Chester's LGBTQIA+ Community Celebrated in New Weekend Festival STORYHOUSE QUEER

A new festival which puts Chester's LGBTQIA+ community centre stage is coming to Storyhouse next month.

Storyhouse Queer takes place at the Hunter Street venue from 24-26 February as part of LGBT+ History Month.

The bespoke festival, in partnership with Chester Pride and co-curated with members of the community, has been organised in response to demand from groups and individuals in the city and beyond and will feature three days of events including film, theatre and workshops.

Storyhouse Queer opens on Friday, 24 February with headliners Ginny Lemon and Sister Sister.

The breakout stars from season two of RuPaul's Drag Race are trying to bring you the most disappointing drag show you've ever seen!

A Feeling Fabulous Dance Workshop, taking place in the Garret Theatre, will give you the chance to pose and work the catwalk like a supermodel with Ghetto Fabulous to some classic anthems.

And it will be followed by a special Family Catwalk Extravaganza

Get your gladrags on and join in the celebration of self-expression. Four fabulous dancers go head-to-head in a dance, fashion and lip sync competition with the audience deciding on the winner. Dress in your finest outfit, learn the moves, then take to the floor.

The festival continues in the Garret Theatre on Saturday, 25 February with Breathe Academy designed for ages 12 - 25.

Described by The Times as a 'one-person music festival', international beatboxing star and theatre-maker SK Shlomo will teach participants how to explore their own story using some of the breathtaking music technology and performance skills on show in their award-winning solo show Breathe.

Meanwhile why not drop in to a Patch Workshop in the Kitchen where you can join members of Radiate Arts CIC who will teach you some simple embroidery and help you create a special patch representing your own identity and links to queer culture.

And Chester Pride is running an Active Bystander workshop in the Storyhouse Meeting Room, teaching people how to intervene safely and effectively if they witness a hate crime, harassment, verbal or physical assault.

Meanwhile on the Main Stage at 3pm Chester LGBT+ choir Proud Mary's led by talented Chester based musical director Matt Baker.

And Saturday night closes with award-winning new solo show Breathe, a rollercoaster love-letter to the lifesaving power of beats, bass & breathing.

Then on Sunday, 26 February there's a chance to Be a Better Ally. The session in the Garret Theatre will be run by Chester Pride and will give practical tips and information on how to offer your support to vulnerable people and communities.

It will be followed in the Garret space by Banner Making with Manchester-based textile artist and researcher Sarah-Joy Ford, giving people the chance to share their own story or a memory, protest or idea through creating a mini-textile banner which can then be hung on a dowling rod - ready to be marched with or displayed at home. All materials will be provided.

The weekend programme also includes three films being screened in the Storyhouse Cinema.

Award-winning Blue Jean, being shown from 24 February, stars Rosy McEwan, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday and Lydia Page and is set in 1988 as Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government is about to pass Section 28, prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality and stigmatising the lesbian and gay community.

A screening at 6pm on February 25 will be followed by a Q&A with producer Hélène Sifre and Sarah L Squires, Principal Lecturer in Physical Education at Leeds Beckett University.

Joyland, screened on 24 and 26 February, was the first Pakistani feature to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize. It centres around Lahore's Rana family, where married youngest son Haider embarks on a secret summer romance which has a seismic effect on both him and his family.

And on 26 February there will also be a showing of Hedda (After Ibsen), a cinematic theatrical reimagining of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. The film will be followed by a LIVE Q&A with its star, Queer icon David Hoyle interviewed by director Jen Heyes.

Storyhouse communities manager George West says: "This is the first Storyhouse Queer but the plan is to make this an annual festival and for it to be a week-long event.

"What we've aimed to do this time is to have a real variety of work, so hopefully everyone will find something which will appeal to either try for the first time, or go to something they're familiar with, or they feel represents them.

"What we'd really like then is for people to come to this festival and tell us what else they'd want to see at the next one, give us more ideas, and tell us how they personally want to get involved, if they do."