5 LGBTQ Festivals to Catch Before Year's End

Pride-type weekends are generally held in June or are summertime events.

But just because the weather’s taken a cold turn and we’ve said goodbye to Daylight Savings Time doesn’t mean we have to stay at home each weekend through the holidays.

Here’s a look at five fun queer festivals that deserve a visit before the year’s over, from film festivals to the arts to plain old celebrations of our rich and varied community:

November 9-18: Outburst Queer Arts Festival, Belfast

The Outburst Queer Arts Festival celebrates queer art and performance in Belfast, Northern Ireland each fall. The 10-day event showcases both local and international talent, and the organizers encourage submissions of art that are “bold, challenging, accessible and brilliant.”

There are a variety of paid and free events, including some special features such as Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World and Campbell X: Desire. The event is wheelchair accessible and provides gender-neutral toilets.

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November 13-25: GFEST, London

“All arts, all welcome” is the inclusive tagline of the Gaywise FESTival in London, which includes films, performances, debates and a visual arts exhibition. The 10th-anniversary edition of the festival is running with the theme of “Arts Protest” and includes incredible art from both established names, as well as fresh, young queer artists.

November 23-December 3: image+nation/LGBTQueer Film Festival Montreal

Montreal’s annual gay film festival bills itself as Canada’s first queer event of its type and as [r]evolutionary.

Celebrating its 30th year this month, image+nation features such submitted films as The Wound (from South Africa) and the Francis Lee-directed God’s Own Country. Juried awards are given to a feature film, a documentary, short film and a special jury-selected film. Audience awards are given to feature, documentary and short films.

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November 25: Hong Kong Pride Parade

Hong Kong, which was recently awarded the 2022 Gay Games, will surely be bursting with pride for its annual celebratory parade on Saturday, November 25.

The annual event began in 2004 and promotes equal rights for the LGBT community, with the thinking that what happens on the busiest streets of the city is the best sort of public education. The parade kicks off at 2 p.m. and makes its way from Causeway Bay (Victoria Park) to Edinburgh Place, where there will be performance spaces and exhibit booths. The 2017 theme is “Turn the tide; walk with pride. Discrimination says goodbye.”

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December 31: Key West New Year’s Eve

What queerer way could you ring out the old year than at the southernmost tip of the continental U.S.? In this extremely LGBTQ-friendly city, the New Year’s begins not with a ball drop (that’s so New York), but with The Key West Red High Heel Shoe Drop, an event that gets more play each year on mainstream TV channels.

Local drag queen Sushi rides the show down from the top of the New Orleans house as the midnight hour strikes. And even if you head down early, the Key West Holiday Fest will be running with myriad things to do from November 22-December 31.