Hotels around Riga
Tap the map for prices and availability.
About Riga Pride
Riga Pride is Latvia's national pride event, held every year in June. It's organised by Mozaīka, the country's national LGBT rights organisation, together with other groups from the community. The march sets off from the Esplanade, a central park in the heart of Riga, before moving through the city centre.
Riga Pride's story is tied to Baltic Pride, which rotates between the three Baltic capitals: Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn. In its early years the event faced open resistance — city and government officials tried to block it, a court overturned that attempt, and counter-demonstrations shadowed the first editions. That period is long past now; Riga later hosted EuroPride, the first time the pan-European event took place in a former Soviet state.
Since then, turnout has grown steadily, from a few hundred marchers in the early days to several thousand today. Alongside the march itself, a wider programme usually runs through the surrounding days, including film screenings, panel discussions and other events exploring queer life in Latvia and the wider region.
For visitors, Riga Pride is both a political demonstration and a celebration — a visible marker of how far Latvia's LGBT movement has come, even if the old controversy hasn't fully faded: conservative voices in politics and society still comment critically on the event.
About Riga
Riga held its first Pride in the mid-2000s, and it was contested from the start. Prime Minister Aigars Kalvītis spoke out against it, the city withdrew the permit, and only a court ruling allowed the march to go ahead. Counter-protesters far outnumbered the people marching. In response, members of the community founded Mozaīka, the organisation that has campaigned for LGBTQ+ rights in Latvia ever since and still organises Pride in Riga.
The following year the authorities banned the event outright. Around the same time Latvia amended its constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, while a new employment law banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. The next Pride passed off peacefully, and for the first time the marchers outnumbered the counter-protesters, although a separate anti-Pride gathering drew a larger crowd.
Since the late 2000s the city has also taken part in Baltic Pride, which rotates each year between Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn. Mozaīka runs it together with the Lithuanian Gay League and the Estonian LGBT Association. The first march under that name in Riga again needed approval from an administrative court. In the mid-2010s Riga hosted EuroPride, the first time the event came to a former Soviet state. Thousands took part, and only a few dozen people protested.
The legal picture has changed as well. Protection against discrimination was later extended to cover hate speech and indirect discrimination. Since the mid-2020s same-sex couples in Latvia can register a civil partnership, which gives them rights similar to marriage but excludes adoption and inheritance. Pride in Riga therefore remains a political demonstration as much as a celebration. Alongside the march, the Pride week programme usually includes discussions, film screenings and parties in the days around the parade.
Riga Pride – frequently asked questions
From the magazine
Magnus Hirschfeld and His Institute: What Was Lost on 6 May 1933
Long before Stonewall, Berlin had a place where homosexual people found advice and recognition. How the Institute for Sexual Science began and why it was destroyed in 1933.
Harvey Milk and Proposition 6: The November 1978 Victory
In 1978 a California ballot measure would have forced queer teachers out of public schools. Harvey Milk fought it, and voters rejected it. What happened and what it has to do with Pride.
Brenda Howard and the Pride Week: Who Turned a Memorial March into a Tradition
After Stonewall, a march marked the anniversary in 1970, and later a whole week. Brenda Howard is named as one of the people behind it. What is documented and where the title Mother of Pride stays disputed.