Chueca
Chueca is a neighborhood of downtown Madrid, named after its main square,
Plaza de Chueca. It is known as Madrid's gay neighborhood. Plaza de Chueca was
named after Spanish composer and author Federico Chueca. It is located in the
administrative ward in the downtown Madrid neighborhood of Justicia. Chueca is
very lively, with many street cafes and boutique shops. Lonely Planet
describes it as "extravagantly gay, lively young, and always inclusive
regardless of your sexual orientation."
Gay Pride in Madrid
Madrid
Pride, popularly known in Spanish as the Orgullo Gay de Madrid is the annual
LGBT pride festival hosted at Chueca neighborhood in the center of Madrid,
during the weekend immediately after June 28, International Day of LGBT Pride.
History
After
the incidents of June 28, 1970 in the
New York pub Stonewall Inn, many cities in the world began to celebrate
mass demonstrations in repulsion, but in Spain the dictatorial Franco regime of
the time avoided the news entry in the country. Thus, it was not until 1977,
two years after the death of the dictator, that in Barcelona was celebrated for
the first time in Spain a demonstration in favor of the rights of homosexual
people. It hardly concentrated 4,000 people who were dissolved by force. The
following year, in 1978, the demonstration was authorized in Madrid and since
then Madrid Pride is celebrated annually.
In
1986, a seminar on homosexuality was organized in Chueca neighborhood. At that
time it was becoming common that after the demonstration the participants
returned to Chueca to celebrate and the protest started taking on a festive
character. Years later, in 1996, the magazine Shangay introduced in the
parade the first carriage, with Alaska
cheering the parade. Since then, the number of people has been increasing each
year.
In
2005, with the approval of equal marriage in Spain, there was an explosion of
assistance to Madrid Pride, which for the first time reached up to two million
people. This made Madrid to be chosen as the European capital of Pride,
celebrating Europride 2007, which
was attended by more than 2.5 million people from around the world.
Nowadays,
nearly 2 million people are out on the streets during the Pride Week, thus
becoming one of the most crowded parties in the whole Spain, and being the
European city with the largest number of attendees to the march of Pride, far
above cities like London or Paris and only behind the San Francisco Pride.
In
2016, the number of concerts and security of the event was increased in order
to start preparing for 2017, in which Madrid will celebrate the largest LGBT
event in the world, the WorldPride,
being expected a record attendance of 3 million people.
