26/08/2026
❤️THANK YOU NEWCOMERS! ❤️
For being part of Luleå Pride 2026!
Not only did you help us create the most beautiful and meaningful collective art-backdrop of the big stage in Pride Park. Many of you also took to the stage and gave speeches that reminded us why Pride is still a riot, still so deeply needed profoundly important.
You reminded us of our privileges, but also of our responsibilities. Not only when we go to the polls in September, but in our everyday lives. A q***r community is never stronger than the breadth and width of people it includes.
Thank you for your courage to speak and to stand openly in the spotlight even if it for some of you will come with unwanted consequences.
And thanks to those of you who couldn’t be on stage, perhaps couldn’t be at Pride at all. Please don’t blame yourselves. It doesn’t make you any less brave. Instead, blame the global, and Swedish, structures of discrimination and hatred that make it difficult or impossible for some of you to participate openly. Even if you weren’t physically on the Luleå Pride stage, you are always on the stage in our hearts and in our work.
Dear Newcomers, you created the BEST playlist of q***r dance music from your home countries and from all over the world. Thanks for the chance for us and the audience to dance ourselves sweaty at Saturday Newcomers Nightclub.
When that Ugandan song came on and some of you screamed and sang with joy, the roof of almost came off! A very special thank you to Eray for being the cutest, hottest and most joy-sharing DJ we have ever seen. Thank you for all your hard work learning the DJ tools and making the night unforgettable! 🤩
And thank you to Anna Wahlström for being Eray’s sidekick. It was beautiful to see an example of sharing and creating community knowledge live on stage. 💗
Our dear, dear Newcomer friends and family: you are heroes. We love you. Thank you. ❤️
