Liverpool Pride: Our Top Picks
With Liverpool Pride just around the corner, Conal Hughes looks forward to the more alternative live music, contemporary art and film on offer…
This weekend sees Liverpool Pride 2013 get underway in force. For outsiders, it may just amount to a colourful procession through the streets; indeed, Pride’s website terms the festival “a party by the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community”.
Certainly that forms part of the celebrations, but to assume that is all to be had would be to miss a varied programme which includes dips into the worlds of new film, art and music. Here’s our whistle-stop tour…
Saturday 3rd August – Shout It, Live Loud and Proud @ the Lomax
One of Liverpool’s most iconic music venues, the Lomax, will be throwing open its doors to host its very own festival in conjunction with Liverpool Pride. An alternative to the pop and glitter usually associated with Pride music events, Shout It, Loud and Proud offers two stages of rock and acoustic that is sure to appeal to those not tempted by the mass market sound of the festival’s main stage. One act to make sure to see is the Fiona Clayton band, whose Florence Welch-esque sound was described as “electro-synch-folk” by Radio 1 when they preformed on the BBC Introducing Stage at 2011′s Big Weekend.
Saturday 3rd August – Gaze in Liverpool @ Fallout Factory
Providing a bit of a cultural oasis from the craziness of the main march is this exhibition exploring modern sexuality and LGBT identity through art. The aim is to provide a visual dialogue for the city’s gay community to think about what is means to be LGBT today. This fringe event has been put together by Surface, a North West-based artist group and will in open from 12.30-6.30pm on Saturday. Thought-provoking and definitely worth a visit.
Thursday 15th August – I Want Your Love @ FACT
You know when a film gets banned from a film festival that it must be worth a look. The failure to shy away from the use of graphic sex caused quite a stir when the Australian Film Classification Board categorized Travis Mathews’ I Want Your Love as porn. The plot focuses on Jesse, a performing artist who isn’t making a living through his art and has to move away from hip San Francisco back in with his parents in rural Ohio. Refreshingly void of any bullying or any “I don’t know what I am” clichés that LGBT films are usually plagued with; however, just to reiterate, there is some proper full-on sex. Let’s just say it wasn’t to The Guardian’s taste.
Thursday 29th August – Any Day Now @ FACT
Starring Alan Cumming and Garrett Dillahunt (main image), this exclusive preview tells the tale of a Los Angeles gay couple – a drag queen and a lawyer – who take in a Down’s syndrome child after his junkie mother ups and leaves. Their happy family is soon sent into turmoil after they have to fight for custody. Set in 1979, not so coincidentally the same year as Kramer vs. Kramer, we see the struggles of a gay couple at a time when homophobic discrimination was something to be expected from the judicial system. Within the context of the recent Supreme Court reversal of the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), this film has received tonnes of support and earned a number of Audience Choice awards from film festivals across the States.
Conal Hughes
For more info and listings, visit the Liverpool Pride website
