EuroPride

EuroPride is a pan-European international event dedicated to LGBT pride, hosted by a different European city each year.

EuroPride usually culminates during a weekend with a traditional Mardi Gras-style pride parade, live music, human rights conference, special club nights, and an AIDS memorial vigil.

In 2002, Köln (Cologne), Germany, held the then-biggest ever EuroPride; officials estimated crowds to number well over one million.

The parade was attended by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Conservative MP Alan Duncan, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, and the first transgender MEP, Italian Vladimir Luxuria.

EuroPride 2006 marked the first time that London's main pride rally and entertainment areas were staged within the city itself, rather than in open parks.

More than 1.2 million people attended the final parade as it passed through the downtown streets of Alcalá, and Gran Vía, ending up at Plaza de España.

Hosted by Claudia Gerini, the parade closed with a performance and a speech by Lady Gaga at the Circus Maximus.

UK singer/songwriter Tara McDonald sang her single "I Need A Miracle" which was chosen as the EuroPride anthem and was remixed by Gregor Salto.

In June 2019, President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen became the first head of state to address a EuroPride parade.

London, also hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics, beat out competing candidate, Stockholm, in the fall of 2008 to hold WorldPride 2012, which was held from 23 June to 8 July.

This huge attendance was not only a success for Madrid, but for the whole LGBT Spanish community, due to the celebration of the change of terms in the laws related to gay marriage and adoptions.

Pride organisers from across Europe discussed the creation of a European network at conferences of InterPride and the International Lesbian & Gay Association (ILGA) in the early 1990s, and the first formal meeting of EPOA was convened in Copenhagen in 1995.