Liverpool’s Homotopia Festival is back this autumn, bringing more than six weeks of LGBTQIA+ arts and culture to venues across the city.
Returning for its 22nd year from 17 October to 1 December 2026, the UK’s longest-running LGBTQIA+ arts and culture festival will present We Come Together – a programme spanning theatre, performance, visual art, film, music, club nights and conversation.
This year’s festival will open with a celebration of another major milestone in Liverpool’s queer cultural scene, as House of Suarez marks its 20th birthday with a spectacular runway event.
The anniversary brings together two organisations that have played significant roles in the city’s LGBTQIA+ arts scene, setting the tone for a festival built around community, creativity and collective experiences.
Homotopia Festival 2026: We Come Together
Artists appearing across this year’s programme include Thick & Tight, Fag Packet, Fatt Butcher, House of Suarez, H.R.H Aphrodite I, Noiregayze, EAT Me Collective and First Take, alongside emerging LGBTQIA+ talent.
The theatre programme features three very different shows.
Award-winning dance theatre company Thick & Tight presents Natural Behaviour, a collection of performed portraits spanning human and non-human life forms.
Fag Packet brings DYKE Systems Ltd to Liverpool following repeat sell-out performances at Edinburgh Fringe. The anarchic physical comedy takes aim at pyramid schemes, corporate feminism and heteronormativity.
Meanwhile, Fatt Butcher’s Congregational is part concert, part communion and part resurrection, bringing audiences together on the dance floor alongside special guests Liverpool Rainbow Chorus.
Queer History, Protest and Remembrance
Homotopia 2026 also looks back at important moments in LGBTQIA+ history. At Open Eye Gallery, photographer Helen Constantinou’s The Gathering – Stop The Clause revisits the mass protests against Section 28 in 1988. Through Constantinou’s photography, the exhibition explores resistance to the legislation that prohibited local authorities from “promoting homosexuality”.
Homotopia will also host a special screening of Project Triangle at 17: Young Queer and Still Here, revisiting the 2009 journey of Young Homotopia to Auschwitz and Warsaw to explore the persecution of LGBTQIA+ people during the Holocaust and its lasting impact on queer history.
The programme will also include commemorations for World AIDS Day with Sahir House, alongside a screening of April Ashley in Enigma for Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Club Nights, Film and Food
There will be plenty of opportunities to hit the dance floor too. A month of queer club nights includes EAT Me Collective’s HORRIBLE HERSTORIES, Noiregayze, Protect Scouse Dolls, a special Homotopia edition of Sonic Yootha, and Queer Cxntry Burnin’ Daylight, a country music-themed LGBTQIA+ club night from PINK SUITS.
Film is also a major part of the programme, with a Reel Queer screening celebrating the 40th anniversary of Liverpool production company First Take.
Elsewhere, Homotopia heads to Port Sunlight for something a little different. Cookery Book Club at the Movies will take place in the converted stables of Cobble and Hay, with a menu inspired by Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
The next generation of queer artists will also take centre stage through Young Homotopia and the QueerCore Showcase.
Celebrating 20 years of House of Suarez
A major moment in this year’s festival will be the 20th anniversary of House of Suarez, which has spent two decades developing and championing the vogue scene in Liverpool and across the North.
House of Suarez Artistic Director and Founder Darren Suarez said: “Reaching two decades of House of Suarez alongside Homotopia feels like coming full circle. Back in 2008, when we launched Liverpool is Burning, we were planting the seeds for a movement.”
Reflecting on the Vogue Ball and its evolution, he added: “The Vogue Ball isn’t static – it evolves with our community, giving artists a safe space to show up, express themselves authentically, and build real careers.”
‘An Invitation To Experience Transformative Art’
The 2026 festival is the first under Homotopia Director Jayne Compton, who described We Come Together as a celebration of the breadth of queer creativity.
She said: “Marking my first year as Director of Homotopia, the 2026 programme We Come Together showcases an incredible breadth of queer work including dance, performance, film, club nights, digital and visual art.”
“Liverpool is a city of extraordinary spirit, creativity, and diversity. The festival brings together LGBTQIA+ artists and audiences for experiences that surprise, move, and inspire.”
Homotopia Co-chairs John Shortell and Laura Hall described the festival as both “a gathering and an act of hope and resistance”, as well as a space to “laugh, celebrate, and experience the joy that comes from community”.
Across the festival, events will take place at venues including Museum of Liverpool, Unity Theatre, District, Everyman Cinema, Playhouse Studio, The Music Room, Bluecoat, Arts Bar and Cobble and Hay.
From gathering around a stage and discovering new artists to filling the dance floor, exploring queer histories and celebrating established and emerging talent, We Come Together puts shared experiences at the heart of Homotopia’s 2026 return.
Homotopia Festival 2026: We Come Together
17 October to 1 December 2026
Venues across Liverpool
Homotopia website
