Flying out to Budapest on Friday, there was some trepidation about this trip – and my fears were confirmed at the first meeting at the Town Hall on Friday evening. As a political representative, I was given a yellow wristband, given to all VIPs on the basis that, if we were arrested, the yellow band should signify status. I’m not sure if that would have worked, but it was an indication of how worried the organisers were, and put the entire weekend into context.

On the Friday night, we gathered at Budapest Town Hall and listened to the Mayor of Budapest, who had bravely confronted Orban and insisted that the Pride protest would indeed go ahead, and that the law that Orban brought in to ban Prides would be overridden by the Mayor’s prerogative as that had precedence. Other significant mayors from major cities – Athens and Amsterdam – spoke of their hope that the March would be peaceful and safe, and the presence of large parliamentary delegations of MEPs and MPs from many countries would make Orban look bad if anything occurred.

Sadly, there were, to the best of my knowledge no British MPs at all – of any party – and the only two attending in a political capacity were Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor for Housing from the GLA, and myself. I stand corrected if anyone else did attend from a UK political delegation – but perhaps that says a lot about the current crisis we are facing here.

Having been awake since 3 a.m. the day before in order to get a coach to Stansted for my early morning flight, I had a lazy Saturday morning with a late breakfast and then tried to combine the best outfit I could manage to symbolise my official roles as a Board member of LGBTI Liberals (for which our banner became my cape) but also to blend in with colleagues from our ALDE and Renew Europe sister parties. I eventually decided on the blue “kiss a liberal” top but, with the sweltering heat, shorts and boots were going to be the only option of the day, with a rather faded LGBT+ Powerlifting Logo on my shorts.

As always with these occasions, timing and arrivals of anticipated dignatories didn’t go quite to plan – but I did manage to get in the main family photo – with the LGBTI Liberals banner at the top (see picture) below – a position I hold as Honorary Vice President of LGBT+ Lib Dem’s and the first Liberal Democrat on the LGBTI Liberals of Europe Board.

Following that, we headed off to the parade, where I noted that the main road still had cars streaming down it as it had yet to be shut off to traffic, and then that we were situated in truck number 13. Now admittedly, I am a superstitious person (and thirteen isn’t unlucky in Hungarian apparently) but this did just cause me a few nervous moments.

However, once the road was closed – DJ music at the ready, bubble machine in action – then all were ready to go. I was then asked by our Hungarian sister party, Momentum, to carry one of their mightily heavy flag poles – which I obviously was willing to do – but by the end of the four hour parade, I was slightly tired with my arms feeling like they had dropped out of my shoulders!

Two key things happened during the March which, whilst they didn’t affect the overall plan, the organisers had to be prepared for. The route had to be altered at the last minute, as a very small group of neo-Nazis (to state a number would be give them too much credit) decided to block the originally scheduled route, so we had to be redirected over the Elizabeth Bridge. However, because of that, when we started to walk across the bridge, the music suddenly stopped and everyone was aghast as to why – but the local Hungarians told us that, due to worries about the stability of the bridge, they didn’t want lots of people dancing (up and down), so the music stopped and then, when we reached the other side, it re-started with even greater gusto until the end of the parade – near to the main stage.

Because of the numbers in the parade – approximately 200,000 but yet to be confirmed, the people at the front had reached the Buda side, whilst we were still in the middle of the Main Street – literally the whole route was packed, never have I felt such intense emotion and participation from shouts of the crowd, to the non stop DJ music (apart from the bridge section).

I eventually got back to my hotel at 8 p.m., changed, showered and got back out to the Rainbow After Party which concluded at 4 a.m.

It was a historic weekend, exactly fifty-six years since the original Stonewall Riots of June 28th 1969 and this unprecedented March, on the exact anniversary, may have changed the course of history. Budapest Pride last year only attracted 35,000 – now the numbers were around 200,000, just showing that trying to ban Prides is a red rag to a bull – and the number of families, children and allies that lined the route just shows how much the allies came out to support the LGBTQ+ community. I was honoured to be there, representing the Liberal Democrats in my various official capacities.

* Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett is an elected member of the Federal International Relations Committee, Federal Council Member and an Hon VP of LGBT+Lib Dems