The UK’s longest-running LGBTQ+ arts festival is returning to Liverpool.
Homotopia is set to take over the city for three weeks as it celebrates its 20th anniversary - with a focus on queer history and heritage this time around. This year’s festival, themed Gods and Monsters, will see a range of “cutting-edge” entertainment from visual arts to theatre, live music and performances.
For 2023, Homotopia is asking visitors to consider how to “foster a sense of community and mutual care in the face of an increasingly intolerant society - and how to build a space of love and respect for those within the LGBTQ+ community who are often most demonised within the mainstream”.
READ MORE: I went to the 'worst place to walk in the country' where people feel unsafe in the dark
READ MORE: Get a free National Trust pass worth up to £50 for your family day out this autumn
Festival programmer Alice Holland said: “The opportunity to curate the 20th edition of Homotopia is a huge privilege, and as a newcomer to Liverpool it has been incredible to learn the city through meeting the festival’s networks, audiences and supporters. My hope for this programme is that we find new ways of being together, of being there for each other, and enjoying a glittery, gorgeous giggle before the hibernation season kicks in.
“There will be some festival favourites of course, but we have also tried to open up new spaces for queer work and community, to make the most of Homotopia’s status as a beloved child of the city. I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years of queer culture will look like here.”
Here are all the events happening as the festival celebrates its milestone anniversary.
Parties
Clash of the Titans: Homotopia Opening Party
Saturday, November 11 - Content, Cain’s Brewery Village - £10/£12.50
A London-based queer cabaret and pro-wrestling night is kicking off this year's festival. The event is said to be a mash-up of “fantastical comedy, sensational drag performers and hard-hitting live wrestling from the most exciting grapplers around”.
EAT ME Weekender: Cave
Friday, November 24 and Saturday, November, 25 - Williamson Tunnels - £12/£15
EAT ME presents CAVE: a two-day occupation of the Williamson Tunnels where participants and audiences will “create, play, rest and party” through an innovative programme of workshops, installations, discussion groups, cabaret and club nights.
Quiz with the Queers
Thursday 30 November - Sefton Park Palm House - £6/£8
Join the queer pub quiz by Liverpool duo, German drag king Franz Genau and Dan Chan as they test your knowledge of myths and legends. Guests are encouraged to dress up as monsters or gods for extra points to win the prize.
Theatre
Young Homotopia: Aladdin Love
Tuesday, November 14 - Unity Theatre - £5
Young Homotopia is putting a “dazzling twist” on the classic pantomime, Aladdin. The actors will take you on a journey through the bustling streets of Agrabah “where love knows no boundaries”.
Liv Wynter: How To Catch A Pig
Tuesday, November 14 - District - £8/£10
How To Catch A Pig is a sell-out night created by artist and activist Liv Wynter as a celebration of creatives who also organise against the state, with a focus on queer and trans performers.
Livia Alour: Black Sheep
Wednesday, November 15 - Unity Theatre - £8/£10
Black Sheep is the story of a queer black woman finding love, after retiring from her full-time job as a sword swallower. The story tackles overcoming institutional racism to leaning into radical vulnerability.
Sadiq Ali: The Chosen Haram
Thursday, November 16 - Invisible Wind Factory - £10/£12
The Chosen Haram deals with themes of sexuality, faith, addiction and connection. The story of two gay men and their chance meeting through a dating app, portraying the highs and lows of their relationship and the barriers they face, social, cultural and personal in seeking happiness and personal fulfilment.
David Hoyle: The Ten Commandments
Friday, November 17 - Unity Theatre - £10/£12
Survivor of a shame-inducing religious upbringing, David revisits his Biblical initiation with his very own version of The Ten Commandments “designed to spark a revolution in human consciousness”.
Really Fabulous Family Cabaret
Saturday, November 18 - St Helens Library - Free
For this specially curated event for Wonder Arts, St Helens Libraries and Homotopia will be interactive. A group of performers are bringing song, dance and speciality acts to the stage.
Art
Exhibition: Bernice Mulenga
Tuesday, November 14 to Sunday, December 17 - Open Eye Gallery - Free
Bernice Mulenga is a British-Congolese photographer known for archiving, documenting and interrogating the world around them. Mulenga’s work centres on their communities - Black queer global and local, Black British, London nightlife and the experiences within them.
Claudiu Oprea: installation launch and artist Q&A
Sunday, November 12 - Granby Winter Gardens - Free
Claudiu, with his ancestral connection to herbs and wisdom passed down by his herbalist witch grandmother, invites you to embark on a unique journey of discovery with curiosity and an open heart.
QueerCore Showcase: Grace Tompkins & Ollie Adebisi
Saturday, November 19 - Playhouse - £5/£7
A cast of local performers will take you through some of the most talked about ideas in anti-fascism, how to keep safe and celebrate our community.
Artist Talk: Oozing Gloop
Wednesday, November 22 - Online - £6.66
Oozing Gloop’s digital offering explores the themes of Monstrosity and DIY cryptids in the 21st century.
QueerCore: Luke Fawcett
Thursday, November 23 - Lovelocks Coffee Shop - Free
Join Luke Fawcett as he gives a guide to Liverpool’s LGBTQ+ spaces: past, present and future. The A4 guide celebrates the “vibrant and humble” safe spaces of the city.
QueerCore: Bronwyn Andrews
Wednesday, November 29 - Kazimier Stockroom - Free
This photography exhibition is a celebration of self-representation in one of Liverpool’s grassroots music venues. Bronwyn is delving into Hardman House’s archives with the aim of celebrating the hidden histories of its sitters and examining the visual language of self-presentation within queer culture.
Noiregayze presents: I, ME, MINE Exhibition Launch
Saturday, November 2 - Sevenstore - Free
Join Noiregayze to celebrate the launch of a collection of artworks by black queer people that celebrates them as artists. Noiregayze is a platform and organisation based in Liverpool that centres on black queer people and people of colour.
Film
Documentary Film Night: Tops
Tuesday, November 28 - FACT 6.30 pm - £5/£7
Amy Pennington presents their documentary series Tops - which centres around the question that defines trans masc experience in the UK today: “What top did you wanna wear after top surgery?”
In the intimate film, Amy meets four unique individuals: a powerlifter and gay-games Olympian hopeful, a housing officer slash actor, an Essex filmmaker, and an equality diversity and inclusion specialist.
Workshops
Transgender Day of Remembrance Vigil
Sunday, November 19 - Museum of Liverpool - Free
To mark International Transgender Day of Remembrance, trans people and their allies come together to share their voices, with speakers from across the trans community. The event will culminate in a candlelight vigil to remember trans lives lost due to transphobic violence and oppression.
Ally Activation Workshop
Sunday, November 19 - Granby Winter Gardens - Free
This workshop will explore how to stand up as better allies for trans siblings, particularly at a time “when trans identities and trans lives are often under attack in the public sphere”.
World AIDs Day events
From Wednesday, November 19 - Museum of Liverpool
Mark World Aids Day with a series of events at the Museum of Liverpool in partnership with Sahir House. Including the UK AIDs Memorial Quilt exhibition, oral history sessions for people affected by HIV, and the World AIDs Day vigil on 1 December.
Win a lavish 5-night winter sun escape to Turkey with Cook’s Club Alanya hotel
