Victoria Rains Rainbows: 4th Gozo Pride March Draws 500+ in Landmark Show of Island Solidarity

Rainbow flags billowed against honey-coloured limestone as Victoria’s Pjazza Indipendenza became a sea of colour on Saturday afternoon, marking the fourth annual Gozo Pride march. More than 500 residents, weekenders from Malta, and curious tourists wound their way through the Citadel’s narrow streets, turning Gozo’s quiet capital into the loudest, proudest corner of the Maltese islands for one electric hour.

The march kicked off at 4 p.m. sharp, led by a brass band that swapped traditional marċ tal-banda for a brassy rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.” Drag queen Wanda Lust – towering in heels that would give Gozitan hills vertigo – acted as grand marshal, blowing kisses to elderly men playing cards outside Café Jubilee while children in rainbow face-paint darted between knees. For an island whose nightlife usually peaks at village festa fireworks, the scene felt quietly revolutionary.

“Four years ago we were 40 people and a Bluetooth speaker,” laughed organiser Daniel Pace, a Għajnsielem local who now lives in Brussels but returns each year to coordinate the event. “Today we’ve got NGOs, a police escort, and the mayor marching with us. That says something about how fast Gozo is catching up with the mainland.”

Malta may have topped ILGA-Europe’s LGBTIQ+ rights rankings for the past eight years, but the gap between national legislation and lived reality on Gozo has long been a sore point. Until 2019, the sister island had no visible queer spaces beyond the occasional themed night at Rabat’s La Grotta nightclub. The first Gozo Pride drew scepticism – a Facebook commenter quipped that “next we’ll have a Pride festa in Għarb” – yet Saturday’s turnout suggests attitudes are shifting even in the island’s most traditional pockets.

Victoria mayor Dr Samuel Azzopardi marched arm-in-arm with Opposition leader Bernard Grech and Labour MP Alex Muscat, a bipartisan gesture that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. “Gozo is famous for preserving its past,” Azzopardi told Hot Malta. “But preservation doesn’t mean stagnation. We can honour our traditions while embracing every citizen – gay, straight, Maltese, foreign, local farmer or digital nomad.”

The route itself was symbolic. Marchers passed the old courthouse where, in 2013, trans woman Joanne Cassar fought and won the right to marry her partner, a landmark case that paved the way for Malta’s marriage-equality law. They paused outside the seminary where Fr Mark Montebello once publicly defended queer rights, then looped towards Independence Square where a collective cheer erupted for local lesbian couple Martina and Leanne, who brought their four-month-old twins in matching rainbow dungarees.

Businesses joined in. Crystal Palace’s legendary pastizzi were iced in pink, yellow and blue; Café du Brazil ran a two-for-one “Love is Love” spritz special; even the itinerant ftira hawker swapped his usual shout of “ħobża!” for “ħobża tal-imħabba!” The Gozo Tourism Association estimated that Pride weekend injected €120,000 into the local economy – a tidy sum for February, traditionally the slowest month on the island calendar.

Yet the march’s real impact may lie beyond tourism euros. Youth NGO We Are – Gozo reported a 40 % spike in post-event sign-ups for its local support group. “Kids message us saying they didn’t know there were others like them in Xagħra or Żebbuġ,” said coordinator Maria Bezzina. “Visibility literally saves lives.”

As the sun dipped behind the Citadel walls, the crowd gathered for an open-air screening of “Milk” in Pjazza Savina. Someone produced a portable speaker; soon a drag king from Sannat was leading a mass sing-along to ABBA’s “SOS” – cheekily repurposed as “LGBTIQ rights on the island, SOS!”

By 8 p.m. the square smelled of ħobż biż-żejt, beer and possibility. An elderly man who’d watched the first march from a café doorway four years ago leaned over to his wife and said, “Mela, next year we’ll bring the grandchildren.”

If that isn’t progress in a place where change once arrived slower than the Gozo Channel ferry, what is?