Queer Up North

Since its inception in 1992, queerupnorth has been redefining queer culture. Challenging stereotypical notions of ‘queer’, the festival has embraced every conceivable artform from hip hop to puppetry and everything in between, pushing at the frontiers of creativity and sexuality. 

The festival has brought dozens of major international artists to Manchester, and helped establish the North West as a major hub of queer and alternative culture.

For further information please go to queerupnorth.com

The History of queerupnorth

queerupnorth began life as 'It's Queer Up North' in 1992, when it was founded by two of the staff at Manchester's Green Room, Tanja Farman and Gavin Barlow. The name, a play on the well known phrase 'it's grim up north', was an idea borrowed from 'Flesh', a gay club night held at Manchester's famous Hacienda club. In 1998 the first word was dropped from the organisation's title making it simply queerupnorth. The idea was to provide a platform for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender art, including drama, cabaret, club nights, comedy, film, fine art and performance art. In 1992 it was not conceived of either as a festival or a sustainable event, but was rather one small element of that year's Manchester Festival. When it did prove possible to have another season in 1993, it was branded as 'The National Festival of Lesbian and Gay Arts 1993'.

The format of the queerupnorth's programming has changed from year to year. From 1992-1994 there was a concentrated season, or festival, of work but between 1995-2000 there were festivals presented only in 1996, 1998 and 2000. There were, however, a handful of queerupnorth events presented in 1995 and 1997. There were little or no events explicitly connected with queerupnorth either in 1999 or 2001. In 2002 however, the format of queerupnorth's programming changed again and between 2002-2005 individual events and small seasons of work were presented throughout the year. In 2005 queerupnorth returned to an annual festival format where it remained in 2006 and 2007. By 2005 queerupnorth had become Europe's biggest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender arts festival.

(information taken from Manchester Archives and Local Studies office record for queerupnorth and from Live Art archives, Bristol University)