Homotopia urges 2019 festival fans to Resist! Resist!

The UK’s longest-running annual festival of LGBT+ arts and culture is back.

Homotopia runs from November 1-10 at venues across Liverpool and beyond.

This year the theme of the festival is Resist! Resist! which will be explored through a series of performances, plays, talks, exhibitions and “unapologetic celebration of LGBTQ+ culture”.

A festival launch party takes place at the Hope Street Hotel on October 31, featuring live music and a DJ set by Sonic Yootha. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance.

Cains Brewery Village hosts an audiovisual installation – Who Are We? – by sound artist Xavier Velastín and visual artist Virág Pázmány who combine absurdist storytelling and technological innovation. It runs throughout the festival.

Above: Travis Alabanza. Photo by Eivind Hansen. Top: Joan - picture by Field McGlynn

Meanwhile Homotopia and National Museums Liverpool are teaming up to present a weekend of events on November 2-3, featuring artist, performer and writer Travis Alabanza, one of the UK’s most significant voices on trans rights and an exciting queer performer.

A number of performances are also set to take place at the Unity Theatre including Nightclubbing on November 6, in which Rachael Young and her ‘badass band of superhumans’ embrace Afrofuturism and the cult of Grace Jones, Mojisola Adebayo’s STARS - a concept album for the stage (November 7) and on November 9 a new version of Joan of Arc, performed by drag king champion Lucy Jane Parkinson.

Nightclubbing. Photo by Marcus Hessenberg

Homotopia was launched in 2004 with a grant from Liverpool City Council. The first pilot Homotopia festival featured 16 events in 4 venues in Liverpool and was enjoyed by an audience of 2,500 people.

In the past 15 years, Homotopia has achieved significant growth and development, welcoming some of the biggest names in LGBT+ arts to Liverpool including John Waters, Boy George, Maggi Hambling, Armistead Maupin, Sarah Waters and many more.

For more details on this year’s programme, including how to book tickets, visit the website HERE