The Gay Pride Parade returns to Tel Aviv tomorrow (Thursday) - 25 years after the first parade in 1998, the year Dana International won the Eurovision Song Contest - and opens a pride weekend that will culminate in the main party on Friday, in Ganei Yehoshua Park, with leading artists and thousands of participants.
The parade will leave at 16:00 (Thursday) from the corner of Shalag Street and Herbert Samuel Street on the Tel Aviv promenade, accompanied by nine trucks of the city's leading linemen and gay community organizations, and is expected to end on Daniel Street at approximately 22:00.
Gay Pride Parade in Tel Aviv (archive), photo: Omer Messinger
On Friday, between 18:30-12:00, the main pride party will be held in Ganei Yehoshua, hosted by Nadav Bornstein and Lioz Levy. To mark the 25th anniversary of the parade, artists and dancers will perform on stage, and at the DJ stand they will all be conducted by Eliran Halevy and Yinon Yahel.
The artists who will appear: Iggy Waxman, Izzy, Elin Golan, Echo, Jane Bordeaux, Chen Aharoni, Maya Bouskyla, Miri Mesika, Nono, Noa Tishbi, Noar Shulaim, Neta Barzilai, Ness X Stilla, Ivri Leader, Eden Daniel Gabay, Omri Smadar and Shlomit Aharon, Red Access, Reef Cohen, Ran Danker, Shahar Tabuch, Shir Zuaretz and Tamir Greenberg.
"Rainbow of challenges"
A week after the gay pride parade held in Jerusalem, the police hope that in Tel Aviv as well, it will end without exceptional incidents, and have already completed operational preparations for it.
Starting early in the morning, hundreds of police officers will be deployed along the parade route, in the assembly areas and in the surrounding streets to direct traffic and maintain the safety of participants and the proper course of the march.
District Commander Lt. Gen. Ami Eshed: "Our goal is clear to every policeman and every commander - that every participant in the parade will return home safely, and with a smile. We face a range of challenges, and every police officer, overt or covert, must remember that he is the first response to the nationalist terrorist, to the hate criminal, to anyone who tries to harm the participants in the march or the very existence of the event."
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