No time for Pride: Reykjavík Pride's biggest attraction skips 2017’s parade

Beloved singer Páll Óskar Hjálmtýsson has announced that he will not have a float in this year’s Pride Parade, citing time constraints. Páll Óskar has taken part in the parade almost every year since it was first held in 1999 and his majestic floats are considered Pride’s crowning jewel by many. In the past his floats have taken the shape of a huge swan, a rainbow unicorn and a pink viking ship, to name a few, all covered in glitter and sequins.

“If I’m making a big sculpture like I have been for the past years I usually start working on them in April, May at the very least, and now it just so happens that I am, no joke, working a 400% job,” Páll Óskar explains.

Those hours are filled with many different engagements. He is wrapping up an album, to be released in the coming weeks, and intends to personally deliver each one to everyone who bought it during presale. Then there’s the upcoming production of Rocky Horror where Páll will reprise the role of Frank N Furter and his plans for a big concert for September. He claims this concert will be one of his biggest endeavors to date and rest assured; Páll Óskar likes to keep things flashy.

“I’m going to top myself in that concert,” he says, confidently. “I just can’t fit a giant float into my plans.”

After going bigger every year he feels he couldn’t show up at the parade with the small pick-up truck he would have time and money for – since most of his funds have gone into the concert. He would rather skip the whole thing than lower his standards, he says.

“The battle for LGBTQ+ rights won’t stop even if I don’t take part in one parade,” Páll Óskar says. “If anything, the fight is opening up more and more and understanding is getting deeper and we are always finding more new aspects to work on. Personally I think the biggest rush is mending the rights of trans and intersex people in Iceland.”

The Pride Parade will take place in downtown Reykjavík on the 12th of August.