For the first time in its history, Antwerp celebrated a Pride festival to bring together very different people and to strengthen the feeling of togetherness in the city. The idea was to promote Antwerp as much as possible in Belgium and beyond, and to that end REALPride was invited to attend the huge event and to bring you some coverage of the festivities!

We attended the opening reception at City Hall where Antwerp Pride festival and Navigaytion promoters, organisers and VIPs from Antwerp met to thank everyone for making this event happen, to explain the festival programme and to socialise a little with the obligatory drinks
and canapes!

We had the chance to meet the Alderman for culture and tourism Philip Heylen, Chief of Cabinet - Peter De Wilde, and Patrick Aertsen, manager of Red & Blue and organiser of Navigaytor, one of the most important events of the Pride festival. Add to this lots of really friendly, welcoming people offering to help guide us through the weekend - and you can see why we had such a fantastic time.

It would be amiss of us not to mention that REALPride's coverage of Antwerp Pride was supported by the lovely people at www.visitflanders.co.uk and the airline www.flyvlm.com - thanks for making this trip possible!