On Wednesday 9 August, Antwerp Pride and OLT Rivierenhof will join forces for the Antwerp Pride Opening Night. 

The Rivierenhof‘s open-air theatre has hosted the opening concert and party a few years now. 

Pay What You Can

For the Opening Night Antwerp Pride is introducing the ‘Pay What You Can‘ principle. The basic price is € 16.5. Do you want to support Antwerp Pride and people who have just that little bit more trouble paying the basic price? Then you are free to pay more. Does € 16.5 feel like a threshold to come to the Opening Night? Then you can safely pay a lower ticket price.

Quatsch Collective

Quatsch Collective is a group of queer artists from Antwerp born in the ‘underground scene’. The word ‘Quatsch’ is german for ‘nonsense’ and the noun of choice to describe this eclectic group. The collective exists of four performers and 1 deejay, Bust’N Tears, who can be found behind the turntables. The performers are the creepy Omega, enigmatic HannaH Stamina, man-candy drag king Jimmy Kidd and the campy Miss Ditniet.

Martha Da’Ro

Martha Da’ro is a multidisciplinary artist with origins in Angola and based in Brussels. The young artist started her career as an actress with the movies ‘Black‘, ‘A Girl from Mogadishu‘ or more recently ‘Roomies‘. 

At the same time, she made her debut in music with her multilingual hip hop collective Soul’Art, an experience that allowed her to launch her solo project Martha Da’ro with her first single ‘Summer Blues‘ which gave her the opportunity to tour around Belgium and to release her first EP ‘Cheap Wine & Paris‘ a project with a fragile but bold universe, a musical genre she likes to call ‘diaspop’. 

Today she goes further with her new project, a new challenge where Da’ro doesn’t hesitate to use her experience of film and storytelling to create a sound experience.

Grace Khuabi

As one of the youngest contestants, Grace Khuabi won ‘The Voice Vlaanderen‘ in 2021. After that, the singer withdrew for a while, to write songs and finish school. 

With ‘Freedom‘, her first single, she already showed what she can do. This summer she will also show herself live to a large audience at Antwerp Pride. 

Expect a dazzling show full of moves and grooves. Because, as she already demonstrated in the studios of ‘The Voice’, Grace is not the woman to stand still on stage. A single is usually the stepping stone to a full album. But that’s not coming right away, Grace laughs. “Calm down. Step by step. What does the future look like? Performing, finally a lot of performance!”

Grigri y el Macho Fantastico

For years, he has been making music that cuts right through the bone with his band Dez Mona and at first sight seems to be the odd one out of the cheerful Pride bites. 

But Antwerp based Gregory Frateur has been a regular at our festival since he was allowed to grace the stage in 2016. He is therefore eager to, in his own words, ‘let his inner diva run free once again’. 

“I’m gay and I’m proud of that. Antwerp is a fantastic place to live. But I do see the lasting usefulness of Pride. Certainly because in various places in the world there are still problems with homosexuality and especially with the open experience of it. Certain steps can and must be taken in this area. Any form of inequality is a thorn in the side of our society. And yes, it’s probably utopian to think that it can all be solved someday. That does not alter the fact that you have to keep believe in it.”

DJ Sarah

SAHЯA began her passion for deejaying five years ago. Despite her fledgling career, she became tour dj of neo-soul singer IKRAAAN and played throughout Belgium. In 2022, her big break came. 

She went international with bookings in Spain and the Netherlands as well as being booked at the concert of her teen idols TLC. Her summer tour took her to festivals such as Tomorrowland, Rock Werchter, Sfinks, Polé Polé at Gentse Feesten and Pukkelpop. 

In addition to deejaying, she is a clinical psychologist in her day-to-day life and, as a bridge between the two careers, tries to research and elaborate on the link between music and mental health. SAHЯA is known for her high-energy sets and knows how to get the audience moving with her every time! As if giving therapy, she makes sure that everyone can shake off their worries for a while.

Tickets.

Antwerp Pride 2023 & Antwerp Queer Arts Festival 2023

• 4-27 AUGUST | Antwerp Queer Arts Festival 2023 programme and schedule.
• 2023 Antwerp Pride Parade route includes Kloosterstraat and a hello to czar Peter the Great.
• Antwerp Pride 2023 Festival at Cockerillkaai.
• ANTWERP PRIDE 9-13 AUGUST 2023 ‘BRAVEOLUTION’ | Make Antwerp a brave and safe.
• ANTWERP PRIDE 2023 | ‘Braveolution’ to Brave Space Antwerp.
• Antwerp Queer Arts Festival 2023 seeks contributors.
• ANTWERP PRIDE | Geert Van Praet succeeds retiring chairperson Bart Abeel.
• PHOTOS | Antwerp Pride 2023 from Wednesday 9 to Sunday 13 August.

Darklands 2023-2024

• ANTWERP | Darklands 2024 going into ‘The Void’ under new, stricter city rules.
• “Darklands: The Hotel was an idea of A-Stay”.
• DARKLANDS 2023 | Programme and schedule.
• DARKLANDS 2023 | A-Stay to become official Darklands: The Hotel.
• Darklands 2023 from Tuesday 7 to Tuesday 14 March in Antwerp.
• Darklands 2023 to and from Deep Space.

Queer Antwerp

• Antwerp Pride, Jeffrey’s, Marie Antoinette, Armand Everaert win 2023 Touristico Gaylive Awards.
• ANTWERP | LGBTQIA+ bookshop Kartonnen Dozen stops.
• Rainbow zebra crossings of Antwerp.
• Rainbow zebra crossing in Borgerhout.
• Rainbow zebra crossing in Berchem.
• City chronicle ‘De kleur van de stad maakt mijn ziel amoureus’ recounts Queer Antwerp history.
• ‘Masculinities: Liberation through Photography’ exhibition at FOMU, Antwerp’s photography museum.
• Antwerp’s LGBTQI+ bookshop Kartonnen Dozen wins Çavaria Media Award.
• PHOTOS | Rainbows lit Antwerp.
• Flemish LGBTQI+ press support rainbow community in Ukraine.
• ALLEMAAL ANTWERPENAAR | Antwerp launches campaign to motivate citizens to stand up against discrimination and intimidation.
• Borgerhout flies intersex inclusive Rainbow Progress Pride Flag for IDAHOT.