Homotopia Festival

The UK’s longest running annual LGBTQIA+ arts and culture festival, returns to Liverpool this autumn with a new theme Queer Joy Is A Protest.

Featuring theatre, music, spoken word, film, performance and more, this year’s festival shares stories of trans visibility and allyship, queer history, punk identity and gender fluidity.

Taking place in venues across Liverpool city centre from 1st – 22nd November, Homotopia showcases work by LGBT+ artists from inside and outside of the city, providing a platform for arts and culture through a queer lens.

Queer the City walking tour with Tabby Lamb and Andrew Bullock (Head of Touring Exhibitions at National Museums Liverpool and Board member of Homotopia) will showcase the known, unknown, famous, infamous and untold stories of LGBTQIA life. Since 2020, Homotopia’s Queer The City project posed questions on queer space, visibility and safety within Liverpool. Along side this, 15 large pieces of public art by LGBTQIA artists will be installed in prominent spots in Liverpool city centre, along with audio stories, to explore the queer heart of the city.

Homotopia Festival returns to Unity Theatre with a programme of plays by LGBTQIA+ playwrights and directors. Premiering in Liverpool, This Charming Man, by award-winning Liverpool comedian Sian Davies, is an exploration of masculinity, gender and identity from a self-identifying butch woman who has an unhealthy obsession with The Smiths.

Confetti is a queer rom-com by by theatre maker and producer Will Jackson, who brought Yours, Sincerely to Homotopia festival in 2021. Woman Hood, inspired by Sara Ahmed’s book Feminist Living, is a humorous dance performance exploring different female worlds in four parts created by contemporary dancer Ursula Graber. UTOPIAN (t&c’s apply) is a surrealistic circus pop-culture experience. Join Symoné’s personal community, immersed in the setting of a rave.

Queer Punk is a Protest will celebrate LGBTQIA+ music featuring Skinny Girl Diet, pink suits and Piss Kitti at Quarry.

Where are all the lesbians? returns with a trans ally edition. Homotopia Festival’s hugely popular, magical mystery tour exploring dyke history and the representation of queer women in popular culture will feature Lynne Harwood, director of First Take Liverpool, Mark Anthony award winning Drag King and Boylesque performer, Chardine Taylor Stone award-winning Black feminist activist and speaker, and Marcella Rick neurodiverse theatremaker.