The 18th edition (since 2008) of Antwerp Pride takes place from Wednesday 6 to Sunday 10 August 2025. This year’s theme is “Do not just march! Listen. Understand. Commit”. Prides are a mix of celebration – parties – and activism and advocacy. For the 2025 edition, the organising committee focuses on belonging. Belonging to the society at large – the ‘outside world’ – but also belonging within the rainbow realm. 

‘Many Voices, One Pride‘ in 2024, ‘Braveolution‘ in 2023, ‘Queertopia‘ in 2022, ‘Not Just Words‘ in 2021, ‘Together We Pride‘ in 2020, ‘RIOT‘ in 2019, ‘Identity‘ in 2018… This is as far back I can find the previous themes. 

These themes are mostly used as a talking point, a starting point, a ‘hook’ for conversation, for activities and for debate. Usually these themes are a bit lost during the meny festivities, but they are recognisable in Antwerp Pride Magazine and during more formal, more activist and more serious events. 

So in 2025: Do not just march! Listen. Understand. Commit.

Do you belong?

Belonging is an important next step in continuing emancipation after acceptance and inclusion. Belonging is still not self-evident for many LGBTQIA+ people. You can be accepted as lesbian or gay, but that does not mean that you belong in a heteronormative society.

For many in in the rainbow community, belonging is still a distant dream. Trans people and queers are not even accepted. Bi and pansexual persons or puppies – to name a few groups – encounter incomprehension.

Even within the community, trans people or anyone who deviates from homonormativity are often not accepted.

Self-consious

While being homosexual is now broadly accepted, some forms expressing not being straight. Queer people are or can be “a subject that people have an opinion about”. 

Some are very self-conscious because they know that they fall outside the norm and / or expectations. Having to explain yourself to people all the time is tiring. Those who are activists, can see that as an added value, but that is not the case for everyone.

Belonging starts with listening to each other, but especially with being heard.

The outside world

In addition, Antwerp Pride is not blind to the pitch-black clouds of the extreme right that are forming over Europe. 

In addition to the ‘usual suspect’ countries such as Hungary and Poland, extreme right-wing leaders are also in power in Italy, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands, or governments are supported by the extreme right. In France, Germany and Austria, things are getting very iffy.

In the meantime, Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin are disrupting the European democratic processes. The fate of trans people and the entire inclusion struggle in the United States of America looks downright dramatic.

Flanders

But in Flanders too, the cordon sanitaire around the far-right has been broken and it is naive to say that municipalities such as Ninove or Izegem are unimportant.

Anyone who runs the risk of being discriminated against by the extreme right has already expressed their fear about this several times, a fear that is also very much alive within our community.

But are people being listened to and being heard?

Cases of homophobia, such as recently with Max Colombie, the singer of Oscar and the Wolf in Ghent, continue to occur too often. Transphobia even seems to be hip on social media. Facebook and X no longer put any obstacles in the way of trolls. 

Statistics regarding well-being for LGBTQIA+ people are not improving. That is not new either.

After ‘Many Voices’

After Antwerp Pride letting the world know there are ‘Many Voices’ yearning to be heard last year, this year and after 17 prides Antwerp Pride asks the question: are those voices heard?

While the pride committee acknowledges that much has changed for the better for the rainbow community and certainly for gay people and (to a lesser extent) for the lesbian people and that everyone is doing their utmost to combat homophobia.

Not without commitment

Participating in pride should not be non-committal, Antwerp Pride argues. Not for the participants in the parade, not for the partygoers, not for the politician, not for the CEO, not for the marketer, not for the spectator, not for…

Participating in Antwerp Pride means listening, hearing and acting. Everyone can do something to ensure that everyone ‘belongs’. 

The activist can do that, the partygoer, the politician, the CEO,… In your immediate environment, in your company, your sports club, your school,… As long as you listen, hear and do something.

And thus

Hence: Do not just march. Listen. Understand. Commit.

The slogan and tagline refer to previous themes ‘Not just Words’, and it serves as a sequel to ‘Many Voices. One Pride’. 

Because those voices want their lives to be safer and better, and so it is an invitation to everyone to meaningfully fill in your participation in pride and that does not stop after the Closing Festival on Sunday.

“And to those partygoers, politicians, marketers and CEOs who are already doing this, we say: thank you for hearing us. Keep doing that, because we need you.”

Antwerp Pride 2025 & Antwerp Queer Arts Festival 2025

• Antwerp Queer Arts Festival broadens horizon to Bruges and Leuven.
• Antwerp Pride 2025 from Wednesday 6 to Sunday 10 August.

Darklands 2025-2026

• Darklands organiser calls out unnecessary rules other events aren’t subjected to.
• GAY ANTWERP | Darklands 2026 becomes Beyond Darklands.
• GAY ANTWERP | Darklands 2026 changes name and concept, but keeps Waagnatie as venue.
• Darklands 2025 aims at actively welcoming FLINTA people.
• DARKLANDS 2025 | Programme & schedule highlights.
• Darklands 2025 drops token payment system in favour of top-up Darkband.
• ANTWERP | Darklands to leave Waagnatie after 2025.
• Darklands 2025 from Tuesday 25 February until Monday 3 March.
• Darklands 2025 theme: ‘Darklands Glows’, stays at Waagnatie until 2030.

The latest on LGBTQIA+ events such as prides in Belgium

• Darklands organiser calls out unnecessary rules other events aren’t subjected to.
• Brussels Pride 2025 on 17 May: ‘Unite, time to protect our rights’.
• Queer March Ghent 2025 from 1 to 31 March.
• Limburg Pride composes anthem for first edition.
• BRUSSELS | International collective launches Pride Museum, seeks location.
• Belgium to host Eurovision Song Contest 2026? But in which city?.
• PinX LGBTQIA+ Film Festival in Ghent and in Antwerp from 29 January to 2 February 2025.
• Antwerp Queer Arts Festival broadens horizon to Bruges and Leuven.
• ANTWERP 2025-2030 | City government agreement supports bid for EuroGames in Antwerp in 2028.
• Leuven Pride 2024 parade route from railway station to Ferdinand Smoldersplein.
• Liège Pride 2025 on Friday 22, Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 August.
• Antwerp Pride 2025 from Wednesday 6 to Sunday 10 August.
• CHARLEROI PRIDE | Three days of inclusivity and festivities.
• Antwerp Queer Arts Festival from 3 to 31 August 2024: programme.