After a four-year hiatus, the TRANS-FUSION Arts and Performance Festival is finally back for 2023. Bigger and better than ever before, this year’s festival will span eight days, with 12 fabulous events taking place in six different venues. 

Established in 2013, TRANS-FUSION is a festival that celebrates the awakening of the trans community in Ireland. This year, it will take place from July 1 to 8 with an incredible lineup of events, including comedy, spoken word, music, book readings and family events, all aimed to give visibility to trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming folks in Ireland.

The 2023 edition of the TRANS-FUSION festival will be launched by Irish trans trailblazer Dr Lydia Foy, who fought in courts to become the first trans person in Ireland to have her gender recognised on her birth certificate. She will also open the Gallery, a stunning exhibition on the theme ‘Elated Beauty’ curated by Sinéad Keogh.

Speaking about the exhibition, the curator said: “I was humbled and honoured to be asked to curate the visual arts programme of the celebrated TRANS-FUSION Festival this year. The space that has been created here is one in which people can be themselves with their community, express their art and reach out to others. What is witnessed is an elated beauty, a home, an arena of joy and conversation. A feeling that can’t be touched and a beauty of vision and feeling beyond the realms of this earth. Just like paradise”.

Many of the other events will also be co-hosted by different trans groups and individual members of the community. One of the highlights of the week will undoubtedly be a new addition to the programme, the Trans and Punk Night, which will be co-hosted with the Small Trans Library. 

For a good laugh, visitors can head to the comedy night happening in Outhouse, which will be hosted by trans comic Allie O’Rourke and features MJ Stokes, Vic_Vicky Kelly, Becky Cheadle, and Felix O’Connor. All movie fans can enjoy the unauthorised interrogation, celebration, cancellation, and examination of John Cameron Mitchell’s Cult Classic Hedwig and the Angry Inch, called ‘Hedwig – Why so angry’ hosted by Jenny Maguire. And for the bookworms out there Aoife Martin will host a book reading with the authors Philippa Ryder and Soula Emmanuel.

On July 8, the last night of the festival, the event will put on its most extravagant face with ‘Got to Get It Out of My Head’, an eclectic performance show, showcasing music, poetry, spoken word, comedy, and Ribbons. To cap it off, ‘Breaking the Binary: A Gender Liberating Catwalk Show’, hosted by Rebecca De Havilland will be back after its success in the previous years. So why not come along and hop on the catwalk? 

To get more info on the event you can check out TRANS-FUSION on Twitter.