Helsinki Pride Week holds on 28 Jun-4 July

Helsinki Pride Week, Finland's largest human rights and cultural event, will be celebrated this year on 28 June to 4 July, said the City of Helsinki in a press release on Monday.

For the second year, the City is one of the main partners of Helsinki Pride week.

Equality and non-discrimination will be celebrated all over the city, but the main event venue Pride House will be located for the first time at the Helsinki City Hall, where various discussion events, encounters, and a photo exhibition will be held during the week.

“Even in Finland, equal civic rights, human dignity, and the right to self-expression are still not a given. Pride highlights important themes, provides meaningful encounters and draws attention to key issues. The City of Helsinki is proud to be involved in all the efforts. As such, it is natural for the City Hall, too, to fly the colours of the rainbow in the summer during the Pride event,” said Helsinki Mayor Jan Vapaavuori.

The City of Helsinki will offer its staff a Pride-themed programme from 31 May to 4 June.

As in the previous years, the City of Helsinki will participate as a partner in the implementation of Youth Pride week, organised by the Helsinki Pride.

This year, Nuorten Pride House (Youth Pride House) will be located in Vallila in connection with the new premises of Iris Helsing- a rainbow youth service. During Youth Pride Week, young people will also be offered more and more activities around Helsinki, Maunulatalo, Kanneltalo, and Oodi, among others.

In addition to these, a photographic exhibition titled Meistä (About Us), featuring LGBTQ models who are living in Finland and belong to an indigenous and ethnic or religious minority, will open at the Caisa International Cultural Centre on 17 May.

The exhibition will be available at the City Hall during Pride Week. The opening of the exhibition will be celebrated with a panel discussion hosted by Brigita Krasniqi, founder of the feminist and anti-racist civil society organisation Fem-R. Jani Toivola, Pinja Pieski, Yasmin Ibrahim, Jay Jimeno, and Lorenzo Standen will participate in the panel discussion, among others.

This year, Helsinki Pride will take on a hybrid form for the second time, i.e., events will be organised as physical gatherings within the limits of current official recommendations. Programme organisers will also use different online platforms to enable participation in events, including for community members belonging to risk groups.

As the Pride procession or park festival, which brings together tens of thousands of people, cannot be held in a responsible way even this year, Helsinki Pride 2021 will culminate on 3 July with a Helsinki Pride concert featuring SANNI, Tuure Boelius, Yeboyah, Benjamin, NikoLa & Pola Ivanka. The concert will be hosted by Cristal Snow and Lola Lorenzo. The concert will be held in Black Box, Helsinki Ice Hall, and can be viewed live on Pride Stream and Yle Teema.