The organisation
Since 2014, Stichting Pride Amsterdam has successfully organised the annual Pride in Amsterdam. Stichting Pride Amsterdam is the spider in the web of organisations and companies that work together to create the festival. The following committees work together to organise the festival; Catering, Boat Parade, Pride Walk, Art & Culture, St. Pride & Sports, Women & Pride, Youth Pride, Senior Pride, Trans Pride, Religion Pride, Fetish Pride and Corporate Pride. The committees advocate for a range of activities tailored to their target group and ensure greater visibility of the same.
Stichting Pride Amsterdam is a non-profit organisation that strives for the emancipation, social, societal and legal equality and acceptance of gays, bisexuals and lesbians as well as those who do not want to or cannot conform to socially dominant gender roles (such as male women, female men and queers) or in whom the gender one was born with does not match how one feels (such as transgender persons). To achieve that, visibility of diversity is necessary. What you see can't be ignored.
Pride Amsterdam is not just another event. It symbolises the open and tolerant city we want to be. We celebrate the freedom to be yourself. For twenty years, the boat parade has been inextricably linked to Amsterdam and it is impossible to imagine our city centre without it.
Eberhard van der Laan
Former mayor of Amsterdam
With these words, the late Mayor Eberhard van der Laan let it be known several times how important he thought Pride was for his city. And it is not only for the capital, but also for the reputation of Liberal Holland in general.
Since its inception in 1996, our Pride has developed into a multi-day festival and has become one of the best and biggest celebrations of its kind worldwide. The city turns into a rainbow of events with dance parties, film festivals, sporting events, debate and culture, a Pride Walk, a Rainbow Park and on the final weekend the roof literally and figuratively goes off with outdoor stages at several locations.
The annual highlight is of course the world-famous and unique Canal Parade consisting of a colourful procession of 80 boats and hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic and colourfully dressed visitors. Nowhere else in the world is Pride celebrated on the water on such a scale as in Amsterdam. It is an experience every LGBT person wants to have experienced once in their life. After a 6 km journey and 2 hours of cheering, most international LGBT activists also have renewed hope and energy for the emancipation struggle at home.
Stacey Lentz, LGBT activist and co-owner of the legendary Stonewall Inn Café in New York, informed the world after her visit:
"Pride in Amsterdam is incredible and epic and unlike anything I have ever seen. The whole city celebrates that you are allowed to be who you are. Trans, Bi, Lesbian, Gay, together with straight and whatever your identity is ... everyone participates ... everyone celebrates diversity. Pride really takes over the whole city here! The message here is really about inclusion and you can feel why this was the first country to pass same-sex marriage and why it is at the forefront of human rights!"