Exhibitions, talks, new writing and film will explore the festival’s influence on queer culture...
The history of Manchester’s influential Queer Up North festival is being preserved through a new digital archive and a programme of exhibitions, talks, screenings and performances.
Produced with Manchester Histories, the heritage project explores the festival’s first decade, from 1992 to 2002, and has been supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Granada Foundation.
Queer Up North ran across Manchester’s theatres, galleries, clubs and streets between 1992 and 2010, bringing together live performance, theatre, club culture, film, visual art and discussion.
Emerging during a transformative period for Manchester’s music, fashion and nightlife, the festival provided a platform for LGBTQ+ artists and underrepresented voices, becoming part of the city’s wider cultural renaissance.
Founders Tanja Farman and Gavin Barlow have spent the past two years gathering archival material and recording oral histories, with many of the festival’s previously untold stories now being shared publicly for the first time.
Artist Conor Collins has created a new exhibition, To See and Be Seen, in response to the archive. Combining painting, photography and historical material, it explores identity, visibility and remembrance, while focusing on the artists and organisers behind the festival.
The exhibition is showing in HOME’s Granada Foundation Galleries until Friday 30 October 2026.
Two panel discussions will also take place at Manchester Central Library in September. Factory International Artistic Director and Chief Executive John McGrath will moderate Generations of Love on Thursday 24 September, followed by Causing Trouble, moderated by Red Ladder Theatre Artistic Director Cheryl Martin, on Tuesday 29 September.
The discussions will consider the festival’s history through a contemporary perspective and examine how its experiences, challenges and achievements might inform the future of queer culture.
Contact will host Queered Up Now on Wednesday 30 September, featuring new commissions by Manchester-based writers Louis Glazzard, Ella Otomewo and Okechukwu Nzelu.
Each writer has created an original work inspired by Queer Up North’s first decade, with readings followed by a live discussion. Tickets are expected to be released at the end of July.
A free digital archive will launch on Friday 2 October, providing public access to original posters, flyers, postcards, programmes, photography and press coverage.
It will also offer a look behind the scenes through letters, faxes, press releases, mission statements and site plans created during the festival’s early years.
Curated by Farman and Barlow alongside project manager Abigail Ward, the archive is intended for former festival audiences, artists, researchers, students and those interested in Manchester’s LGBTQ+ history.
The original materials are held at Manchester Central Library, where a preview exhibition will remain on display until the end of 2026.
The archive launch will coincide with the premiere of Brett Chapman’s new film, It’s Queer Up North: Saving the Show, at HOME on Friday 2 October.
Featuring archive footage and conversations with people involved in the festival, the film documents Queer Up North’s role in Manchester’s cultural history.
The premiere will be followed by a screening of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which was previewed at Queer Up North in 1994, and a party with former Flesh resident DJ Kath McDermott.
Queer Up North began after Farman and Barlow met while working at experimental Manchester arts venue the Green Room in the late 1980s.
A small collection of queer-focused events presented during the Manchester Festival in 1992 and 1993 developed into an international festival attracting artists and audiences from around the world. By 1996, it had reached an audience of 40,000.
Originally named It’s Queer Up North, the title reclaimed the phrase ‘it’s grim up north’ and was inspired by a banner displayed at Flesh, the Haçienda’s LGBTQ+ club night. Its name was shortened to Queer Up North in 1998.
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