Cologne Gay Pride — CSD

Cologne's CSD (Christopher Street Day) is Germany's biggest Pride and one of the largest in Europe. The city has a large, settled queer community and uses that weekend to show it off. Strictly speaking it's a demonstration, with a political motto every year, but most visitors know it as three days of street party in the Altstadt followed by a Sunday parade that takes most of the day to pass. It's run by ColognePride e.V., and the CSD weekend closes a few weeks of smaller Cologne Pride events.

The street festival runs Friday to Sunday, with stages and drinks stands spread across the old town squares around Heumarkt. The parade starts on Sunday morning at the Deutzer Brücke, crosses the Rhine and loops through the city centre with tens of thousands of marchers on foot and on trucks. Watching and the street stages are free. The ticketed side is the club parties in the gay bar district around Rudolfplatz and Schaafenstraße and the big after-parties. Kölsch beer, served in small glasses that keep coming until you cover yours with a beer mat, is part of the experience.