Safety at Pride

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people come to our events to protest and celebrate, and it’s our responsibility to do all we can to keep them safe. The safety of every participant in Copenhagen Pride is always our highest priority.

We understand that the dreadful shootings in 2022 outside LGBTI+ venues in Oslo and Bratislava, and last year’s news that police in Austria stopped a planned attack at Vienna Pride, can cause concern. We want to reassure our participants that whilst no major event can guarantee the safety of participants, we work in a number of ways to minimise risk.

We have a visible and professional security presence at Pride Square and at the Parade, and all venues are in radio contact with our security team, led by our Head of Safety who has been with Copenhagen Pride for eighteen years. Many others in our team have many years of experience of delivering safe Pride events in Denmark and abroad.

Police are always present at Pride Square or in the vicinity and we have an excellent relationship with Copenhagen police and with PET, the national security and intelligence service. Police are involved in every stage of our planning and they have detailed information on all our events. We meet with them regularly and share information, and they make recommendations to us. They have tried and tested plans in place to deal with any issues that arise.

We have also used our friendship with colleagues at Oslo Pride to learn from what happened there. They have made a number of changes to the way they work in the Norwegian context, and we have looked at how they might be suitable for us. As Pride organisers, we have supportive international networks where these innovations are always shared.

Over recent years we have all become used to being vigilant, and we rely on everyone who comes to Pride to be vigilant, just as you would be at the airport or at a music festival. If you see something that doesn’t look right, talk to police, security, or any of our volunteers. In the unlikely event that you can’t find someone, call 112 in an emergency.

If you have any other questions about safety at Pride, you are welcome to send an email to our team: [email protected]