro Gonzales from the Pride. Pride Village

The festival village offered throughout the week various musical performances and dance lessons. There were picnics in the grass, under the trees, but also various sports, manual workshops, readings to the children. Our visitors were able to use the Spirituality Zone of Logos CR and to get information in the tent of the We Are Fair initiative for marriage equality. The Pride Village closed on Sunday with an appetizing street food festival with picnic and music.

Pride House

The three stories of the back side of the Langhans palace hosted lectures, debates and panel discussions. People could listen to stories about the daily lives of gay people in China, about the situation of the LGBT+ community in Russia, watch a documentary film about a trans woman in Vietnam and then ask her questions in the following Q&A. Among those who contributed to the Pride House program were several Czech non-profits, such as Nevypust dusi, Queer Geography, Trans*parent, Linka bezpeci helpline, Ateists Association, Logos CR, Envirostyl. The Pride House featured Libuse Jarcovjakova’s photo exhibition from the legendary gay T-Club and photos of non-binary people by Parker Hirschmueller. NOVELTIES OF 2019 Anti-hate angels

Focusing on the elderly Our Saturday Parade featured anti-hate angels. They had huge white wings, We managed to expand the festival audience into the elderly LGBT+ segment – and their task was to literally ban from sight the opponents of our event, who people who generally spent most of their gay lives in the closet, and many are were yelling abuse against LGBT+ people, and to stand by in case of outright still there. Most of the events for the elderly were hosted by the new festival interruptions. The angels fulfilled their mission on Revolucni street, where a group location Pride Life – ZIVOT90. The festival however included more events for the of aggressive exptremists tried to infiltrate the Parade crowd. Thanks to the quick older generation, for instance discussions 30 Years of LGBT Activism in the Czech actions of the police, which used the help of angels, most of the participants didn’t Republic (at the Academy Conference Center), or Queer Closet – Remembering 50 even notice the incident. Years Since Stonewall (at the Pride House). Festival visibility

Niche queer groups During the Prague Pride week, we usually try to make the city as `rainbow-colored` The queer community consists of more than just L+G+B+T. We tried to weave into the as possible. This year we did better than before, especially thanks to the kind fabric of the festival other groups as well. We had an exhibition of photographs of support from the Prague leadership. The city hall building flew the , as non-binary people by Parker Hirschmueller, a picnic for pansexual people, a debate a symbol of the LGBT+ movement. The lamp-posts along the route of the parade about , a discussion about with the British model Yasmin were also decorated with rainbow flags. On day 1 of the festival there was Benoit, a meeting of asexual people within the Community Zone in the Pride Park, or a temporary tram stop on Legii Bridge named Rainbow Stop, and on Saturday a projection of a documentary film about the lives of intersex people. trams on the line no. 23 were decorated with small rainbow flags on their front. On Friday and Saturday, the Petrin observation tower was lit in rainbow colors, and the Stress on travesty and drag Dancing House wore rainbow lights, like in previous years, throughout the week. performances have always been a part of the Prague Pride. This year, also thanks to the Stonewall anniversary, we took a historical approach and invited founders of the Czech travesty art – the legendary group Screamers, but also members of the youngest generation of drag, inspired by the reality show Ru Paul’s Drag Race. They were accompanied by the London group Pecs Drag Kings, the Czech drag group Crazy Goddess and American queens from the Queens on the Run show.

Introvert program

Polls taken after last year’s festival indicated that a lot of participants are less eager to dance and listen to music than to take part in debates and meet like-minded people. That’s why we created the Community Zone in Pride park, which provided eight spots with different `chamber` events – from discussions with interesting guests to slam poetry. Although it rained and the lawn was soaked in water, the Community Zone managed to attract its own audience. RAINBOW PARADE

Thanks to the completion of reconstruction works in Vaclavske Namesti, the parade was able to return this year onto its preferred route: it exited Vaclavske Namesti via Na Prikope street, continued into Namesti Republiky, Revolucni street, Rasnovka, Dvorakovo nabrezi, Cechuv bridge, and the stairs to Letna.

The head of the Parade featured 3 Mini Coopers carrying the Prague Pride Marshals. Behind them, in the VIP sector, we had the Mayor of Prague Zdenek Hrib and his Deputy Petr Hlubucek. There was also a group of 11 foreign ambassadors as part of the initiative #Diplomats4Equality.

The Parade featured 23 vehicles. The Prague Pride float decoration was meant as a tribute to various milestones of the LGBT+ movement over almost 100 years. The We Are Fair initiative float featured a statue of the blind Justice, and it was followed by people wearing white T-shirts and bearing marriage equality signs. As in previous years we had floats from the Mezipatra queer film festival, and from Amnesty International. The Roma group ARA ART float was back in the Parade this year, and the Pirates political party was present with a float for the second time. The companies that had floats were Accenture, ADP and eBay, Amazon, Ben and Jerry’s, Google, Hunter, IBM, Kiwi.com, Mama Shelter, Microsoft, SAP. Once again, we had the 50-meter-long rainbow flag and a children’s train. There were two buses with glass ceilings for the elderly participants.

The Prague Pride association once again bestowed distinctions to 3 personalities for their service to the LGBT+ community. The Prague Pride Marshal title was awarded to the veteran LGBT+ activist Jiri Hromada for life-time achievements, to the former government minister for regional development, later defense minister, Karla Slechtova, as an openly gay public figure, and the Roma activist David Tiser for building a bridge between the Roma and LGBT communities.

According to estimates confirmed by the police, 30,000 people took part in the Parade. Vodafone later announced a participation of 27,900 people as a result of their mobile phone signal measurements. The lower participation was caused by the rain that never ceased on Saturday.

Those who could not join us personally were able to follow online stream on the Prague Pride Facebook profile. The streaming had 6 shorter segments. The first one had 12,000 viewers, the last one 6,209. PRIDE PARK

After the Parade the Pride program went on at the Letna plain. There was a wide choice of musical genres at the Vodafone Main Stage, Hot Chocolate Stage, Full Moon Stage and Stalin Stage. The production this year was truly queer, and people could watch many drag queens and LGBT+ artists, many featured regularly at Prides in other cities around the world.

The Pride Ball tent hosted an international vogue dance contest, an art that had been showed to the Czech public in a smaller event at the Pride Village last year. Non-profit groups were represented at the NGO market, and there was a Ferris wheel named Pride Eye. The Community Zone had eight spots with discussion and make-friends events.

The T-Mobile mobile phone operator counted the crowd at Letna at its peak (2 P.M. – 4 P.M.) at 22,272 people, of which 19,605 were Czech phone users. The biggest foreign guest presence at Letna was recorded between 4 P.M. and 6 P.M. reaching 3045 people.

According to Vodafone, there were 32,700 people at Letna from the beginning of the program to its end at 10 P.M., of that 8,700 being foreigners.

Both operators showed that most foreigners came from: France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Russia, Great Britain, Slovakia. MEETINGS WITH THE POLITICIANS

Raising the rainbow flag

On 5 August, in the morning, at the city hall, Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib organized the rainbow flag raising ceremony, also attended by invited Prague Pride association members and other LGBT+ activists. It was the first time in history that the rainbow flag as a symbol of the LGBT+ movement was officially raised at the Prague city hall by its leadership. Prague thus joined other world metropolises where raising the rainbow flag during Pride is part of the tradition.

Official reception

The official reception for the Prague Pride partners took place at the Residence of the Mayor of Prague. Mayor Zdenek Hrib addressed the 200 guests, and so did the EU commissioner for for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourova, the long-time LGBT+ activist Jiri Hromada, the Chairman of the Prague Pride association Czeslaw Walek and the Festival Director Hana Kulhankova.

Mayor’s meeting with Bialystok Pride organizers

In July, extremists attacked the first Pride Parade in the Eastern Polish city Bialystok. We invited its organizers to Prague to express our solidarity and say a loud 'no' to attacks on the LGBT+ community all over the world. Our Polish guests participated in the Pride Voices talk show, joined the discussion “What’s going on in Poland? News from a threatened country”, and were received personally by the Prague Mayor.

The festival is held under the auspices of the Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib, Deputy Mayor of the Prague 1 City District Pavel Nazarsky, Deputy Mayor for Culture, Sport and Neighbourhood Relations of Prague 7 Hana Trestikova and Councillor of Prague 1 Petr Kucera. OUR FIRST-TIME EXPERIENCES

Attacks on Prague Pride 2019

At none of the previous edition did we have to be in touch with the police so often. People tore down rainbow flags on the Czechuv and Legii bridges during the first days of the festival. On Thursday, someone set on fire one of the few remaining flags on the Legii bridge, and fired flares in the direction of people gathered at Strelecky Island. The internet was full of hateful comments about the rainbow flag at the City Hall. Prague cardinal Dominik Duka made a public statement to foment hate not only against LGBT+ people, but also against non-believers. On Friday our e-shop was full of fake orders and hateful comments, so we had to close it.

On Saturday morning someone poured oil on the stairs at Letna in an attempt to sabotage the Parade, and a group of extremists tried to infiltrate the Parade later in the day. We are grateful to all the police units for their support and professional handling of the situations.

Rainy Saturday

For the first time in the 9 years of Prague Pride, it rained during the Parade and the follow up events at Letna. That obviously made an impact on the attendance, which was by 10,000 people smaller than last year. We were however pleasantly surprised by the large number of people who joined the parade anyway, followed it up to Letna and stayed on for the afternoon program. It was thus demonstrated that to many people, the atmosphere of respect and openness created by the Prague Pride is more important than their personal comfort.

The weather however brought us problems throughout the week. The opening concert attendance was also affected by the rain that started an hour before the show; on Wednesday we had to cut short the events in Pride Village at 6 P.M. due to an approaching storm. The general lower attendance compared to the previous edition was indeed caused by the unfavorable weather. PROMOTION AND MEDIA

The festival outdoor promotion campaign included citylights, posters on phone booths, QS foil ads on tram cars and variaposters. The printed ads were featured in the magazines published by the Mafra, VLM, and Empresa media groups. Online was a major component of the campaign, with programmatic advertising, Google Display Network, Youtube and campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.

This year’s festival brought us 1,800 new fans on Facebook. On Instagram we surpassed the 10,000 followers mark, which activated new functions for our successful profile.

From 29 July to 11 August the Prague Pride website was visited by 73,860 users, out of which 68,607 unique visitors. In all they went through 363,653 pages. The average number of viewed pages during one visit was 3. Our media partner Czech Radio – Radio Wave broadcasted our radio spots. The festival press conference took place 30 July at the Mama Shelter hotel and was filmed by the Czech TV and TV Seznam.

There were over 500 items about the festival in the media. Among the most interesting were the article Coming out old in Magazin DNES, an interview with Yasmin Benoit on Aktualne.cz or the Czech TV report on a gay couple who were preparing to join the Pride Parade, but also to emigrate in search of marriage equality. At least 15 articles about Prague Pride were published in the foreign press, especially in German-speaking countries. PRINTOUTS FOR PARTICIPANTS

Prague Pride Mag

The festival magazine came out in the second half of July. In 50 pages it presented the schedule of the festival, its guests and other significant LGBT+ topics. The articles were in Czech and English. We distributed 6000 copies in LGBT-friendly venues and festival locations. The PDF-version was downloaded from the festival website by 1115 users.

Prague Pride Map

We prepared a printed Prague Pride map for our foreign visitors with a marked route of the Parade, with a list of Engish-friendly festival events and with practical information. 6000 copies were disseminated in German and Austrian gay clubs, during our visits to Prides abroad including in Vienna in June, and during Prague Pride. PDF version was downloaded from the festival website by 1221 users.

A guide for participants from Czech regions

For our visitors from outside Prague we prepared an updated guide with practical advice concerning the use of public transportation, affordable dining, useful apps etc. The guide was made available in e-version only, and it was downloaded by 3078 people. HIV TESTING

The Czech AIDS Help Society (CSAP) carried out during the Pride week 2308 tests on 861 people. That’s the highest number since CSAP started doing tests at the festival. There were 852 tests for HIV, 748 for syphilis, 265 for B hepatitis, and 443 for C hepatitis. For the first time in the Czech Republic, they used the detection instrument GeneExpert, developed by the U.S armed forces for battle zone testing.

Most of the tests were conducted on Saturday in the Pride Park, where CSAP had an air-conditioned lab tent. 449 people were tested there (445 for HIV, 379 syphilis, 249 B hepatitis, 393 C hepatitis). During the Pride week the CSAP tested people also at the Pride Village tent, and in the counseling facility The House of Light.

The staff sent to the National reference lab for diagnosis certification 14 samples, 4 for HIV and 10 for syphilis. In the case of HIV, it was the same number as last year, in the case of syphilis the number of suspicious samples doubled. VOLUNTEERS

122 volunteers helped organize the festival. Most of them (102) were involved in the Saturday Parade – among them 25 flag bearers, 20 leaders of float security groups and 6 anti-hate angels. During the week there were 74 volunteers in action, especially at the Pride Village, Pride House and at the festival’s office.

Most volunteers showed the biggest interest in selling merchandise and decorating the parade floats. More than 10 people offered to work for the polling actions among the festival goers.

Our volunteers came not only from Prague, but also Ceske Budejovice, Brno, Hradec Kralove, Jihlava, Karlovy Vary, Pisek, Rumburk, Ostrava. Mr. Leather of Brittany (Bretagne) offered to be the volunteer flag bearer at the head of the Parade.

Once again, we used the volunteer online database, which features a system of rewards for loyal volunteers. A novelty was the volunteer zone in the Pride Village and the one at Letna. FESTIVAL TEAM Volunteer Coordination Jana Kmunickova, Matej Schamberger Pride Village Volunteer Zone Michaela Belicova Festival director Hana Kulhankova Public polling Jan Moravek Financial director Katerina Saparova Economist Radek Miracky Festival magazine, Distribution Marketa Navratilova Corporate fundraising Lenka Bartova, Marian Kramarik Print Production Jiri Vanicky, Pavel Ubrankowicz Individual fundraising Tereza Pelechova Promotion and Media Bohdana Rambouskova Fundraising assistance Kristyna Dejlova Facebook Hynek Toman, Simona Kamarytova Legal services Petr Kalla Instagram Zuzana Slavikova Office manager Jitka Sarsounova Merchandising Marek Nepozitek Web and copywriting Martin Lyko Festival program Hana Kulhankova, Tereza Pelechova, Online marketing Marek Nepozitek, Ondrej Urbanec Katerina Tureckova, Jakub Chramosta Photo editor Petr Mracek Guest Service Koen Beayens Online streaming of the Parade Dan Kupsovsky Pride Village Kamila Frohlichova, Matyas Schenker, Peter Szabo, Kristyna Dejlova Pride House Production Rafaela Radojcic Pride Life Production Tereza Lavickova, Stepanka Lavickova Pride Voices Coordinator Czeslaw Walek Bobr party Production Kamila Frohlichova, Katerina Tureckova Exhibitions Production Ella Einhornova Dance performance Production Jan Malik Theater Production Luke Stepanek Pride Parade Coordination Olda Bures, Nikola Daskova, Nikola Larysova Pride Park Program Kamila Frohlichova Pride Park Production Kiro Tomoski, Cyril Horanek JarmarQ Assistence Matyas Schenker VIP Zone Marian Kramarik Community Zone Katerina Tureckova Rainbow decorations Veronika Plocicová Official afterparty Mira Vales FESTIVAL PARTNERS

GENERAL PARTNER MAIN PARTNERS

STRATEGIC PARTNERS

Financed by We are fair project (no. 777228) funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014–2020).

MAIN HOTEL PARTNER OFFICIAL TAXI COMPANY

PARTNERS

SUPPORTERS

MEDIA PARTNERS HOTEL PARTNERS THE 10TH, ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE PRAGUE PRIDE FESTIVAL IS TAKING PLACE ON 3-9 AUGUST 2020.