The Amsterdam pride week and the skûtsjesilen are taking place at the same time this year, which has left a Frisian LGBT delegation with a spot in the canal parade searching for an available skûtsje.
Translation by Traci White
Promo Gay Leeuwarden, the Frisian group that will be participating in the parade, is hoping to find a skûtsje, a traditional Frisian sailing boat. Foundation member Andries Seefat told the Leeuwarder Courant that the timing of the annual skûtsjesilen – a series of boat races across Friesland – coinciding with the Amsterdam Pride canal parade, which is the highest profile event of the yearly pride festivities, has left the group without access to a Frisian boat.
Seefat says that the LGBT group’s parade float design is based on the iconic Frisian boat: the group needs an 18-meter-long boat and they are planning to cover it with lily pads, the plants on the Frisian flag. The Frisian group was one of 80 groups from across the country that was given a spot in this year’s canal parade, which will be held on Saturday, 3 August. Leeuwarden’s own pride events will be held on 25 May and will include their own canal parade.
This year’s Amsterdam pride is in remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York, which were held in 1969: the first New York gay pride parade was held the following year in defiance of police violence toward the guests at a gay club called The Stonewall Inn.
