Reykjavík Grapevine - jul. 2020, Síða 15

Pride In A
Pandemic
Reykjavík Pride reshapes itself for 2020
“Our first decision was that, no mat-
ter what, we weren’t going to cancel,”
Vilhjálmur “Villi” Ingi Vilhjálmsson,
the President of Reykjavík Pride, says
proudly. Sitting back, he takes a bite
of a croissant, apologising quickly for
eating during the interview—he’s been
in Pride meetings all day, he explains.
“Of course,” he continues, “this year, we
wouldn’t be able to gather 80,000 down-
town for a parade, but Pride is about so
much more than just walking down one
street. The parade is just the mask.”
The regulations and gathering bans
surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic
meant the big events and fantastical
parade that Reykjavík Pride had be-
come synonymous with were impos-
sible. This forced the board, when
planning the 2020 iteration, Villi ex-
plains, to dive down into the festival’s
roots. “We started to think: What is
the meaning of Pride? What is the core
identity? What are we really trying to
do here?” The answer, he emphasises,
was visibility. “It’s acknowledgement.
It’s seeing people showcased that you
can bond with or see yourselves in. It’s
education… It’s a community coming
together.”
Inviting everyone in
While there will be a parade this year,
Villi reiterates, it won’t be centralised.
“We will all walk at the same time, but
not in the same place. So each group
is together mentally but—for safety
reasons—going separate ways,” he ex-
plains. The unexpected benefit of this,
though, is that it’ll bring Pride to a
wider audience. “We can reach neigh-
bourhoods that have never seen a Pride
parade and people that don’t come
downtown.”
So the focus of this year’s festival
will be less on massive entertainment
spectacles and more on educational and
cultural events. Yes, there will be the
traditional Opening Ceremony, but it’ll
be less focused on what performers are
on stage and more on bringing people
together socially.
“We want to create the space of
people in the community seeing each
other. It’s a family gathering,” he says.
“It’s one thing to invite people in and
say that you invite everybody in, but
it’s another to create an environment
where everybody feels invited. That’s
what we need.” Along with that, Pride
will also be lowering the ticket prices
and allowing those in difficult finan-
cial positions to request free admis-
sion, with Villi explaining that the
team is “listening to the criticisms that
we got last year.”
In terms of educational events, Pride
2020 will feature lectures and conversa-
tions on Black Lives Matter and trans-
phobia and particularly the bigotry
of TERFs (trans exclusionary radical
feminists). It’ll also look at LGBTQIA+
individuals in the school system, as
well as put on networking events for
queer people in the job market.
Other outreach events will focus on
queer immigrants. “Maybe we haven’t
been looking enough into the foreign
demographic in Iceland,” Villi admits.
“How are they integrating with the Ice-
landic queer community? Are they? My
feeling is that we aren’t always reaching
them, so maybe we aren’t as inclusive as
we think we are.”
That's Pride!
Villi is excited about the revamped
pandemic-Pride and hopes the festival
will bring as much magic to others as
it first brought to his life many years
ago. He first walked in the festival only
months after coming out. “I came out in
May and then walked that year with the
queer football club. On that day, I did an
interview with one other member and
it was in the newspaper, so in the span
of three months I kind of jumped out of
the closet,” he laughs.
His most magical moment, though,
was the first time he walked in the pa-
rade as a member of the Pride board.
“At that time, the board didn’t usually
walk in the parade, but that year we
arranged it so we could,” he explains.
“My friend and I got high heels—we had
never walked on heels before so it was
quite interesting—and I met my friend
and her son.”
“Her son likes to wear dresses to
kindergarten. He wakes up, plays with
his Hulk action figure and then likes
to wear a dress to school sometimes.
He was waving to me and I realised I
represented something to him—that
he could mix and match and it was OK,”
Villi says. “In that moment, we were
someone that he could relate to. That’s
Pride.”
Words:
Hannah Jane
Cohen
Photos:
Art Bicnick
CULTURE
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Painting the town in rainbowsFestival
Reykjavík Pride
2020 will be from
August 4th to
9th. Check out
the complete
programme at
hinsegindagur.is
RAINBOWS ASSEMBLE!
Pride Parade
August 8th - 14:00 - Reykjavík - Free!
Don your finest rainbow garb for
the annual penultimate event of
Pride: the Reykjavík Pride Parade.
The beloved spectacle serves up
dramatic floats and marches from
nearly all LGBTQ+ groups in the
country—can we say
representation? This year, due to
COVID-19 and its subsequent
restrictions, the parade will be
altered to ensure the safety of
everyone involved so make sure to
check out their website for updated
routes and info. Most importantly,
don’t lose your voice from singing
too much Páll Óskar. HJC
Serving Saga Realness
Memoirs Of A Valkyrie Returns!
August 7th - 19:00 - Tjarnarbíó -
3,900 ISK (presale), 4,400 ISK (at
door)
The bitches are back for a special
Pride reunion, so serve up some
Valkyrie realness with drag queens
Agatha P., Faye Knús, Gógó Starr, and
Sigga Eyrún in this romp through
the multiple tales of the beloved
shieldmaiden Brynhildr—who you
might know from stories like Die
Walküre, Sleeping Beauty, and more.
Through the mediums of beauty
pageants, opera, rap, and a
hysterical take on contemporary
dance, the four divas will show you
history like you’ve never seen it. HJC
Justice For Breonna Taylor
#blacklivesmatter In Iceland
August 4th - 12:00 - Lecture Hall at
the National Museum - Free!
2020 has had one silver lining: it
saw the biggest worldwide protest
ever as Black people and allies
stood together to demand the end
of police brutality against Black
people. But what effect has the
movement had in Iceland? At this
special event, queer people of
colour share their experiences of
racism in Iceland and give their
recommendations on what can be
done to rectify these ills. HJC
Vilhjálmur "Villi" Ingi Vilhjálmsson, the President of Pride