Travel

Stunning European city with thriving LGBTQ+ scene bids to host WorldPride 2030

Jun 25
Written by Chantelle Billson

Mid-adult male gay couple embracing while holding LGBTQ+ flags outdoors in Barcelona in Spain.

Could WorldPride 2030 be held in this popular city for LGBTQ+ tourists? (Getty)

Barcelona, which has a thriving LGBTQ+ scene, is bidding to host WorldPride 2030.

Pride Barcelona vice-president Maria Giralt, WorldPride Barcelona 2030 project manager Andoni Ibáñez, and Pride Barcelona’s Roger Presseguer presented the Catalonian city’s bid at the Spanish Cultural Center, in Washington DC, earlier this month.

Giralt told the Washington Blade that 39 LGBTQ+ groups in Barcelona and beyond were supporting the bid, with the Catalonian government and Spain’s Tourism Institute also behind the proposal.

Barcelona, on Spain’s north-eastern coast, was recently included in Expedia’s list of the best LGBTQ+-friendly destinations for a city break. Their bid coincided with WorldPride DC.

Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batllo rainbow LGBT Pride Barcelona travel — Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi’s Casa Batllo is lit with the rainbow flag for Pride month in Barcelona in 2019. (Photo by JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)

“What better occasion than to come to Washington to present (the bid) and to connect with other countries around the world,” Giralt added. “This approval is very important, especially at this time when there is a wave, a drift, toward the extreme right. The resistance must continue.”