A photo of a World Parkinson's Day event showing a fountain in Rome, Italy lit up in blue for Spark the Night
A fountain lit up for Spark the Night in Rome, Italy

Last Friday 11 April we once again saw the Parkinson’s community unite to raise up each other’s voices for the 2025 edition of World Parkinson’s Day, with events, campaigns and other special awareness-raising activities taking place across the globe in solidarity with people with Parkinson’s everywhere.

2025 truly seemed like the biggest World Parkinson’s Day ever, with social media coming alive with organisations and individuals sharing their World Parkinson’s day messages, events, photos and video – it was almost impossible to keep up with you all!

We’ve rounded up some of the best moments from World Parkinson’s Day 2025 so you can look back at the major events that happened on the day:

Worldwide events for World Parkinson’s Day

1. Spark the Night

This year’s Spark The Night campaign was bigger than ever, with volunteers from dozens of countries across the world contacting their local councils and district representatives to ask them to light up notable buildings and landmarks in blue to raise awareness for World Parkinson’s Day. From the Netherlands to New York, Germany to Ghana, Slovenia to Saskatoon and beyond, the night sky was lit up in blue for people with Parkinson’s.

Here’s just a few of the highlights shared on social media:

 

 

Društvo Trepetlika (the Slovenia Parkinson’s organisation) trip to Gasilska brigada in Ljubljana, Slovenia:

A photo of a World Parkinson's Day event in Slovenia, featuring the old fire house lit up in blue for Spark the Night

Rome, Italy

 

 

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A post shared by Paqui Ruiz (@by_pruiz)

2. The Sit-to-Stand Challenge

 


Stand Up To Parkinson’s was back for another year with its global exercise challenge, encouraging people around the world to collectively complete as many “sit to stand” exercises as possible for Parkinson’s awareness. Their website counter current sits at almost 1 million sit-to-stands completed worldwide – with groups like the North Carolina branch of Rock Steady Boxing submitting over 12,000 reps between them!

3. Insight into Parkinson’s conference (Australia)

 

 

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This mammoth three-day virtual conference from PD Warrior in Australia had expert-led sessions giving insight into exercise, living well with Parkinson’s, Parkinson’s research updates and much more. Around 6,000 people tuned in live from across the world to listen to speakers including Professor Michael Okun, Professor Ray Dorsey and Dr Laurie Mischley.

World Parkinson’s Day events in 2025 across Europe and beyond

4. The history of the tulip, as told by Parkinson’s Europe

We took a touching trip back in time to the first ever World Parkinson’s Day with our co-founder Lizzie Graham, who told the story of how the tulip became the symbol of Parkinson’s across the world in both a special podcast episode and an article for Parkinson’s Life.

5. Birdie Belgium releases “It’s Hard to See” single – Belgium

World Parkinson’s Day was also a special day for singer-songwriter Birdie Belgium, who released her single “It’s Hard to See” in honour of her mum Hilde’s 14-year struggle with Parkinson’s. We interviewed Birdie about her song earlier this month – and half of all proceeds from CD sales go to Prof. Bas Bloem’s research on the benefits of art for people with Parkinson’s.

6. Pesticide-Free Day demonstration at The Hague, the Netherlands


Over 1,000 people from 100 organisations (including Parkinson Vereniging) marched through The Hague in the Netherlands to call on politicians to do more to tackle pesticides (some of which have been linked with Parkinson’s) and work towards a pesticide-free future.

It wasn’t just the Netherlands taking a stand against pesticides on World Parkinson’s Day – France Parkinson also released a statement joining the call for the EU to reconsider its approval of the pesticide glyphosate, a pesticide which research has shown may be a cause of Parkinson’s.

 

7. “Big Sing” event by the Movers and Shakers podcast at the Houses of Parliament, UK

This goosebump-giving moment shows hundreds of people gathered outside the Houses of Parliament in London, UK singing a special Parkinson’s-themed version of Gloria Gaynor’s 1970s classic “I Will Survive”, all to raise awareness of the Movers and Shakers podcast’s petition to adopt their “Parky Charter” and increase funding for people with Parkinson’s in the UK.

8. National Parkinson’s Congress, Portugal


Portuguese Parkinson’s association APDPk celebrated World Parkinson’s Day with its annual conference in Porto, featuring lectures on the latest developments in Parkinson’s diagnosis and research, workshops on physiotherapy and music therapy, and the above performance by the tulip choir.

9. World Parkinson’s Day event in Poland

In Poland, the Brain Disease Foundation hosted this hybrid conference at the Polish Press Agency in Warsaw, featuring a range of neurology experts, representatives from the Ministry of Health, and people with Parkinson’s. They addressed Parkinson’s care in Poland in comparison to the rest of Europe, considering what treatments are available and what systemic change is needed to improve the quality of life for people living with Parkinson’s in Poland. You can watch the entire hour-long broadcast above.

10. World Parkinson’s Day procession, Kenya

Among several events taking place across Africa, the Parkinson’s Support Group of Kenya held an impressive programme of events to mark World Parkinson’s Day in Nairobi (as well as further afield in Kilifi), including a march for Parkinson’s awareness, musical and dance performances, and free eye tests for people living with Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s advocate Dr Tash Fothergill-Misbah from Transforming Parkinson’s Care in Africa was also present to help raise awareness of the needs of people with Parkinson’s across Kenya and the wider continent.

Did you join in with any World Parkinson’s Day events in 2025? Keep up the good work by signing up to our mailing list and Engagement Network so you never miss the latest news, events and opportunities.