Pride comes to Animal Crossing in this #GlobalPrideCrossing campaign

As Pride celebrations continue to roll out, countless festival-goers from all over the world are saddened that the mass gatherings are unable to take place due to the pandemic. That being said, many virtual events are happening as a substitute, including a much-anticipated international Pride festival to be hosted on Animal Crossing. Conceptualised and created by We Are Social Singapore, the #GlobalPrideCrossing campaign serves as a safe space for people of any gender, orientation, colour or ethnicity from anywhere in the world to celebrate this year’s Pride.

The virtual Pride also hopes to empower individuals to express their identity and connect with others. The event will take place on a specially-built Pride island created by digital studio Swipe Back and is just one of many activities supporting Global Pride 2020 – a partnership between InterPride, the European Pride Organisers Association and national Pride networks as a response to the cancelled events.

Pride takes place on 27 June when Animal Crossing players will be provided with inspiration to host their own Pride parades through the bespoke Pride island. There, the island is host to a rainbow march, a Pride-themed message board, a hall of fame, a club and catwalk, as well as a wardrobe of Pride-friendly clothes that can also be worn in the game.

The Singapore-based creative agency “was inspired by the thriving LGBTQ+ conversations around Animal Crossing: New Horizons, with around 20,000 LGBTQ+ related mentions on Twitter to date.” A creative outlet for the queer community, the new campaign aims to amplify Animal Crossing as a platform further, encouraging users to freely express themselves and get involved, even if you’ve never been to Pride in the past.

Andrew Baker, co-president of InterPride said in a statement on the campaign: “Pride is an incredibly important moment in the calendar for LGBT+ people, as it offers the community a chance to freely express their identity in a very public way. However, we all knew that this year’s Pride celebrations were never going to be the same, with communities all over the world still in various stages of lockdown. So when We Are Social Singapore approached us with the idea to create a virtual space, using a platform already popular within the LGBTQ+ community, where people could safely come together to express and celebrate their identities, we jumped at the chance.”

Find out more on how to visit the Pride island here.