In 2006 the first Queer
Festival took place in Copenhagen and this year we do it for the 3. time. For a
week artists, musicians, DJs, performers, social and political activists, drag
kings, drag queens, and gender benders from many countries will get together and
create an alternative to heteronormative culture, politics, and spaces.
During the week we will
start up activities, culminating with a day and night program during the
weekend.
The festival is for anyone
who takes interest in criticizing and transgressing the prevalent norms
governing gender roles and sexual identity. So the festival is a space not only
for familiar minorities such as gay men, lesbians, and transsexuals, but
everyone who dislikes the rigid division into sexual identities and the
categories man and woman.
There is no fee for
participating. For our guests from outside Copenhagen we provide a place to
sleep at the festival venue and food to eat (free or inexpensive) for all
activists. We hope to create a real community in the spirit of DIY (do-it-yourself)
principles where everybody is both guests and activists.
At the Queer Festival we
believe in DIY as an organizing principle. Everybody lends a hand. We will hang
posters in the café where you can sign up for a couple of hours in the kitchen,
the café, cleaning etc.
Furthermore we will have a
brief daily meeting at 11.30 (after breakfast) where we coordinate the tasks of
the day.
The queer festival wants to create a
space where we can/will unfold and explore queer culture, politics and
activism.
The main principles of the festival
is DIY (do-it-yourself) and
non-profit. This means that
everybody are actively responsible to the festival and are expected to
participate in an active manner.
No one will be excluded from activities on the festival because of lack of
money. Everybody contributes as
they can - practically as well as economically.
The queer festival is a festival for
everybody with a queer perspective -
regardless of gender or sexuality.
With the festival we want to
challenge and make an alternative to the heteronormative culture, politics
and space. We don't want to conform into a heteronormative and sexist
society. Instead we want to empathize on gender and sexuality as social
constructions that can be challenged and altered.
On the festival
respectful behavior will be a
keyword, and no forms of racism, heterosexism or sexism will be accepted nor
tolerated.