Artist Efva Attling will be present during the parade, along with her wife and fellow artist Eva Dahlgren. Attling first participated in 1998, during Europride, and has since seen the movement grow. She condemns the incident in Berlin but feels no insecurity about today's parade.
"It's terrible that it's happening at all, but now we're showing that together we are strong. There is so much joy and love," says Efva Attling.
“Idiots are everywhere”
A little further away stand Georg Guldstrand, Baris Yücel and Andréas Good from the organization Bearded Villains.
"It's terrible what happened, of course. But I feel safe here in Sweden. You see police everywhere," says Georg Guldstrand, who currently has rainbow-colored beards.
Idiots are everywhere. It's impossible to protect yourself one hundred percent.
For Baris Yücel, with a background in Turkey, it is especially important to stand up.
For me, coming from Turkey, where pride is illegal, I feel like I should do everything I can to show my support for Pride.
But for Georg Guldstrand, who also works as a police volunteer, there is still an awareness of risks.
I walk around with my eyes a little wide open, looking to see if anything stands out, if anyone starts running in, and so on.
But primarily they are there to support the message of Pride.
We want to spread love, show that everyone is welcome. You can be who you want.
Celebrating freedom
For Alena from Israel and Sasha from Belarus, it is the Pride parade that draws them. The freedom to love is not something they take for granted.
It's inspiring. It feels like I'm in a parallel world. Freedom means everything to us. That's why we came here, to celebrate the freedom to love - the freedom to live, says Sasha.
She describes the incident in Berlin as catastrophic and sad.
Some question why Pride is needed in 2026, and that highlights why Pride is so important. Today we honor all those who have died, and not just in Berlin but throughout time.
Alena also emphasizes that events like the one in Berlin are common in her home country of Israel.
But that doesn't stop me from being here, she adds.
