Glasgay! Festival
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glasgay! Festival is a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender arts festival in Glasgow, Scotland.
As part of the diversity of Glasgow's cultural scene, Glasgow hosts an annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Arts Festival in November, organised by GALA Scotland Ltd.
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[edit] History
First held in 1993, Glasgay! is now well and truly into its second decade and has expanded to 30 days in 2005 and is now the UK's largest multi-arts festival for LGBT people (and their friends), celebrating the talent and diversity of the Scottish LGBT community (and way beyond) the festival also provides a platform for aspiring artists.
The last two years have each broken previous records, and you can get the idea of the eclectic programme from some of the titles of 2004's shows, including Deep Rimming in Poplar, Balletstar Galactica and Die, Mommie, Die followed by hits in 2005 such as The Citizens' Theatre in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and Royal National Theatre in Alan Bennett's "The History Boys".
The festival attracts up to 25,000 people from all over the world. It features over 100 performances, up to 30 films and four months of visual arts at its base the Q! Gallery and the Stud!o.
Every October/November the festival presents a professional programme of top acts and new artists from around the world with events spanning comedy, music, film, theatre, visual art, performance art, literature, club nights, education events, community arts projects.
The programme is balance of high-profile visits from international artists from around the world and established and emergent artists from across the UK. The events take place at venues across Glasgow.
Over the last three years the festival has grown to be the largest multi-artform festival of its kind in the UK. Since 2002 the audience has quadrupled and we welcomed just over 24,101 visitors in 2005.
Under Producer, Steven Thomson's management the festival in 2004 and 2005 saw press coverage results grow to over 46,000 sqcm and box office income triple. Glasgay events garner hundreds of very positive reviews and features with a continued strong interest from international gay periodicals and travel magazines.
[edit] Main Events
The Glasgay! Festival includes theatre, visual art, music, dance, comedy, film, clubs, and literature, covering a variety of venues.
Highlights from the 2005 festival included music from Marc Almond, comedy from Pam Ann and Topping & Butch and readings from Chloe Poems and Queer Stories, launching a year of storytelling with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Scotland.
[edit] Main Venues
Venues include the Glasgow Film Theatre, the CCA, The Tron and Citizen's Theatre, and Glasgow's gay scene.
Glasgay! organisers also run the Q! Gallery, a new queer gallery in the Glasgow's arts quarter in the Merchant City. A new Stud!o performance area should open in 2006.
