Manse Pride 2025 week will take place from June 9th to June 15th, 2025.
The week’s biggest events — the Pride march and park festival — will be held on June 14th, 2025. Manse Pride is the largest human rights event in the Pirkanmaa region and the second-largest Pride event in Finland.
Tampere’s first ever “Torisitsit” (market square sitsit party) will also take place on June 14th, 2025, at Keskustori. The event is organized in collaboration with the Student Union of Tampere University (TREY), the Teekkari Union of Tampere, Opiskelijan Tampere ry, and the Student Union of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (Tamko). Sitsit are a traditional Finnish academic student party, and this event aims to bring students from different fields together to celebrate and experience each other’s cultures and traditions through song and shared festivity.
We are truly delighted that these two major events are coming together in Tampere this year. Like the Manse Pride community, the student community is broad, diverse, and vibrant — a place where everyone can be themselves. The student movement plays an important role in ensuring that event spaces are safer and inclusive for all.
The theme of Manse Pride 2025 is “One Big Family.” It beautifully highlights that our wide-reaching Pride family includes people of all kinds, and everyone has a place in it. The student community is also a kind of family: a safe space and a sanctuary. Now, these two families are meeting through their respective events — students will march as a loud and colorful force in the Pride parade and come together to celebrate both at the Park Festival and the Torisitsit.
Tampere’s diverse higher education community includes over 35,000 students — each of whom deserves to be seen and accepted as they are, and to feel a sense of belonging and safety both at student events and in campus corridors. The diversity of the student community is a tremendous asset, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and enriching the experience of student life through different perspectives. It’s something we must cherish and actively support. The student movement has always been a pioneer in times of change and a trailblazer for a better future — and it will continue to be so.
Even though Pride today is a joyful celebration of community and equality, it is, above all, a protest. Pride calls attention to human rights violations that sexual and gender minorities still face in Finland today. Let us work actively to make Tampere, Finland, and the world more equal — and let’s celebrate the progress we’ve already made.
A Shared History of Pride and the Student Movement
Sinuiksi ry has a long-standing history with the student movement in Tampere. The “Leimarit” tradition was started in 1987 by young sexual minorities active within Tamy — one of TREY’s predecessor student unions at the University of Tampere. The following year, they organized the Lesbian and Gay Culture Days at the Tampere Student House (YO-talo), which became known as the “Leimautumispäivät” (Coming Out Days). In addition to the daytime program, there was a relaxed evening party with performances, known as the “Leimautumisbileet.”
At the entrance, guests could stamp themselves with labels such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or floraphile using stamps provided at the ticket counter.
The parties were a huge success, and the student union began organizing them regularly. Eventually, responsibility for the event was passed to Vagabondi ry — a lesbian, gay, bi, and trans organization and the predecessor of today’s Sinuiksi ry.
“The goal of Sinuiksi ry, Manse Pride, and Leimarit is to build bridges and foster cooperation,” says Mico Ylimäki, Executive Director of Sinuiksi ry, and adds:
“I’m very pleased that such a key actor in our shared history is organizing a major event during Manse Pride week. Manse Pride is the largest human rights event in Pirkanmaa, but it’s also a celebration of joy. Both of these aspects belong to everyone.”
Signed by:
The Student Union of Tampere University (TREY)
The Teekkari Union of Tampere