Week-long Helsinki Pride festival celebrates gay culture

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The annual Helsinki Pride festival, which begins today, Monday, has grown from a single march ten years ago to a week-long GLBT festival.
      The origins of the festival are in San Francisco, from where it has spread to nearly every country in the Western world.
      In Helsinki there are a number of events on every day through Saturday, June 27th, when the week culminates in a Pride Parade.
     
“Last year there were 2,500 people in the parade. Much depends on the weather, but now we are expecting 3,000 participants”, says Essi Vauras, coordinator of the festival.
      Drag artist Osku Heiskanen who will perform on Friday at DTM, a popular gay restaurant in Helsinki, says that this year’s festival is much different from what it was when it began. “Now there is certainly something for everyone.”
      Although it has grown over the years, the Helsinki Pride event is much smaller than the equivalent festival in Stockholm, which involves “millions of people”, Heiskanen says.
      Nevertheless, the number of gay locations and events in Helsinki has grown significantly in recent years.
     
Could there be a danger that putting so much emphasis on the gay scene might actually enhance stereotypes?
      “In this day in age, we still need places where gays can come as they are without fear of being attacked”, Vauras says.
      She notes that being gay is more than a sexual orientation: it is also a culture. She emphasises that there will be a continued need for places where gay culture is maintained.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Special guides for gay tourists who visit Helsinki (5.4.2007)
  Helsinki Gay and Eurovision Song Contest Guide (11.5.2007)

See also:
  Helsinki - a city for just everybody (14.6.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat