This November, Outburst, the queer arts festival, will return to Northern Ireland with a new spectacular programme celebrating LGBTQ+ talent. From November 12 to 21, the festival will come to life in Belfast and beyond with a wide range of art and showcases.

Since its first festival in 2007, Outburst has programmed over 1,000 events, and this year will be no different, with an event extravaganza and appreciation for all the artists, writers, and performers who have made this celebration of the arts so special.

Ruth McCarthy, the Artistic Director, has said: “The festival has always centred artists who dare to speak truth to power and who – even more importantly – step beyond what’s fixed to dream better ideas into being.”

This festival features a range of events, including tours, films, and other art forms.

Among these, workshops and discussions will also take place; one is Transgressive Sound, which explores the queer undercurrents of sound by building and listening with contact microphones, hosted by Synthesize_Her on November 21.

Anecdote As Evidence will tour DARKROOMS, the work and archives of Emma Wolf-Haugh, led by Lyónn Wolf on November 15. Touching on Irish queer club culture, Wolf will show exhibited materials, photographs, zines, and more.

A screening of French film Portrait of a Lady on Fire, with an introduction by director Céline Sciamma, is set to take place on November 15. The film captures the beauty of lesbian desire, featuring performances by Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, and Luàna Bajrami.

A documentary about the trans experience and allyship by director Il-rhan Kim, Edhi Alice: Take is a beautiful tale which intertwines the lives of Edhi, an LGBTQ+ counsellor and Alice, an older trans woman in South Korea. The film will be screened on November 18.

For literature lovers, on November 14, there will be a special celebration of queer joy with Sacha Coward’s book As Folklore, which explores dozens of heroes and villains across fantasies, myths, and folklore in queer history.

Similarly, the programme explores how the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and equality is shaped by the categories and classifications we encounter every day with Kevin Guyan, a writer and researcher. This event is a Q&A and will be hosted on November 20.

A lively discussion, mainly focused on care for queer artists and creators, will also be hosted on November 14. It will feature a conversation between Glasgow-based artist Craig Manson; Cypher Press co-founder Jack Thompson; Dayna Ash, a writer, poet, activist and founder of Haven for Artists in Beirut; and Chris Snow, Head of Artist Services at the Edinburgh Fringe Society.

Find the full programme for the 2026 Outburst festival at this link. Tickets are priced as low as possible to make the queer arts experience affordable.