The last weekend was full of queer joy for us with several pride parades and queer parties going on. It felt a bit like Christmas for the LGBTQIA+ community and there was something going on for every sub-group. This year, we not only visited the main pride on Saturday but also the Dyke* March on Friday and the Internationalist Pride that happened on Saturday evening at Hermannplatz. Both of these were pretty much in contrast to the main Pride parade, but nonetheless what stood out was the smiling faces and happiness of all the queer people who joined. And that makes us very happy. Because queer joy matters so much – it’s the rebellion, the antidote, the protest against discrimination, hate, prejudice, prosecution, and inequality.
Saturday was of course the big day. The parade started pretty early for us at 11:30h when we boarded the truck hosted by the fabulous breakfast cafe Frühstück3000 and local craft beer brewery BRLO who were both so kind to invite us. It was actually the first time iHeartBerlin was ever invited on a truck, so it was a special occasion for us. It was certainly quite suspenseful to see all the trucks parked on Leipziger Straße being filled up and finally taking off to roll through town surrounded by thousands of people cheering and dancing.
Along the track that led us over Potsdamer Platz, Nollendorfplatz and Siegessäule, we also got to jump on our neighboring truck by Spotify where we danced to the tunes of Meg10 from Hoe_mies which was so much fun! Around Siegessäule I hopped off into the crowd to take some pictures of happy Pride visitors. This is, of course, for me my favorite part, it’s where my personal perspective of the event melts with my work here on iHeartBerlin. With all the events that I ever participated in and covered here on the blog over the last 15 years, it’s the moment when I capture the spirit of the moment to share it with you here in this place that brings me a lot of joy. And I hope you enjoy my photos, too…
