by Sophie
WorldPride Amsterdam 2026 will take place from 25 July until 8 August, and this year’s theme is Unity. Just like we celebrated Pride Month in June in The Hague and Leidschendam with colorful displays and a Queer Open Mic Night, we’re celebrating this world famous pride week in Amsterdam with no less than 5 events! Here’s a round-up of them all. We hope you can join one or two (or all five). All events will take place at ABC Amsterdam.
Wednesday 22 July @ 18.30 hrs: Queer Story theme night with Open Mic: Role Models
A Queer story theme night combined with an open mic. The theme of the evening will be role models.
During the first part of the evening, three authors will read from their work. Henk B. de Vries will read from his Grindr series, Thomas will read his story about Dorian, who fell victim to AIDS, and finally Tuaca Kelly will read from her poetry.
The second part of the evening will be an open stage for anyone who wishes to share their queer stories, poetry or songs. You will have a 5-minute time slot to read or perform your work. Please keep in mind the theme of the night, role models, to cherish those that inspire you most.
More information and tickets here.
Sunday 26 July @ 17.00 hrs: Nacht op scherp/Night on the Edge book presentation
Join us for the presentation of the photo book Nacht op scherp/Night on the Edge by Steve Malenka, BEP Mous, and Geert-Jan Kuijpers. This crowd-funded book and memorial, in both Dutch and English, will be published just in time for Amsterdam Pride Week!
Nacht op scherp/Night on the Edge is a photobook and oral history about the Amsterdam queer performers of the 90s: a decade in which ecstasy and fear met on the dance floor: the iT, Mazzo (Club Chique), the Trut, and RoXY. Clubs etched into the city’s memory. Dedicated to Manfred Langer.
Bep Mous and Geert-Jan Kuijpers, two icons of that nightlife, look back together with writer and journalist Bamber Delver on a period in which art and survival coincided. Their private archives are opened: the book is full of never-before-published photos; costumes and memories form the basis for this richly illustrated book about performance, identity, grief, and resilience, and stories of people they worked with and who inspired them, such as Mayday, Howie Getman, Erwin Olaf, Vera Springveer, and Hellen Zelluf.
Approximately 160 full-colour pages. Hardcover. Beautifully produced, designed by the Silvestri Brothers.
More information and tickets here.
Wednesday 29 July @ 18.30 hrs: Amsterdam, A Queer History and Lezz is More double book presentation
Don’t want just one but two books presented in one night? Say no more!
Monique Doppert will present her books Lezz is More and Amsterdam, A Queer History. She will be joined by both Henk B. de Vries, who will talk about his Amsterdam city tours highlighting 400 years of gay history, and by Richard Keldoulis, a.k.a. Jennifer Hopelezz, the subject of Lezz is More (but Richard will be the one interviewed!). A trailer for the documentary Paris is Burning will also be shown.
Amsterdam, a Queer History tells the story of homosexual men and women in the Dutch capital, from clandestine homosexual practices in bars and backstreets at the start of the twentieth century, through the initial stages of gay emancipation, to the flourishing and provocative subculture of the seventies onwards and the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2001. Monique Doppert puts all these developments in a clear historical context, focusing on areas where Amsterdam’s rainbow community is most visible: culture, activism, emancipation, the hospitality industry, and the nightlife scene. This lets her show how the city and its queer community have molded and remolded each other over time.
Since 1990, Richard Keldoulis has grown into the role of Jennifer Hopelezz, shaping Amsterdam’s queer scene with glitter and activism. In Lezz Is More, Monique Doppert reveals how Richard wields drag not just as spectacle, but as a sophisticated political instrument.
As the architect of three thriving Amsterdam businesses, he pivoted after his ‘Night Mayor’ defeat to turn the stage into a bridge between discrimination, hate, violence, and the queer community. In a city that claims tolerance, Richard proves survival demands action.
This innovative ‘book-a-zine’ blends biography with visual power, showing how the raw force of drag – its theater, humor and an unapologetic attitude – can silence a room faster than policy ever could.
More information and tickets here.
Thursday 30 July @ 17.00 hrs: The Light of Day by Christopher Stephens
Author Christopher Stephens comes to Amsterdam to present his biography of Roger Butler, The Light of Day: The First Man to Come Out at the Dawn of Gay Liberation. Christopher will talk about his book, have a Q&A session with the audience, and sign the book afterwards. Ben Fleetwood Smyth will moderate the afternoon.
The Light of Day tells the story of Roger Butler: the first man known to have come out voluntarily, publicly, and under his own name to the entire British public, in order to challenge the laws that had criminalised and terrorised gay men for generations.
Taking us into the hidden queer world of post-war London, Christopher Stephens charts how Roger helped to change the course of gay rights in Britain. In 1960, seven years before the partial decriminalisation of sex between men, Roger wrote an open letter to the press declaring himself homosexual. It was a dangerous and extraordinary act: a major milestone in the fight for gay rights, yet one that has been almost entirely forgotten. After losing his sight in his early thirties, Roger soon found himself pushed to the margins of the movement he had helped to ignite.
At the beginning of a new century, Christopher was a student asked to read to an old, blind man. As their friendship grew, Roger entrusted him with his most precious possession: the memoirs of his revolutionary past.
After Roger’s death, Christopher opened a series of unsent letters, left in a pink folder and addressed to him. They contained Roger’s final wish: that Christopher should finally bring his story into the light of day.
More information and tickets here.
Friday 31 July @ 19.30 hrs: Queer Poetry Anthology: the Queer Joy & Gender Euphoria Edition by Unwanted Words
And the last event of this year’s Pride Week at ABC Amsterdam: the book presentation of Queer & Feminist Poetry Anthology Vol. II: Queer Joy & Gender Euphoria Edition by the queer poetry platform Unwanted Words.
This anthology was created by asking for submissions reflecting on queer joy and gender euphoria. Not because joy is easy. But because joy matters. Too often, queer stories are expected to center pain, struggle, or survival. While those experiences are real and important, they are not the whole story.
Queer life is also friendship. It is pleasure. It is dancing in kitchens. It is finding language for yourself. It is tenderness. It is desire. It is community. It is becoming.
The poems in this anthology remind us that joy can be radical. That softness can be powerful. That imagining ourselves beyond limitation is an act of resistance. Together, these writers offer visions of queer life that are expansive, intimate, playful, vulnerable, and deeply alive.
More information and tickets here.
