Amsterdam's WorldPride, the largest LGBTQ+ event in the city's history, officially opened on Saturday with a two-week programme of concerts, street parties, a Canal Parade, and a human rights conference. The international event — held in a different world city every two years and taking place in the Netherlands for the first time — was inaugurated by Queen Máxima in the Vondelpark, with organisers expecting around one million visitors, far surpassing the hundreds of thousands who typically attend the city's annual Pride. Beyond the festivities, the event carries a pointed political message: more than 150 activists from countries where homosexuality is criminalised have been brought to Amsterdam for the human rights conference, underscoring that, while the Netherlands became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage 25 years ago, equality remains out of reach for LGBTQ+ people in much of the world.