Europride 2008 - some more thoughts

Europride 2008 is now over and it's time to summarize my thoughts and impressions.

We went to Pride Park on Wednesday, the day it opened. And here it was, more or less identical to previous years. The same participants, the same sponsors, the same tents, the same artists. I didn't get any "European" feeling at all.
But it's good in it's limited way. You have the opportunity to meet a lot of people and get information on activities and programs from many organisations. And you can listen to some good music.
There were also some really good speeches from the Park Scene by people that had been opening Stockholm Pride through the last 10 years. I really hope that people got their messages.
The "culture" part of the park was a total failure also this year. Badly planned and not keeping the times. The art gallery was so small that it was almost painful. The walkway going right through the seats in front of the scene.

The Thursday was the traditional "schlagerkväll". But it was not much more than it has been earlier years. A good mix of the most popular artists and some almost forgotten ones. But nothing really surprising. The visitors got what they had expected - nothing more. (On the other had, the expectations are always high for this concert.)
Lena Ph could have continued for at least an hour more if the people had decided.

Saturday was "Parade Day". Unfortunately this year it was raining. There were not that many people as expected in the parade, even though the number of floats were higher. The people in the parade were brave and danced and waved with big smiles. The support from the spectators were as strong as always.
Unfortunately it seemed as if they didn't manage to keep such a long parade together, it had too many gaps and overcrowded sections.
It took a while for Pride Park to get up to speed after the parade. I guess that most people gave up due to the rain, or at least went home to change clothes.
Things at the Park Scene were the same as always, a mix of good and not so good artists. And the speeches and awars ceremonies were exactly as boring and confused as earlier years. (Can someone please try to tighten these things a bit?)
The Parade Gala Concert didn't really take off, also that mostly due to the rain. Alcazar had a lot of energy, but that didn't really compensated for the rain. BWO had some sound problems in the beginning, but they managed to get the people singing and dancing despite the rain.

On the whole - a good Pride very much like the last years. Nothing really special for Europride. No improovements of the things that have been not working well earlier years. No new ideas.
But enthusiastic people and very nice staff everywhere.

I think that Pride need new ideas. They have to throw out some things and rethink a lot.
I doubt that this will happen in the next few years though....

Do I sound disappointed? Maybe, but the overall impression is that Pride is something really good that is very much needed. But nothing is so good that it can't be better.