June is Pride month, an annual celebration recognising LGBT+ communities around the world.
Pride events have been an enduring source of LGBT+ visibility for decades, which got many of us at Bell Digital Marketing thinking: what is the most Instagrammed Pride event in the world? Here's what we found out.
How we determined the results
To determine the most photographed Pride event, we collected hashtag data from Instagram in multiple languages, measuring engagement in the official hashtag or the most popular local hashtag, whichever was greater. We also collated annual hashtags dating back five years (e.g #prideevent2017).
Overall, the number of hashtags totalled 1.7 million.
|
Rank |
Country |
Pride Event |
Total |
|
1 |
USA |
NYC Pride |
342,722 |
|
2 |
UK |
London Pride |
258,011 |
|
3 |
USA |
San Francisco Pride |
209,375 |
|
4 |
Australia |
Sydney Mardi Gras |
99,400 |
|
5 |
Canada |
Pride Toronto |
65,573 |
|
6 |
Sweden |
Stockholm Pride |
64,554 |
|
7 |
Finland |
Helsinki Pride |
53,766 |
|
8 |
Italy |
Milano Pride |
48,366 |
|
9 |
Germany |
CSD Berlin |
47,318 |
|
10 |
Ireland |
Dublin LGBTQ Pride |
44,172 |
|
11 |
Netherlands |
Pride Amsterdam |
41,139 |
|
12 |
Denmark |
Copenhagen Pride |
36,999 |
|
13 |
Brazil |
São Paulo Gay Pride Parade |
32,630 |
|
14 |
Czech Republic |
Prague Pride |
31,706 |
|
15 |
Norway |
Oslo Pride |
30,673 |
|
16 |
Israel |
Tel Aviv Pride |
30,399 |
|
17 |
Italy |
Roma Pride |
28,950 |
|
18 |
Germany |
Cologne Pride |
28,200 |
|
19 |
Spain |
Orgullo Gay de Madrid |
27,629 |
|
20 |
Canada |
Fierté Montréal |
22,834 |
|
21 |
Spain |
Pride Barcelona |
19,712 |
|
22 |
Tokyo |
Tokyo Rainbow Pride |
18,646 |
|
23 |
Vietnam |
VietPride |
18,569 |
|
24 |
Poland |
Warsaw Equality Parade |
18,173 |
|
25 |
Austria |
Vienna Pride |
16,731 |
|
26 |
Greece |
Athens Pride |
16,510 |
|
27 |
Hong Kong |
Hong Kong Pride |
15,857 |
|
28 |
Taiwan |
Taiwan Pride |
13,786 |
|
29 |
Hungary |
Budapest Pride |
12,546 |
|
30 |
France |
Paris Pride |
11,831 |
|
31 |
Argentina |
Buenos Aires Gay Pride |
9,681 |
|
32 |
Switzerland |
Zurich Pride |
9,314 |
|
33 |
Iceland |
Reykjavík Pride |
8,937 |
|
34 |
New Zealand |
Auckland Pride |
5,772 |
|
35 |
South Africa |
Johannesburg Pride |
4,565 |
New York takes the title
NYC Pride takes the title of most Instagrammed Pride event in the world, beating out London Pride by almost 100,000 hashtags.
Interestingly, NYC Pride saw the most Instagram engagement in 2019 when the city commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a key event in modern LGBT+ history.
European cities rank prominently
European Pride events are some of the most Instragrammed on the planet, ranking 13 times in the top 20 and amassing over 800,000 hashtags.
The most photographed European Pride event is London Pride (258,011 hashtags). Second is Stockholm Pride (64,554 hashtags) then Helsinki Pride (53,766 hashtags).
Pre-pandemic popularity
Between 2017 and 2019, hashtag engagement in Pride events grew by an average of 180% on Instagram. There was a significant drop-off in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, which forced many Pride events to cancel.