Famous Palace Square Praça do Comércio  (Terreiro do Paço) Lisbon, June 26, 2010

A free-access fesitivity with diverse events, activities, music performances, (video), happenings, delicious food and bars.

Feijão Preto - restaurant in Lisbon

Following in the footsteps of five other European countries — Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and intensely Catholic Spain — Portugal recently legalized gay marriage (January 2010). Two Portuguese women, Teresa Pires and Helena Paixão, were the first couple to wed in Lisbon.

Labyrinto. Gay cruising club

More than 20 party tents filled the enclosure and defined the space for public performances. About 25 bars, restaurants and terraces offered a wide range of catering services to its customers and visitors.

Arraial Pride  is a free party open to all people, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, that see themselves as a part of a more democratic and non-discriminating Portugal; an ‘open mind night’ with no homophoby, in the heart of a Lisbon free of prejudices and willingly to integrate and respect all kinds of people and recognizing their rights and full citizenship.

Finalmente - a popular gay nightclub in the Bairro Alto, caters to  the late night. Finalmente (video) opens at 1am.  Drag performances on the small stage and dance until dawn

Designed to please a veried audience, the Arrial Pride festivities started at noon and ended at dawn, after a party set list with the best dance music in charge of well-known DJ’s, like Lara Soft, Nuno Galopim and Rui Murka.

A celebration of diversity, alike what happens in the main European capital cities and which could also put Lisbon along with the other destinations in the LGBT travel routes.

Queer Lisboa is, for the first time, present at the Arraial Pride. Lisbon’s Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is in this way associated with Lisbon’s oldest LGBT party. The profits from the Queer Lisboa Bar will revert to the Festival’s film programme

The Memorial Bar in Bairro Alto is also a well-known entertainment center for the gay and lesbian community of Lisbon. Women patrons outnumber the men here. The bar features a wide variety of live entertainment acts twice a week – including comedy, cross-dressing, or live Portuguese musicians. Pictures

The beautiful welcome center’s entrance of the Pride Festival, available for all information concerning the event like maps, accreditation, registration for games and activities, the program, a bar, exhibitions and a store.

website: Arraial Pride 

Arraial Pride
Associação Ilga Portugal
Rua de São Lázaro, 88
1150-333 Lisboa – Portugal
Phone: [351] 218 873 918

Portugal’s most popular gay beach Beach 19 Lisbon more information & how to get there

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Costa da Caparica beach in summertime. The boulevard of the village itself is undergoing major reconstruction. A huge boardwalk is being built, where half of Lisbon is parading on a warm summer day.

Take the little train (in season) at the end of the boardwalk (€ 5 return) and it will take you 8 kilometres south to the quiet stretches of sand. The train has 21 stops (the first three are under the new boardwalk now, so it starts at stop (paragem) number 4 (September 2008).

The best ones are Morena and Sereia, surrounded by dunes and with good bars. At almost every stop there’s a beachclub and the further south you go, the more you have the place to yourself.

The ‘Trans-Praia’ train.

Stop (paragem) 19, also known as Beach 19 or Praia de Bela Vista,  is where the nudist beach starts, also world famous for being Portugal’s most popular gay beach. Gay clubs and parties in Lisbon

As everywhere in the world: where the nudist beach ends, the gay cruising begins and this is the largest in Portugal. In the vast bushes behind the railway track, guys from all over Europe and beyond, meet for some fun and relaxation.

Beach 19, September 2008

From Lisbon to Costa da Caparica: by car, go South to Caparica and south again all the way to the last access to the beaches. When the road goes uphill, you have just passed the access you want to go! Go past Praia do Rei until the parking at the end of the dust road. Upon Bela Vista, walk south, to the left of the restaurant. It’s some 2 miles of white sand beach and dunes! A taxi will take you there from downtown Lisbon for a little over € 20.

By bus: from Praça de Espanha take bus 153 to Costa de Caparica busstation. Walk five minutes south along the boulevard and you’ll see the little train, that leaves every half hour (until end of September). The 161 bus from Praca de Areeiro will also take you to Caparica. An alternative route includes a mini-cruise on the ferry from Cais do Sodré across the river to Cacilhas. Get on bus 138 (directo) to Costa da Caparica (bus 124 via Almada will provide you with a long detour past 1960 highrise architecture, that’s better avoided).

By train: cross the Tagus river to Pragal railway station and take bus 196 to Caparica. The train may be a good alternative on weekends, it’ll help you avoid the traffic jams on the 25th of April Bridge.

Fonte da Telha

At stop (paragem) 21 at the end of the line where the train turns, there’s the village of Fonte da Telha (’Fountain of the roof’). This little fishermen’s village is perfect for that holiday feeling. This is the real Portugal, with some trendy beach cafés added to it. Fonta da Telha can also be reached by bus from Cacilhas harbour. Beach 19 is just a short walk from the centre of Fonte da Telha. A taxi there from Lisbon will put you back a little over € 25.

Even further south, about 10 kilometres from Fonte da Telha: Meco Beach, a real mecca for nudists & surfers

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