Travel Notes 51: Düsseldorf under the rainbow flag

Yuri Loginov’s travel notes accompanied by photographs and video fragments made here and there once upon a time with amazing background classic music to remember forever. Travel Notes 51: Düsseldorf under the rainbow flag - G-Day, October 16, 2021. #Düsseldorf is a large city in western #Germany and the administrative centre of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, one of the most economically developed cities in the Rhine-Ruhr region, located on both banks of the Rhine River, at the confluence of the Düssel River, 60 kilometres from the border with the Netherlands in a straight line. It is the second largest city in the region. Not far from it, just upstream of the river is the larger Cologne, where I once stopped for two days in December 2010 on my way to Scotland. But in Düsseldorf, for the first time, I found myself in early May 2021 on the way from the Netherlands to French Strasbourg, staying here as a guest for a few days. Since then, I have been here many times, fortunately that Holland is not far away. In June, I even took a bike ride from Düsseldorf to the Netherlands and then through Lower Saxony on the way back to Düsseldorf across the most picturesque countryside with cosy German villages and green forests interspersed with plowed fields. But now back to Düsseldorf - colourful, bright and sunny city. Many cultural events are held here: the Rhine costume carnivals for children and adults in January-February; Kermes - a fun fair of attractions and entertainment in the vicinity of Düsseldorf on the picturesque Rhine meadows in July, one of the most ambitious holidays in Germany; the beloved children’s holiday of St. Martin in November, in which thousands of children with colourful lanterns take part; and of course the rainbow parade, which usually takes place in the summer, but in 2021 took place in Düsseldorf on October 16. The rainbow parade, otherwise called a love parade or gay pride, came to Western Europe from the United States of America in 1970. It is held in the form of a mass carnival parade as a demonstration of one’s own dignity, individual freedom, a manifestation of the diversity and unity of all strata of society, including the so-called sex minorities. But over the decades that have passed, pride parades have grown from protest marches against discrimination in the fight for human rights into vibrant marches in every major city in the Western world, attended by millions of people, single and married, minorities and the majorities. In fact, they have become a real and beloved national holiday of simple human happiness, life and love. The Düsseldorf Pride was the first in which I took part in support of the residents of the city and the entire German people, and in some way it reminded me of our May Day demonstrations in the distant Soviet past, forced by the state, but we really perceived it as a holiday, in the West though not with red blood colours of the merciless class struggle, but with rainbow flags symbolizing something really bright and light, what so many in some less free countries aspire to, but often fail to achieve, as in some of them, for example, marches of the “Immortal Regiment“ are preferred, not in any way directed to the future, but rather turned into the mournful past. Rainbow parades, on the contrary, are directed precisely to the future - the unity of all people, the realization of the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech and expression. They are one of the forms of civil society that retains its rights before the state and very often before the omnipotence of those in power. Watch the previous video about Germany on The original photos are laid out on @yuri-loginov-107391.