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Amsterdam's Pride canal parade draws huge crowds on two-year return
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Wider rainbow: Festivalgoers attend the Pride canal parade on Saturday on a boat sailing the Amstel river in Amsterdam, two years after the event was canceled owing to pandemic restrictions. (AFP/ANP/Remko de Waal)
H
undreds of thousands of partygoers flocked to Amsterdam on Saturday for the return of the city's Pride canal parade after two years of cancellations due to pandemic-related restrictions.
"I missed it, and I think everybody missed it," said Chas, 42, as she watched the rainbow flotilla, complete with celebrants dancing in feathers, glitter and leather, pass under a bridge.
The 25th edition of the parade caps a week of Pride events in the city as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community celebrated their identity and demonstrated for their rights.
"Originally, this was gay pride, but today you see hundreds of thousands of people, regardless of whether they're gay or straight or whatever, and that is so fantastic," said reveler Jonas van der Kaaij Olsen, 53, draped in a rainbow flag.
This year’s theme was “My Gender, My Pride”, seeking to focus attention on gender identity, as organizers said transgender emancipation had lagged behind that of other groups.
The Pride festival said its focus was gradually changing from celebrating people's right to love whomever they want to their right to be whoever they are.
In a poll by broadcaster EenVandaag, 73 percent of respondents who identified as LBGT supported holding the Pride event, while nearly half thought it should be less commercial and more focused on rights issues.
A spokesperson for city health authorities said they were not issuing any special advisory to festivalgoers about monkeypox, a virus that causes painful blistering and has been spreading predominantly among men that have sex with men.
However, information is being offered about the disease, which is transmitted mostly by skin-on-skin contact, at several pop-up locations in the city.
Fewer than 1,000 cases have been registered in the Netherlands, where vaccinations among vulnerable groups began last month.
