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ANTWERP PRIDE 2026 | Entrepreneur and retail spokesperson Nico Volckeryck defends Antwerp’s rainbow flags after criticism

by Timothy••8

2026 marks the nineteenth (19th) edition of Antwerp Pride. From Wednesday 5 to Sunday 9 August, Antwerp in Belgium will once again be taken over by rainbow vibes. Prides are a mix of celebration – parties – and activism and advocacy. For the 2026 edition, the organising committee focuses on fearing less and being fearless.

Former Kammenstraat United chairman – and currently still an entrepeneur, shopkeeper and active at Unizo and the Neutral Syndicate of Self-Employed (Neutraal Syndicaat voor Zelfstandigen, NSZ) – Nico Volckeryck has defended the widespread display of rainbow flags across Antwerp during Pride Week, arguing that they are “never merely symbolic” and represent decades of activism and public support for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Volckeryck’s response follows comments by Marcia Poelman, chairperson and spokesperson for the Antwerp Queer Arts Festival (AQAF), who told Gazet van Antwerpen that while it was positive to see the city centre decorated with rainbow flags, the displays were “rather symbolic”.

‘Those flags did not appear by themselves’

Volckeryck agrees that visible support must be backed by concrete policies, but says dismissing the flags as symbolic overlooks their history. “That there is a need for strong and concrete policies in addition to the flags is beyond dispute. But dismissing the rainbow flags in our shopping streets as ‘rather symbolic’ does an injustice to their history and to the people who fought for them.”

According to Volckeryck, the initiative began in 2009 when businesses in Antwerp’s Kammenstraat displayed rainbow flags and decorated their shop windows during Antwerp Pride. As chairman of the Kammenstraat United traders’ association at the time, he says he persuaded retailers to publicly support the LGBTQIA+ community.

“Those flags did not appear by themselves.”

He argues that such public support was far from self-evident at the time.

Opposition to Pride visibility

Volckeryck recalls that the initiative quickly spread to other parts of the city, including the Stadsfeestzaal, Grote Markt, and Suikerrui. However, he says the growing visibility also provoked opposition.

He points to a 2010 petition entitled ‘Antwerp, not the gay capital of Belgium‘, which criticised the city’s LGBTQIA+ policies and the increasing number of rainbow flags.

According to Volckeryck, then Alderman for Culture and Tourism Philip Heylen (CD&V) defended the initiative by stressing that businesses had chosen to display the flags voluntarily. “The retailers and hospitality businesses put them up themselves. That’s how they show their business is LGBTQ-friendly.”

Volckeryck says his response to the petition at the time was simple. “If people want fewer rainbow flags, our answer can only be: even more rainbow flags in Antwerp.”

‘A visible result of years of commitment’

Today, rainbow flags can be found not only in Kammenstraat but also on the Meir, Kloosterstraat, and in the Wilde Zee shopping district, while public buildings and landmarks are illuminated in rainbow colours during Pride Week.

Volckeryck argues that this visibility is the result of years of work by activists, politicians, businesses, hospitality operators and retailers. “That is not an empty symbol. It is the visible result of years of commitment by activists, organisations, politicians, hospitality businesses and retailers who stood up when doing so was not yet self-evident.”

While acknowledging that flags alone do not eliminate discrimination or hate crime, he says they still send an important message. “You are welcome here. You are allowed to be visible. We will not let anyone be pushed back into the closet.”

Volckeryck concludes that symbolic gestures must always be accompanied by concrete measures, but warns against underestimating their significance. “Anyone who minimises the meaning of these flags forgets how hard people once fought simply to get them into our shopping streets.”

Debate over recent LGBTQIA+ history

Volckeryck’s intervention also echoes a broader debate within Belgium’s LGBTQIA+ community about how Pride’s recent history is remembered.

In recent years, some activists and commentators have argued that public discussions increasingly jump from the early years of LGBTQIA+ activism in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s directly to today’s debates about commercialisation and pinkwashing, paying comparatively little attention to the period between the late 1990s and the 2010s. 

During those years, campaigners were actively seeking recognition from businesses, public institutions and city authorities, seeing visible support such as rainbow flags, sponsorships and corporate participation as significant milestones rather than causes for criticism.

Although Volckeryck does not explicitly refer to that discussion, his defence of Antwerp’s rainbow flags reflects a similar concern that achievements from the first two decades of the 21st century risk being overlooked. “Anyone who minimises the meaning of these flags forgets how hard people once fought simply to get them into our shopping streets.”

That argument mirrors wider concerns that the history of LGBTQIA+ emancipation should include not only the pioneering activism that preceded legal equality, but also the years in which activists worked to secure acceptance from retailers, employers, governments and mainstream society; developments that many regarded as major victories at the time, even if they are viewed more critically today.

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🇧🇪 Blogger, keen vexillologist, train conductor NMBS/SNCB, traveller, F1 follower, friend of Dorothy.

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