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Liverpool’s Homotopia festival returns to the city next month promising an unmissable programme of performances, film screenings, exhibitions, walks, talks, workshops and parties.
The 21st edition of the annual event, the UK’s longest-running LGBTQIA+ arts and culture festival, takes place from 1-30 November 2025.
The theme of this year’s festival is Uprising – a rallying cry, a celebration and a defiant stand.
Homotopia takes place at venues including the Unity Theatre, Everyman and Playhouse, FACT, St George’s Hall, the Royal Standard and the Bluecoat along with two events at St Helens libraries.
And more than 70 percent of the events are FREE to enjoy.
The festival opens with a special launch party at the Unity Theatre on Saturday 1 November, with the Hope Place venue turned into a cabaret-style space for an immersive evening of playful and boundary-blurring performance, community and solidarity.
Highlights of the month-long Homotopia programme include:
Residents in the city centre, on Merseyrail stations and at the Open Eye Gallery from 1 – 30 November. Queer photographer Ming De Nasty has spent the past four months capturing members of the city region’s LGBTQIA+ community on camera. A festival co-commission with the city’s Open Eye Gallery and Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, in partnership with Merseyrail and Sahir House.
Remember Nature at FACT on Tuesday 4 November. Homotopia is a partner organisation in a nationwide day of artist-led action honouring Gustav Metzger’s 2015 vision of art as a force for change and has commissioned artist Paul Harfleet to explore his 20-year relationship with Liverpool through The Pansy Project.
Drag Down the Borders at District in the Baltic Quarter on Sunday 9 November. A night of joy and solidarity showcasing the best migrant drag and cabaret talent, and raising funds in solidarity with migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in Liverpool, Palestine, Sudan and Congo.
No Pride in Genocide at District on Monday 10 November. A film programme in partnership with Queer Cinema for Palestine.
Grace Tompkins, an alumnus of Homotopia’s QueerCore development programme, presents Scrambled, a tender and deeply human show about the places people can get lost online – and how we find our way back, coming to the Liverpool Playhouse Studio on Thursday 13 November.
Mr Blackpool’s Seaside Spectacular comes to the Unity Theatre on Friday 14 November. An end-of-the-pier show at the end of the world from Harry Clayton-Wright. Commissioned by long-time festival friend Marlborough Productions and with initial research and development support from Homotopia.
And An Evening with Dross at the Unity Theatre on 15 November. Part lip-sync séance, part high-camp ritual, join the Liverpool drag queen and art-activist for a genre-defying mix of film, physical theatre, spectacle and queer resistance.
Meanwhile If These Walls Could Talk is a Queer Places Heritage Trail which is due to take over Liverpool’s walls, windows and streets throughout the month, revealing hidden stories of queer life in the city. Follow @queerplaces or visit queerplaces.co.uk for the full trail, or join a special walking tour on Saturday 8 November, starting at FACT.
And the four emerging LGBTQIA artists from the city region selected to join the 2025 festival’s QueerCore artist development programme are Willzy, Claire Beerjeraz, HRH Aphrodite and Laura Bee.
Claire Beerjeraz’s interactive art exhibition Rest as Resistance runs from 3 – 28 November at LUSH in Church Street, while HRH Aphrodite is due to present The Fire King – a History of Stephenson’s Rocket in Three Volumes as an hour-long participatory show during the festival.
All four artists will also take part in a Young Homotopia and QueerCore showcase at the Unity Theatre on Wednesday 12 November.
And on Sunday 23 November, the Museum of Liverpool hosts a Sunday Dinner: Scouse Activist Edition, a metaphorical three-course feast of ideas inspired by Split Britches’ Long Table.
Homotopia festival producer Natalie Lloyd says: “After pausing the festival for a year we’re back with a bang for 2025, with a fantastic and varied programme of the boldest voices and best and most brilliant queer art and culture. This year the festival is also hyper local and proudly Scouse.
“Our theme Uprising is about resistance and solidarity in the face of the creeping tide of fascism. It’s about finding power in the small and every day and turning it into something unstoppable, about doing it yourself when no one else will and refusing to shrink, refusing to wait for permission and refusing to apologise.
“It’s a love letter to our community, our peers, the incredible talent embedded into the city’s very being, and the power of coming together and fighting for maginalised communities, right here and right now.”
For full festival details and booking visit www.homotopia.net
FOLLOW HOMOTOPIA
Website: www.homotopia.net
Facebook: /LGBT.festival.liverpool
X: @HomotopiaFest
Instagram: @homotopiafest
TikTok: @homotopiafest
LISTINGS FOR HOMOTOPIA FESTIVAL 2025
Festival Launch Party
Venue: Unity Theatre
Date: Saturday 1 November
Time: 6pm
Trans Performance Exchange
Venue: St Helens Library
Date: Saturday 1 November – Sunday 30 November
Time: during library open hours
Queer Catalogue: A Homotopia Archive Supercut
Venue: Museum of Liverpool
Date: Saturday 1 November – Sunday 30 November
Time: see venue for opening hours
Transcend – 175
Venue: Various locations
Date: Saturday 1 November – Sunday 30 November
Time: see venues for opening hours
Residents
Venue: Open Eye Gallery and various locations
Date: Saturday 1 November – Sunday 30 November. Launch Party Open Eye Gallery Saturday 8 November.
Time: see venues for opening hours. Launch Party 3-5pm.
If These Walls Could Talk
Venue: Various venues
Date: Saturday 1 November – Sunday 30 November
Time: see venues for opening hours
Rest as Resistance
Venue: LUSH
Date: Monday 3 November – Friday 28 November
Time: 1-4pm
Paul Harfleet: Pansy Project Talk and Walking Tour
Venue: FACT
Date: Tuesday 4 November
Time: 9.30am
The World is on Fire, What Now?
Venue: FACT
Date: Tuesday 4 November
Time: 6.30pm
If These Walls Could Talk – Launch Event
Venue: Lovelocks Coffee Shop
Date: Thursday 6 November
Time: 6.30pm
All The Devils
Venue: Everyman Theatre
Date: Friday 7 November
Time: 7.45pm
If These Walls Could Talk – Walking Tour
Venue: meet at FACT
Date: Saturday 8 November
Time: 1pm
Pride is a Trans Led Protest – Launch Event
Venue: St George’s Hall
Date: Saturday 8 November
Time: 6pm
Drag Down the Borders
Venue: District
Date: Sunday 9 November
Time: 7pm
No Pride in Genocide Film Screening
Venue: District
Date: Monday 10 November
Time: 7.30pm
Pride is a Trans Led Protest
Venue: St George’s Hall
Date: Monday 10 November – Sunday 30 November
Time: see venue for opening times
Descendent of a Rebel Dyke
Venue: Royal Standard
Date: Monday 10 November – Sunday 30 November
Time: see venue for opening times
Reel Queer Film Screening
Venue: Everyman Cinema
Date: Tuesday 11 November
Time: 6pm
Young Homotopia and QueerCore Showcase
Venue: Unity Theatre
Date: Wednesday 12 November
Time: 7.30pm
Scrambled
Venue: Liverpool Playhouse Studio
Date: Thursday 13 November
Time: 7.45pm
Mr Blackpool’s Seaside Spectacular
Venue: Unity Theatre
Date: Friday 14 November
Time: 7.30pm
An Evening With Dross
Venue: Unity Theatre
Date: Saturday 15 November
Time: 7.30pm
Transgender Day of Remembrance
Venue: Museum of Liverpool
Date: Sunday 16 November
Time: 1pm
Where Are All the Dykes?
Venue: Royal Standard
Date: Sunday 16 November
Time: 2pm
Highway to Infinity
Venue: FACT
Date: From Monday 17 November
Time: noon
Queer Arts North – Open Forum
Venue: Bluecoat
Date: Tuesday 18 November
Time: 6pm
Extraordinary Acts Cabaret
Venue: Chester Lane Library, St Helens
Date: Wednesday 19 November
Time: 7.30pm
OORYA Album Launch
Venue: Commune
Date: Friday 21 November
Time: 7.30pm
Writers Prize Showcase
Venue: Liverpool Playhouse
Date: Saturday 22 November
Time: 7.45pm
Sunday Dinner: Scouse Activist Edition
Venue: Museum of Liverpool
Date: Sunday 23 November
Time: 1.30pm
Write Funny Stuff Comedy Workshop
Venue: Everyman Writer’s Room
Date: Monday 24 November
Time: 6pm
The Mission is the End, the End is All I Want!
Venue: FACT
Date: Monday 24 November – February 22, 2026
Time: see venue for opening times
Get Your Hands Dirty!
Venue: Bluecoat
Date: Tuesday 25 November
Time: 6pm
Scratch Night
Venue: Unity Theatre
Date: Wednesday 26 November
Time: 7.30pm
Say Funny Stuff in a Funny Way Comedy Workshop
Venue: Everyman Bistro
Date: Thursday 27 November
Time: 6pm
Laugh-a-dil Comedy Night
Venue: Everyman Bistro
Date: Thursday 27 November
Time: 7.30pm
Rebel Dykes Screening and After Party
Venue: 24 Kitchen Street
Date: Friday 28 November
Time: 6pm
Day With(out) Art 2025: Meet Us Where We’re At
Venue: FACT
Date: Sunday 30 November
Time: noon