Rotterdam Pride

Rotterdam Pride is a pride week held in late September, more than a month after Amsterdam's canal parade. It's run by the Rotterdam Pride foundation with COC Rotterdam and volunteers. Instead of boats on canals, there's a walking march through the city centre and a free street festival under the Erasmus Bridge. The international motto is "Pride is still a protest", and the march leans that way.

The week includes club nights, talks and cultural events. The main day is the Saturday Pride Walk, which covers about 3.5 km. Marchers gather on Stationsplein from 10:30, speeches start at 11:30, and the walk leaves Rotterdam Centraal around noon. It reaches Willemsplein at about 13:00, and the free festival there runs until 23:00. Erasmus University and other big Rotterdam institutions send their own groups. Leuvehaven is the closest metro stop to the festival.

The 2026 edition ran September 17 to 27 with the theme Queertopia. It opened at FERRY on Westblaak, and the Pride Walk was on Saturday, September 26. We found no published attendance figure. The 40,000 that appears in listings, including ours, has no source, so we've removed it. The 2027 dates hadn't been announced when we checked. The week normally runs through the second half of September.