Thousands have marched through Prague in the Czech capital’s to celebrate the first “gay pride” festival in the country.

Thousands marched in Prague Saturday at the climax of the first gay pride festival in the Czech capital, defying a fine drizzle and counter-demonstrations by conservative groups. With many in fancy dress, blowing whistles and waving flags they gathered in the centre of the city before setting off along the main avenues to the sound of music from loudspeakers mounted on vans.

Attracting participants from other parts of Europe as well as the Czech Republic, the parade was to end on an island in the Vltava river for a series of concerts and shows.
Some 300 police were on duty to prevent the sort of clashes that marred a gay march in Brno, the country’s second city, in 2008.

The five-day festival, which began Wednesday, sparked controversy long before it started as a top aide to conservative President Vaclav Klaus labelled gays as deviants.

Petr Hajek, Klaus’s deputy chancellor famous for rejecting Darwinism and for calling Osama bin Laden “media fiction,” slammed Prague mayor Bohuslav Svoboda for granting support to the festival of “deviant fellow citizens.”