‘Biggest ever’ Pride parade lights up Copenhagen

This year’s Copenhagen Pride parade was the largest in the city’s history.

An estimated 40,000 people, including Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, joined the 3.3-kilometre-long march as it made its way through the Danish capital.

Saturday’s (August 18) parade came just weeks after cabinet minister Tommy Ahlers – who has been the Minister of Science, Technology, Information and Higher Education since May – came out as bisexual.

The route may be expanded next year (RossIGuess/twitter)

Thomas Rasmussen, Copenhagen Pride’s head of communication, said the event – which involved around 180 different floats – would go down as “the longest and biggest parade ever.”

Between 25,000 and 30,000 people took part in the previous two years’ parades.

Landmark buildings throughout the city, like the Industriens Hus and Radisson Collection Hotel, were lit up in rainbow colours and decorated with Pride flags to mark the event, according to The Local.

Landmark buildings were lit up in rainbow colours (AneMenik/twitter)

Rasmussen said that in an unprecedented move, organisers were forced to reject late applications from groups wanting to take part in the parade with a float because of high demand.

“It is the first time this has happened. But that’s positive,” he said.

And he added that the soaring levels of interest in the parade may mean it has to grow next year.

Groups had late applications turned down for the first time because there wasn’t space (ThomasLindegard/twitter)

“We will have to see whether we can make the starting area a little larger or the parade a bit longer,” said Rasmussen.

The parade was so successful that it somewhat overwhelmed the city’s resources.