The UK’s longest running LGBTQIA+ arts and culture festival returns this Autumn. Liverpool’s Homotopia is back for its 22nd year, with the theme of We Come Together. Running from 17 Oct to 1 Dec 2026, the festival will see theatre, performance, film, music and conversation as it brings Queer creativity in all its forms to venues across Liverpool.
This year, the festival will launch to celebrate the birthday of another iconic Queer community as House of Suarez marks two decades at the heart of the Northern UK vogue scene. With a spectacular runway event, the evening will set the tone for a November programme championing Queer art and artists.
Artists featuring in this year’s Homotopia include; Thick & Tight, Fag Packet, Fatt Butcher, House of Suarez, H.R.H Aphrodite I, Noiregaze, EAT Me Collective, First take,
Highlights of this year’s programme include;
Queer theatre with three shows. Award-winning dance theatre company Thick & Tight with Natural Behaviour, a collection of performed portraits spanning human and non-human life forms. Joining them is Fag Packet with DYKE Systems Ltd, a repeat sell-out at Edinburgh Fringe that serves an anarchic, physical comedy cocktail dissecting pyramid schemes, ruthless heteronormativity, and corporate feminism. Finally, Fatt Butcher performs Congregational an act of coming together. Part concert, part communion, part resurrection – join Fatt Butcher on the dance floor with special guests the Liverpool Rainbow Chorus.
Photographer Helen Constantinou’s The Gathering – Stop The Clause confronts the legacy of Section 28 at Open Eye Gallery capturing the mass protests in 1988 against Section 28, the barbaric UK legislation which banned local authorities from “promoting homosexuality”.
Homotopia is hosting a special screening of Project Triangle at 17: YOUNG QUEER AND STILL HERE. To mark the historic exchange, of Project Triangle, documenting 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.
A month of Queer club nights for dancing feet including EAT Me Collective with HORRIBLE HERSTORIES, Noiregayze, Protect Scouse Dolls, Homotopia edition of Sonic Yootha and Queer Cxntry Burnin’ Daylight, a country music themed LGBTQIA+ club night by PINK SUITS.
A Reel Queer film screening marking the 40th anniversary of Liverpool production company, First Take.
Dine in the converted stables of Cobble and Hay in historic Port Sunlight for Cookery Book Club at the Movies, featuring a menu inspired by Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
Commemorations for World AIDS Day with Sahir House and a screening of April Ashley in Enigma for Transgender Day of Remembrance.
An evening with the next generation of Queer talent with Young Homotopia and QueerCore Showcase.
Venues for this year’s Homotopia include; Museum of Liverpool, Unity Theatre, District, Everyman Cinema, Playhouse Studio, The Music Room, Bluecoat, Arts Bar, Cobble and Hay.
Jayne Compton, Director 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. Building on Homotopia’s artistic and activist legacies, ‘We come together’ is an invitation to experience transformative art, to remember our histories and imagine new futures.”
John Shortell & Laura Hall, Co-chairs, on behalf of the Board of Trustees said:
“This festival is both a gathering and an act of hope and resistance. It is a place to question, reflect, and connect. It is also a place to laugh, celebrate, and experience the joy that comes from community.
At a time when visibility and belonging cannot be taken for granted, Homotopia champions the transformative power of creativity to challenge injustice, inspire understanding, and affirm the richness and diversity of LGBTQIA+ lives.
Welcome to Homotopia Festival 2026. We are delighted to share this journey with you.”
Darren Suarez, Artistic Director and Founder of House of 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. Watching those early performers grow, create their own inclusive spaces, and pass the torch has been nothing short of extraordinary.
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. Whether it’s sparking new events, branching out into moments like Eurovision, or launching the next generation of creative talent, this runway proves that when you give Queer artists a platform, the energy is infectious. People leave our show changed, energised, and ready to take on the world.”
“We Come Together, is an invitation, to gather around a stage. To fill the dance floor. To join a workshop. To sing with others. To discover a new artist. To celebrate Queer brilliance. To remember our histories and imagine new futures together.
This November, Homotopia Festival returns with We Come Together – a celebration of Queer creativity in all its forms, bringing artists, audiences and communities together across Liverpool for four weeks of bold performance, visual art, film, music, conversation and collective joy. It’s never been more important for us to be visible, to remind both ourselves and our city of our place in its past, its present and its future.
View the Homotopia Festival 2026 brochure, here.
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