Go Blonde Festival is an annual event held in Riga, Latvia. [1] Blonde women, dressed in pink, parade down the streets of Riga to promote economic growth and to spread cheer. The event is organized by the Latvian Association of Blondes.
The parade has also become a tourist attraction for people who are interested in more than just the city's fine Art Nouveau architecture. [2] It is a tourism generator, rivaling events such as carnivals in Brazil and Italy. [3]
Each year, the festival receives more world attention, and it has grown into the biggest Blondes festival in the world. The previous Go Blonde festivals received international media attention. German national TV Channel One created a documentary about the Latvian Blondes Association. The festival was covered by over 500 internet portals globally, CNN, as well as the popular lifestyle magazines Glamour, Marie Claire in the USA, and Grazia in England and Italy. The festival is also receiving attention from Turkish and Russian media.
In 2012, "Go Blonde” organized the fourth festival, which took place in Jurmala, Latvia, on 13 July. The whole day featured activities on water and on the beach, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike contest, the Miss and Mister Australian Gold beauty pageant finale, tennis and golf tournaments, and a Harley-Davidson bike parade. The festival concluded with an all-night party, with local celebrities present as well as internationally renowned DJs and performers.
A pride parade is an event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events sometimes also serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Most occur annually throughout the Western world, while some take place every June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in modern LGBT social movements. The parades seek to create community and honor the history of the movement. In 1970, pride and protest marches were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco around the first anniversary of Stonewall. The events became annual and grew internationally. In 2019, New York and the world celebrated the largest international Pride celebration in history: Stonewall 50 - WorldPride NYC 2019, produced by Heritage of Pride commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, with five million attending in Manhattan alone.
La Tomatina is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, in the east of Spain 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Mediterranean, in which participants throw tomatoes and get involved in a tomato fight purely for entertainment purposes. Since 1945, it has been held on the last Wednesday of August, during a week of festivities in Buñol.
Jāņi is an annual Latvian festival celebrating the summer solstice. Although, astronomically the solstice falls on the 21st or 22nd of June, the public holidays—Līgo Day and Jāņi Day—are on the 23rd and 24th of June. The day before Jāņi is known as Līgosvētki, Līgovakars or simply known as Līgo.
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras or Sydney Mardi Gras is an event in Sydney, New South Wales attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and overseas. One of the largest LGBT festivals in the world, Mardi Gras is the largest Pride event in Oceania. It includes a variety of events such as the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade and Party, Bondi Beach Drag Races, Harbour Party, the academic discussion panel Queer Thinking, Mardi Gras Film Festival, as well as Fair Day, which attracts 70,000 people to Victoria Park, Sydney.
Blonde stereotypes are stereotypes of blonde-haired people. Sub-types of this stereotype include the "blonde bombshell" and the "dumb blonde". Blondes have been stereotyped as less intelligent than brunettes. There are many blonde jokes made on these premises. However, research has shown that blonde women are not less intelligent than women with other hair colors.
Shopfront Arts Co-op is a theatre facility, with three rehearsal studios, sound studio and digital film editing suite, located in Carlton, New South Wales, Australia. Also known as Shopfront Theatre For Young People, its stated aim is to provide space, resources, training, and development opportunities for young artists, aged between 8 and 26.
The Latvian Song and Dance Festival is one of the largest amateur choral and dancing events in the world, and an important event in Latvian culture and social life.
Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires, often known simply as the Legionnaire Day or 16 March in Latvia, is a day when soldiers of the Latvian Legion, part of the Waffen-SS, are commemorated. From 1998 until 2000, it was officially recognized as a "Remembrance Day for Latvian soldiers" by the Saeima.
Europeade is the largest festival of European folk culture, held in a different European country each year. The last Europeade was held in Turku, Finland in 2017. The year before that it was held in Namur, Belgium in 2016.
Moscow Pride is a demonstration of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender persons (LGBT). It was intended to take place in May annually since 2006 in the Russian capital Moscow, but has been regularly banned by Moscow City Hall, headed by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov until 2010. The demonstrations in 2006, 2007, and 2008 were all accompanied by homophobic attacks, which was avoided in 2009 by moving the site of the demonstration at the last minute. The organizers of all of the demonstrations were Nikolai Alekseev and the Russian LGBT Human Rights Project Gayrussia.ru. In June 2012, Moscow courts enacted a hundred-year ban on gay pride parades. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly ruled that such bans violate freedom of assembly guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights.
A Salsa congress is a multi-day dance festival featuring workshops, social dancing, performances and competitions focusing on Salsa dancing. The format was first pioneered at the Puerto Rico Salsa Congress in 1997.
The Barricades were a series of confrontations between the Republic of Latvia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in January 1991 which took place mainly in Riga. The events are named for the popular effort of building and protecting barricades from 13 January until about 27 January. Latvia, which had declared restoration of independence from the Soviet Union a year earlier, anticipated that the Soviet Union might attempt to regain control over the country by force.
Salacgrīva is a town in Salacgrīva Municipality in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. The centre of the area surrounding Salacgrīva is the mouth of Salaca River, and the town's name literally means "Mouth of Salaca" in Latvian. Since 2007, it is famous for hosting Positivus Festival every July for 3 days attracting thousands of tourists.
Positivus Festival is an annual, three-day summer music and culture festival that was held in Salacgrīva, Latvia from 2007 to 2019. After two cancelled editions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival moved to the capital city of Riga from 2022.
The Easter parade is an American cultural event consisting of a festive strolling procession on Easter Sunday. Typically, it is a somewhat informal and unorganized event, with or without religious significance. Persons participating in an Easter parade traditionally dress in new and fashionable clothing, particularly ladies' hats, and strive to impress others with their finery. The Easter parade is most closely associated with Fifth Avenue in New York City, but Easter parades are held in many other cities. Starting as a spontaneous event in the 1870s, the New York parade became increasingly popular into the mid-20th century—in 1947, it was estimated to draw over a million people. Its popularity has declined significantly, drawing only 30,000 people in 2008. In 2020, the Easter parade in Manhattan, New York, was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Baltic Pride is an annual LGBT+ pride parade rotating in turn between the capitals of the Baltic states; Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. It is held in support of raising issues of tolerance and the rights of the LGBT community and is supported by ILGA-Europe. Since 2009, the main organisers have been Mozaīka, the National LGBT Rights Organization LGL Lithuanian Gay League, and the Estonian LGBT Association.
The World Cosplay Summit is an annual international cosplay event, which promotes global interaction through Japanese pop culture. It developed from a cosplay exhibition held at the Aichi Expo in 2005.
Throughout the year, different organizations host pride parades in Nepal. Blue Diamond Society, an LGBT rights organization, in 2010 organized Gai Jatra Gay March, with most participants on masks to prevent being identified by suspected homophobic people. In recent years, many pride parades in different times of the years have been organized. Due to criticism of Blue Diamond Society for organizing pride parade in Gaijatra festival many organizations deviated into new rallies. All the parades by Blue Diamond Society have coincided with the Gaijatra festival. The parades end with a candle-light vigil in memories of those who died in the past year, promoting equality for all.
Latvia's Independence Day, officially known as the Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia, is celebrated annually on 18 November in Latvia. It marks the anniversary of the Proclamation of Independence of Latvia by the People's Council of Latvia in 1918.
Artdocfest is an international festival of original documentary films. Artdocfest presents the brightest non-format documentaries of all genres. It was established in 2007 by the Directorate of the Russian national non-fiction films award "Lavrovaya vetv". Artdocfest is held annually in Moscow (Russia), in the first decade of December. Since 2014, it has also been held in Saint Petersburg (Russia) and Riga (Latvia).