Animal Crossing: Game builds special new island to celebrate Pride month

Animal-crossing-characters-rainbow-road.Image source, Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing is going to take part in Global Pride 2020 by hosting an online festival.

Global Pride 2020 is an international celebration organised by LGBTQ+ groups around the world.

Usually big festivals and marches take place to mark it, but the coronavirus and lockdown rules mean people have had to find new ways to celebrate.

What is Pride?

June is Pride month - it is a month dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ communities all around the world.

It's about people coming together in love and friendship, to show how far gay rights have come, even if in some places there's still work to be done.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Baker, from InterPride (an organisation that ties Pride together globally), said: "Pride is an incredibly important moment in the calendar for LGBTI+ 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."

On Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players will be able to host their own Pride parades.

They will also be able to visit the new specially-built Pride island, where there'll be rainbow marches and a catwalk.

New clothing options that can be worn in the game will be available too.

The in-game celebration, #GlobalPrideCrossing, kicks off on 18 June and will last for for the rest of Pride month.

Image source, Animal Crossing: New Horizons

On Pride day itself, 27 June, there'll be a live stream where Twitch creators will be able to showcase their islands and visit other players.

The live stream will also celebrate the Black Lives Matter movement - including re-sharing lots of BLM content.