Homotopia Festival, the UK’s longest running annual LGBTQIA+ arts and culture festival in Liverpool, launched on 1 November, celebrating and providing a platform for artists in theatre, music, spoken word, film, performance and more.
With a theme of Queer Joy Is A Protest, 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, Homotopia showcases work by LGBT+ artists from inside and outside of the city, providing a platform for arts and culture through a queer lens.
This year’s Artist-in-Residence is Tabby Lamb, non-binary theatre maker, director and performer (Happy Meal, SINCE U BEEN GONE, A Love Letter to Us, Polaris, Darling). Fresh with rave reviews and a Fringe First award from Edinburgh Festival, Tabby Lamb hosts a series of events throughout Homotopia.
Tea for T4T will see Tabby Lamb and friends celebrate Liverpool’s trans community with high tea. Exclusively for trans and nonbinary people and their close allies, T4T stands for Trans 4 Trans and is slang for sexual or romantic attraction between two transgender people.
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.
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.
Festival Director Char Binns says,
“Since its inception, Homotopia has been a celebration of queer culture. Over the past few years we’ve seen an increase in violence towards our community, including towards our artwork, with two pieces in the public realm destroyed last year. When you find yourself under threat it becomes more important to tell your stories, it becomes more imperative to find joy. Queer joy is a protest, especially against those who might not believe in inclusivity, diversity and celebration. Our annual festival is a place to express this through arts and culture, but it is also a place for us to come together and revel in our community”.
With creative workshops, a family weekender at Bluecoat, work by Homotopia’s 2022 QueerCore cohort of artists and more the full festival programme is available at www.homotopia.net/festival
