Full edition ft. parade and festival days for Antwerp Pride 2022

Antwerp Pride has broken silence for its 2022 plans. The organisation is “planning a full edition with parade and festivals at new locations”. The theme is ‘Queertopia‘. “What will the ideal LGBTQIA+ world look like in fifteen years?”

2022 is Antwerp Pride’s 15th edition.

“A fifteenth birthday is usually a moment to look back on the past”, says Antwerp Pride chairman Bart Abeel. “And although a lot has changed for the LGBTQIA+ community in our city since the first Antwerp Pride in 2007, this year we want to look resolutely to the future.”

2037

“That is why we ask ourselves: what will society and our LGBTQIA+ community look like in fifteen years? And above all: what do we want our society to look like in 2037”, Antwerp Pride says.

Asking that question immediately raises a series of other tantalizing questions.

Will an Antwerp Pride still be needed in 2037? And if so, what should it look like?

Will there be more letters in our LGBTQIA+ community or will we have a different name? Will our language use be gender neutral by then? And the fashion?

Will trans people have more autonomy over their transition by then? Will we have a gay Red Devil in 2037? The Red Devils are Belgium‘s national football team.

Is there still discrimination in the labor market against queer people of color? Are we still looking for sex through apps? Can people of the same sex marry before church? Will we still have to come out? Who will win ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race‘ in 2037? Will there still be gay bars or how will we go out? Do we then take better care of each other?…

In short, Antwerp Pride is looking for the ideal LGBTQIA+ society this year.

This year

“We all make a society together”, Bart Abeel continues.

“So it’s good to think in a longer-term perspective than the issues of the day. We invite everyone to think and dream about Queertopia. We will raise the questions above and many others in our magazine, on our social media, during debates, conversations and other activities during Antwerp Pride. But more questions are sure to arise in the coming months. Not that we will come to a final conclusion. Queertopia is not so much the destination, but the journey towards it.”

Utopia

Although Antwerp Pride to the future, there is also a link with the golden age of our city. After all, the philosophical work ‘Utopia‘ from 1516 by the English humanist Thomas More begins at the Handschoenmarkt in Antwerp.

The fifteenth edition of Antwerp Pride will take place this year from Wednesday 10 to Sunday 15 August and the organization is planning a full edition with a parade and with a Love United Festival on Saturday and Closing Festival on Sunday.

The program is currently being worked on and will be announced at a later date.

De Gerlachekaai and Sint-Andriesplaats

There will be partying at two new locations. The newly constructed quays near the De Gerlachekaai will become the main festival site. The Sint-Andriesplaats will also be given a rainbow.

“We will of course continue to be cautious with promises”, says Abeel. “But according to the virologists, we can still prepare for a summer in which more will be possible again. After two light editions for the known reasons, we hope to be able to celebrate our third lustrum with all the bells, feathers, glitter and everyone in the city.”