Lisbon to hold first-ever summer gay festival

For the first time, Portugal’s capital of Lisbon will host the Hot Season Festival, a European summer festival for the gay and lesbian community. The Hot Season Festival will take place between July 30 and August 2 and is billed as a celebration of music, culture and leisure.

The organisers of the festival are the people behind Trumps, the main gay disco of Portugal. Explains Marco Mercier, Director General of the Trumps, “the great European destinations such as Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Mykonos, London or Paris, already have their own festivals. This is the first time that Lisbon will have a festival of this nature! ”

About half of the expected audience is international, since the festival coincides with peak tourist season in Lisbon. Javier Medina, Taito Tikaro, Lenz Garcia, Jodie Harsh, Alejandro Alvarez, Charlotte Devaney and Steven Redant are among the DJs confirmed to play across the festival’s various parties.

Portugal’s emerging as quite the LGBT tourism hotspot – same-sex marriage was approved in the country in 2010 and the national parliament has just created the National Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

More Pride info: To book Exclusive Gay Travel packages visit Marriottweekends.co.uk/pride.