Music, art and activism unite at Club Chrome for WorldPride 2026

From 25 July to 8 August 2026, Amsterdam will host WorldPride — a global celebration of LGBTQIA+ pride, culture and community. With its long-standing commitment to diversity and boundary-breaking programming, Melkweg will play an active role by amplifying queer voices. For two weeks, the venue will transform into Club Chrome: a multidisciplinary festival where music, art and activism meet. With this programme, Melkweg contributes to WorldPride’s legacy by creating a space where queer culture takes centre stage.

At the heart of our WorldPride programme lies Club Chrome — a title that captures both who we are and what we strive to celebrate. Just as chrome reflects every colour that touches its surface, this theme mirrors the full spectrum of queer identities, stories and expressions. It speaks to a world that is fluid, shapeshifting, impossible to confine. And in a cosmic wink to our own name, Chrome becomes a new star in the Melkweg: a luminous point where music, movement and community converge. A club where every shade, every voice and every orbit is seen, heard and celebrated.

Club Chrome opens with a statement as award-winning Brazilian pop icon and drag queen Pabllo Vittar sets the tone. With over 35 million followers worldwide, Vittar is the most-followed drag artist on the planet and a defining voice in contemporary pop culture. Following her role as the opening act for Lady Gaga’s historic Copacabana Beach concert in 2025 — performed to an audience of more than two million people — Vittar brings her internationally acclaimed Club Vittar concept to Melkweg on Saturday, 25 July. This DJ-set-driven party night is a high-energy celebration of music, movement and queer joy, with Pabllo transforming the space into a global club experience.
 

Vers van zijn Grammy-overwinning brengt Durand Bernarr zijn veelgeprezen album Bloom naar Club Chrome op woensdag 29 juli. De singer-songwriter staat bekend om zijn uitzonderlijke vocale bereik en genre-overstijgende sound, waarin R&B, funk en gospel samenkomen tot een persoonlijk muzikaal universum. Bloom, uitgebracht in februari 2025, is opgezet als een liefdesbrief aan vriendschap en community — thema’s die naadloos aansluiten bij de kern van Club Chrome. Bernarrs optredens combineren technische perfectie met emotionele warmte. 

At Melkweg Expo, a dedicated space for reflection through art, Club Chrome makes room to pause, listen and learn. In collaboration with Pon Di Pride, Melkweg presents a co-created exhibition exploring Black queer Caribbean nightlife culture. Pon Di Pride is known for creating a vital safer space in Amsterdam for the BIPOC LGBTQIA+ community — a place where freedom, resistance and joy meet on the dance floor. Following several club nights and community-led programmes at Melkweg, including a ballroom edition for last year’s International Women’s Day, the collaboration now expands into an exhibition that highlights nightlife as a site of cultural expression, resilience and collective memory. 

Club Chrome reveals its first programme highlights with a powerful mix of drag, performance and genre-defying music. Early announcements include We Are Them in collaboration with Drags of Anarchy, presenting a large-scale international drag spectacle with names such as Alaska Thunderfuck, Brooke Lynn Hytes and Symone. The musical line-up  moves fluidly between live performance and club culture, with genre-defying artists like Mykki Blanco blurring the lines between music, activism and performance, alongside late-night club programming curated by local collectives like Bixaria, Pon di Pride, Pyxls, Rapido and Striptopia.

Together, these first announcements set the tone for Club Chrome as a multidisciplinary festival where queer culture, nightlife and music take centre stage — with many more programmes to be announced leading up to WorldPride 2026. Keep an eye on melkweg.nl/clubchrome for the latest programme additions, news and updates.