The Dublin Pride Festival has grown from the one-day parade founded in 1983 to a month-long equality festival, celebrating LGBT identity, community and culture in Dublin. Pride has become a key event in the Irish calendar, and this year’s program is packed with arts, social, political and cultural events. To help you navigate the glitter, parties and parades, here’s tn2’s Guide to Pride:
Tuesday, June 24
GAZE Film Festival: I Am Divine Screening
Award-winning director Jeffrey Schwarz presents a documentary celebrating the life and career of Harris Glenn Milstead, better known as his riotous alter-ego, Divine. As the “fearless muse” of cult filmmaker John Waters, Milstead forged a new character — one which undermined the “pretty” drag queens who aspired to realism and conventional standards of beauty. Divine was outrageous, overweight, and unapologetically sexual, and Schwarz’s film explores how Divine challenged the status quo of body image, gender identity and sexuality. I Am Divine wonderfully assembles archival footage including rare home movies, film clips, television appearances and live performance footage, with interviews with John Waters, Ricki Lake, Mink Stole and Milstead’s mother Frances, to offer a moving and hilarious portrait of the ultimate outsider. — MM
Irish Film Institute, 6.30pm, €9.
Wednesday, June 25
Strictly Come Pole Dancing
Nicknamed “the Ant and Dec of pole dancing” by judge David Walliams after their recent appearance on Britain’s Got Talent, Terri Walsh and Lisette Krol promote pole dancing as an empowering form of fitness and entertainment, attempting to change public perceptions traditionally associated with strip clubs and erotic dance. The world pole dancing champions will showcase their acrobatic skills at The George this Wednesday. Also taking to the steel for this Pride Pole Dancing Spectacular are Lady Veda and a host of fabulous drag accomplices. — MM
The George, 8pm, free.
Thursday, June 26
Love and Pride
Catch Love and Pride for “A fabulous show, celebrating our fabulous community” put on by Irish LGBT drama company, Acting Out, in what is now a traditional Pride performance. The show will be an assortment of short plays, sketches, songs, and many laughs, consisting of a good time that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Come decked out in rainbow colours to any of its three nights (June 25-27). All proceeds will go to The Outhouse in support of the centre’s work for Dublin’s LGBT community. — SG
The Outhouse, 7.30pm, €10/€5 concession.
Friday, June 27
Conchita Wurst
The Eurovision diva will rise like a phoenix for The George’s pre-Pride party, hosted by Shirley Temple Bar. The gig also offers Wurst an opportunity to thank her Irish fans who supported her and helped her to achieve her Eurovision success. Wurst has proven herself a fearless advocate for LGBT rights, and, when asked about her beard, offered the moving response: “It’s my own truth. It makes me comfortable on stage. I love myself and the bearded lady is fun and expresses everything I feel. Being a teenager in a small Austrian village was not fabulous. I tried to fit in and changed myself to be part of the game. I now realise I can create the game.” — MM
The George, doors 8pm (onstage 12am), €15.
TENI Trans Pride Community Repection
The Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) will host their Trans Pride Community Reception with special guest Victoria Kolakowski, the first openly trans trial judge in the United States. Kolakowski is based in Oakland, California, and served as co-chair of the Bay Area Transgender Law Association for several years. As one of the very few transgender people elected to office, Kolakowski is an LGBT icon, and an outspoken advocate for transgender visibility. Raise a glass to celebrate trans community and make a toast to a proud tomorrow. — MM
Wood Quay Venue, 8pm, free.
Saturday, June 28
Pride Parade
In 2013, over 36,000 people took to the streets for Ireland’s largest celebration of LGBT Pride, and this year is set to be even bigger. Throw on some glitter and a feather boa, and wave that rainbow flag with Q Soc, Trinity’s LGBT society. Q Soc will be assembling in Front Square at 1pm, before heading to the Garden of Remembrance, where the route begins, to march in the parade. — MM
Beginning at Garden of Remembrance at 1.45pm, concluding in Merrion Square
Pantibar’s All Day Street Party.
Although the leafy Southside is typically the centre of Pride proceedings each year, scarper from Merrion Square as soon as is acceptable and head north to Capel Street for Pantibar’s All Day Street Party. Spilling out from arguably the best gay bar in town, this event is accidentally set in a late-afternoon sun trap, and is always heaving by early-evening with an eclectic and welcoming crowd. Given the intense public debate about marriage equality, homophobia and censorship that party host and namesake Panti sparked earlier this year, expect a large turnout of those wishing to raise a glass and pay their dues to the efforts of this stalwart heroine and self-proclaimed “national fucking treasure”. — SM
Pantibar, 12pm, free.
Sunday, June 29
Post Pride Come Down Bingo
For anyone still functional on Sunday evening, Post Pride Bingo: Survivor’s Edition will take place in The George. Irish drag star Shirley Temple Bar established her Sunday night Bingo in 1997 and, seventeen years later, it has become the longest-running and best-known show on the Irish gay scene. A combination of bingo and a cabaret performance featuring a cast of Shirley’s fabulous friends, this outlandish show is a sure-fire way to soothe your post-Pride blues. — MM
The George, 9pm, free before 10pm, €5 after.
Stephen Moloney, Meadhbh McGrath and Sorcha Gannon contributed to this piece
