9 Pride Festivals Travel Advisors Can Build Trips Around for Their Clients

Looking for a hook you can use to reach out to your gay clients to build a trip around? Look no further than the numerous Pride festivals (and other events) that take place all over the world and attract hundreds of thousands to millions of visitors every year.

“Pride events, such as film festivals and sporting events like the Gay Games, OutGames, and gay business conferences… are fantastic ways to connect with the community, foster friendships, and embrace your true self,” said Dean Nelson, CTC, a travel consultant with Personal Travel Management Ltd. “It’s a sense of safety in numbers, finding others who share your identity, that assures you of being seen and accepted for who you truly are.”

Nelson, who also served as executive producer of Whistler Pride from 2006 to 2018 and has personally attended more than 50 Pride events around the world, has created travel packages for such events as Mr. Gay World competitions in Oslo, Manila, Antwerp, Rome, and other cities. He’s also created travel packages to attend World Pride events in Madrid, Toronto, and New York.

When it comes to planning a pride getaway Nelson has one key piece of advice: book your hotels early.

“Planning a pride getaway can be challenging, especially when the festival’s dates aren’t released promptly,” he said. “Generally, the best time to book is when the event’s dates are first announced. Many hotels employ yield management, so as rooms sell, prices tend to increase unless the organizers have secured a group block.”

Advisors who want to attend one of these events themselves, build a group around one, or simply create a package for their clients, should book hotel space early, Nelson emphasized.

Here are nine Pride festivals and gatherings that are perfect for building trips around.

1. Pride Amsterdam (late July/August): The nine-day Pride Amsterdam has been an annual tradition for nearly 30 years, and is one of the largest gay pride events in Europe. Highlights include not only the Canal Parade (featuring elaborately decorated boats sailing on the canals), but also film festivals, dance parties, sporting events, and more.

2. Vancouver Pride (late July/August): Though not the biggest Pride event in Canada, Vancouver Pride still draws hundreds of thousands of visitors and is the largest such gathering in Western Canada. As described by Nelson, “Vancouver Pride offers a unique blend of the West Coast’s vibrant attitude, warm summer nights, and breathtaking oceanfront with majestic mountains.” Highlights of Vancouver Pride include the parade, flotillas, a gay tennis tournament, drag parties, and alcohol/drug-free events.

3. NYC PrideFest (June): While Nelson, a Canadian travel advisor, told TMR he has some reservations about Pride events in the U.S. at the moment, no list of Pride festivals that are perfect for building trips around would be complete without New York City’s. One of the largest in the world, the NYC Pride Parade brings in well over two million visitors every year. The parade, part of the month-long NYC PrideFest, is famous for its route that winds through Greenwich Village and passes the Stonewall National Monument, the site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights.

4. Valencia Gay Games (June/July): For a change of pace, Nelson recommended the Valencia Gay Games, which is all about sports with a variety of activities for spectators as well. It also features a human rights conference for those who want to learn more about the fight for LGBTQ+ rights worldwide. And, or course, there are “epic parties” throughout the event, Nelson added.

5. Pride Toronto (June): Another full month event, Pride Toronto is Canada’s biggest pride festival and one of the largest in the world, featuring a wide variety of events, including several parades such as the Dyke March and Trans March, as well as drag queen dance parties and numerous musical performances. In 2024, the festival boasted 460 acts and 769 performers.

6. Sao Paula Pride (June): The largest pride festival in the world (the parade holds the Guinness World Record for largest number of attendees), the Sau Paulo festival regularly attracts anywhere from four to five million visitors each year. As one might expect from a Brazilian festival, its main draw is its extravagance, from the floats to the costumes to the over-the-top concerts and dance parties.  

7. Christopher Street Day (July): Named after the New York City street where the Stonewall riots took place, Christopher Street Day is an annual celebration held in various cities across primarily Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. One of the most prominent occurs during Berlin Pride, which features two main events – the parade and a rally with musical performances. Berlin Pride also coincides with Berlin’s Lesbian & Gay City Festival, a two-day celebration that features music, dancing, a street fair.

8. San Francisco Pride (late June): The only other U.S.-based festival on TMR’s list, the San Francisco festival is another of the largest in the world, and holds the honor of hosting the largest trans march in the U.S. As with many other pride festivals, the atmosphere during the two-day event is of one big street party with lots of music and dancing.

9. Whistler Pride (January/February): One of a few pride festivals that takes place during the winter, the smallish festival doubles as a LGBTQ+ ski/snowboard week that layers in culinary events, dance and pool parties, and a unique pride parade that starts on the mountain with skiers and snowboarders descending the slopes and then marching through the village.