Liverpool’s Homotopia Festival returns for 2023

The UK’s longest running LGBTQ+ arts festival, returns for its 20th anniversary this year!

Homotopia, returns this year with a celebration of Queer history and heritage – starting with a riotous pro-wrestling, drag and cabaret night in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle. 

Clash of the Titans will see wrestlers and Queer cabaret Fist Club bring an incredible combination of comedy, drag performance and hard hitting live wrestling to Liverpool for the opening party of Homotopia on 11 November. 

This year’s festival, themed Gods & Monsters, marks 20 years of Homotopia. From 11 November until 2 December 2023, visitors can expect a range of cutting edge entertainment – from visual arts to theatre, live music and performances. 

For 2023, Homotopia turns its focus to growth – 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. 

Alice Holland, Festival Programmer, said: “The opportunity to curate the 20^th edition of Homotopia is a huge privilege, and as a new-comer 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 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 beloved child of the city. I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years of queer culture will look like here.”

Highlights include living legend and Queer icon David Hoyle, bringing his critically-acclaimed live show The Ten Commandments to Unity Theatre on 17 November. A live experience aimed at washing away sin, dark comedy meets righteous anger and queer revolution in a way that only David Hoyle himself can conjure. 

Artist and activist Liv Wynter will present How to Catch a Pig on 14 November, a celebration of creatives who organise against the state, with a focus on queer and trans performers. 

Liverpool fixtures EAT ME will bring fantasy, sin and pleasure to the hallowed surroundings of the Williamson Tunnels for a full weekend of club nights, art and theatre with the EAT ME Weekender.

Artist in residence Claudiu Oprea presents his installation bear’s dream at Granby Winter Garden, where, through the dreamscapes of a fluffy toy bear, visitors can build a unique journey of self-discovery, healing, and connection to ancestral roots.

For more info on the Homotopia Festival click HERE.