The first ever Limburg Pride will take place on Sunday 13 July 2025, and not on Saturday 5 July. Hasselt, the provincial capital of Limburg, will be its host. Limburg Pride vzw chairman Bert Brone announced the date with pride earlier this week.
Limburg Pride received support from the Council of the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Hasselt. Dymfna Meynen (N-VA) is ‘alderman of the Hasselaar’ (Hasselt citizen) and thus alderman for Meeting Centers, Family Forms and Target Groups, Prevention, Church Factories, Accessibility, Social Housing Policy, Involvement and Citizen Participation, Neighborhood Budgets and Neighborhood-oriented Work, Care, LGBTQ+ Policy, Health, Inclusion and Accessibility.
“I am delighted that Hasselt was chosen as the host city for Limburg Pride. After all, we are a rainbow-friendly city. It is nice that there are so many different organisations together want to put Hasselt in the spotlight as a vibrant and warm city”, Meynen says.
Bert Brone: “By organizing the first Limburg Pride is in Hasselt, we create a safe space where everyone can be themselves. We celebrate who we are as an LGBTQIA+ community and we are working together to promote equality and acceptance. Together with our partners the City of Hasselt, Regenbooghuis Limburg and COC Limburg from the Netherlands, Limburg Pride must become an inclusive and inspiring LGBTQIA+ pride. A day when people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and backgrounds feel accepted and appreciated.”
“The goal is to increase the visibility of Limburg’s LGBTI+ community, to create awareness and to promote solidarity. Not an unnecessary luxury in today’s world”, Brone says.
15,000
Limburg Pride hopes to welcome 15,000 attendees next year, Brone says to Het Belang van Limburg, the province’s main newspaper. “Why a Limburg Pride? Because I didn’t dare to come out until late. I don’t want that for others.”
Why in 2025? “It will be exactly 35 years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that hom*osexuality is not a mental illness”, Brone says. And also to have time to actually organise the thing.
“We expect a very diverse audience. Not only from Belgium, also from the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg“, Brone says. “Limburg is ideally located for a pride: between Antwerp, Brussels, Cologne, Aachen and Maastricht.”
Parade and village
The plans for this first pride in Belgian Limburg are already ambitious. Limburg Prides wants a full-fledged parade in the centre of Hasselt, a pride village on the Kolonel Dusartplein and a festival.
“The colorful and lively parade through the center of Hasselt will be a creative celebration of the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community. And the pride festival will be a musical spectacle with performances and activities that convey the message of inclusion and acceptance. We will soon announce the program via our social media channels and on our website www.limburgpride.be“, Brone says.
“Since Limburg Pride is an event focused on inclusion and equality, all festivities are freely accessible to everyone, with attention to people with a handicap. In addition, safe(r) spaces and low-stimulus zones will be provided for relaxation to come” Brone adds.
Financing
How big things will be, will depend on the money raised. “Either it will be a traditional parade with floats, or a parade with colorful bicycles and go-carts. It will also depend a bit on financing. We will now start looking for sponsors and subsidies.”
“We will definitely need around 70,000 euros, 100,000 euros would be ideal. Especially for artists and the construction. Which musicians will be there? We have yet to see that. My personal favorite? Personally, I would like Gustaph from the Eurovision Song Contest. But I’m afraid we won’t be able to afford him.”
Volunteers
Organising such an event naturally requires many helping hands. That’s why Limburg Pride calls upon enthusiastic volunteers and sponsors who want to contribute to the success of this historic event. You can register yourself on the website. Would you like to provide financial support, become a partner or participate in the parade? Then you can register on the website http://www.limburgpride.be.
About Limburg Pride vzw
Limburg Pride vzw is a non-profit organisation that is committed to the rights and inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community in the province of Limburg. Limburg’s vision for a society is one where everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or… background, is fully accepted and respected.
Their mission is to provide a safe and a supportive environment in which individuals can be free to express their true selves and to celebrate. Limburg Pride strives to increase awareness about the challenges that the LGBTQIA+ community faces, such as discrimination, prejudice and inequality and bridging the gap between the LGBTQIA+ community and wider society.
Prides in Belgium
There are several prides in Belgium, with varying degrees of success and consistency.
- Antwerp Pride and Antwerp Queer Arts Festival.
- Brussels Pride In the Capital of Europe.
- Queer March Ghent.
- Liège Pride.
- CSD Ostbelgien, pride in Sankt Vith in the East Cantons or German-speaking East Belgium.
- Queer Arts Festival Leuven.
- Queer Was Here in Bruges.
- Fiertés Namuroises or Namur Pride.
- Fiertés Hennuyères or Hainaut Pride (sometimes spelled Hainault).
Queer Belgium
- Liège Pride 2024 on 23, 24 and 25 August.
- Queer March Ghent 2024 on Saturday 30 March at Viernulvier.
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- BELGIUM | First Limburg Pride on Saturday 5 July 2025.
- PROGRAMME | Queer Arts Festival Leuven 2023 from 3 to 25 November.
- FLANDERS | LGBTQIA+ people more often unhappy, bullied and misjudged.
- Queer Arts Festival Leuven with pride parade from 3 to 25 November 2023.
- SPARTACUS GAY TRAVEL INDEX 2023 | Belgium 17th most gay travel friendly country; Malta on 1, Canada and Switzerland share 2nd.
- 1 in 3 LGBTQIA+ people in Flanders and Brussels experienced physical aggression in the past two years.
- EXHIBITION | ‘hom*osexuals and Lesbians in Nazi Europe’, Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen.
- RainbowPages: interactive website promoting visibility, findability and safety by and for LGBTQIA+ people.
- Forbidden Colours helped over 500 queer refugees to flee war in Ukraine.
- ‘LGBTQIA+ BXL, Collecting Memories’ Exhibition in Brussels City Museum.
- MSK Gent – Museum of Fine Arts Ghent introduces LGBTQ+ tour.
- ANTWERP | LGBTQIA+ bookshop Kartonnen Dozen stops.
- City chronicle ‘De kleur van de stad maakt mijn ziel amoureus’ recounts Queer Antwerp history.
- Will Belgium win the Eurovision Song Contest ever again?.
The latest on prides in Belgium
- Brussels Pride 2024 programme starts on Wednesday 8 May with Pride Opening at Molenbeek and a Pride Week.
- Liège Pride 2024 on 23, 24 and 25 August.
- Antwerp Pride 2024 theme: ‘Many Voices. One Pride’.
- Darklands 2025 theme: ‘Darklands Glows’, stays at Waagnatie until 2030.
- Queer March Ghent 2024 on Saturday 30 March at Viernulvier.
- PROGRAMME | Queer Arts Festival Leuven 2023 from 3 to 25 November.
