These 28 Photos Let You Experience The Awesomeness Of Stockholm Pride

There are thousands of reasons to be thankful for ― and visit ― Sweden: the ABBA museum, the stunning Ice Hotel, the incredible food (think fresh seafood and cloudberries). But one of our favorite reasons to spend a week in the country’s capital city, Stockholm, is its annual Pride Festival, which just came to a close on Sunday.

According to Stockholm Pride’s official website, the week-long event “remains the largest Pride Festival in Scandinavia since 1998” and “strives to raise awareness for LGBT+ issues, and create a safe zone for LGBT+ people and the gender expressions within the LGBT+ community.”

The 2016 Pride Festival featured a special campaign involving the theme “Who decides?” A press release sent to The Huffington Post notes that “Stockholm Pride wants to open up discussions about who, or what, that sets up the framework for how we are supposed to live our lives ― the standards which affect us and how they shape our reality. Stockholm Pride wants us to talk about where power lies and how it got where it is. The theme builds on five different parts of our lives and focus on who’s in charge of the various parts; society at large, in the family, in our own community, in bed and who has control over your body.”

Since we couldn’t be there in person (insert devastated emoji face here), we’ve got the next best thing: A slew of pics from the Stockholm Pride Parade, which took place July 30, taken by photographer Andre Landeros Michel. Check them out below and for more info about Stockholm Pride (and how you can be there next year), to its official site, as well as Visit Stockholm and Visit Sweden.