| Queerupnorth | - The festival runs from Sunday 7 to Sunday 28 May
- Venues include Library Theatre, Contact, the Green Room, the Royal Exchange Studio and the RNCM
- Prices vary - for more details, check the festival website
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Featuring a staggering array of queer stars, be them local, national or, in some cases, international, the festival has highlights a-plenty and something for every taste. Heads will undoubtedly turn to the arrival of Kiki & Herb, a washed up, boozed up chanteuse and her piano battering, life-long accompanist who鈥檝e been entertaining audiences across the globe and stop in for two nights on their way from the Sydney Opera House to Broadway!
 | | Armistead Maupin (pic: Annie Leibovitz) |
Equally notable, though at the other end of the entertainment scale, is Armistead Maupin. The writer of Tales From The City is the world鈥檚 most successful gay author and makes a one-off UK appearance. The novelist is the central point of the Big Gay Read Literature Festival, the first national event of its kind in the UK, but by no means the only attraction, as Jackie Kay, Stella Duffy, Jake Arnott and Patrick Gale will all be reading and discussing their work around the city. The choice is almost endless. Theatre-wise, the brilliant Quarantine, the company responsible for last year鈥檚 Grace, present Susan & Darren, the story of a partying mother and son, at the Contact, while former child star David Page tells the story of his somewhat turbulent life at the Library Theatre.
 | | Kathe Izzo |
The inspirational artist Kathe Izzo is bringing her Love Shack project to life at the Contact using the contributions of people who come to see her. It鈥檚 an investigation of love and home from the artist that has been on a one-woman mission to teach the world to love. Jackie Kay pops up again in a show with the angelic-voiced David McAlmont at Matt and Phreds. An excellent combination of jazz, blues and spoken word, the pair will be undoubtedly impressive, and it also works as a precursor to Kay鈥檚 play Trumpet, which closes the festival at the Contact.
 | | David McAlmont (pic: Robert Taylor) |
Elsewhere, you can find edgy and languid dance at the Lowry, explorations of Asian homosexuality in Sackville Park, performance art on depression in a room at Malmaison, slam poetry and the unstoppable Chloe Poems at the Green Room, and an exhibition of pansies at the Art Gallery! As smorgasbords of entertainment go, you don鈥檛 get many more diverse or impressive, and it all ends on May Bank Holiday weekend, so you鈥檒l have an extra day to recover! What better excuse do you need to come out and enjoy it? |
