Malta has made the shortlist to host Europe’s largest annual celebration of LGBTIQ+ pride in three years’ time.
The country’s bid to host EuroPride 2023 will compete against rival bids from Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Belfast in Northern Ireland.
EuroPride is Europe’s most significant LGBTIQ+ event, drawing thousands of participants and viewers every year. The yearly event features a range of sports, art and human rights events which culminate with a Mardi Gras-style parade.
It has been held in a different city every year ever since its inception in 1992.
Malta’s bid is to host a Pride week between September 7 and 17 of 2023 in Valletta and nearby towns. Proposed events include a queer arts and culture festiva, a human rights conference, an interfaith dialogue, pride village and conference discussing LGBTIQ at work.
The European Pride Organisers Association – which licences EuroPride – published the three bids on Friday. Malta’s bid was submitted by Allied Rainbow Communities, a local NGO.
A winner will be announced on October 3, following a secret vote among European Pride members.
Malta consistently ranks as one of the most LGBTIQ-friendly countries in the world to live in and has ranked top of the ILGA Europe Rainbow Index for five years in a row.
A local annual Pride March has grown in size and importance over the past 15 years, from a marginal gathering to being one of the largest parades in the country’s cultural calendar. Organisers say the 2019 edition was attended by an estimated 8,000 people.
Equality parliamentary secretary Rosianne Cutajar said the government was proud to endorse the bid submitted by ARC to host EuroPride 2023 and wished the bidders every success.
She added that EuroPride Valletta 2023 would serve as an opportunity to welcome LGBTIQ+ persons from around Europe and beyond and showcase the richness of Maltese culture and the country’s beauty.
Allied Rainbow Communities community manager Clayton Mercieca said that the Maltese LGBTIQ+ community is a proud part of a European LGBTIQ+ movement while also being close to Middle Eastern and North African regions where equality remained elusive.
Bringing EuroPride to Malta would put the country on the international LGBTIQ+ map not just on the aspect of equality and rights, but also in making our country a safer and more welcoming place, he said.
Malta’s bid is the result of a compilation of efforts by ARC, MGRM, LGBTI+ Gozo, Drachma and the Human Rights Directorate.