A queer community group have expressed their excitement to be part of Liverpool’s Eurovision “legacy”.
As part of the EuroFestival - a two-week culture festival that will take over Liverpool - the city is hosting EuroCamp, which will see everything from drag queen gigs and catwalk extravaganzas to spoken word and dance performances aimed at the LGBTQ+ community.
Organisers say the events promise to deliver something "that’s never been seen before", all while celebrating everything Eurovision and everything queer.
READ MORE: Behind the scenes of the world's biggest Eurovision community, Wiwibloggs
EuroCamp will be taking over Chavasse Park in Liverpool ONE for a three-day festival. Happening from Monday, May 8 to Wednesday, May 10, the events will be free to attend and will take place between 1pm and 9pm daily.
The three-day “queer fantasia” experience kicks off on bank holiday Monday, with Black Gold Arts - who say they are the UK’s only queer, trans, bisexual, intersex and people of colour performance group.
The group, which consists of queer artists and allies from African, Caribbean, Asian and indigenous communities, will entertain guests by serving up “bands, DJs, high-fashion avant-garde strollers, and dance routines”.
Darren Prichard, the group’s co-artistic director, told the ECHO: “Black Gold Arts was formed as a need to express ourselves in outside spaces and reclaim those spaces all while being highly visible. We started off concentrating on theatre but we have moved outside to be more visible.
“The whole reason we were set up was to make the unheard, heard and make the invisible, visible. We work within a minority of a minority within the LGBTQ community. We have the intersectionality of black performers but who would be black and trans and black and non-binary.
“So there are racial and sexual issues they will face and it is vastly important we are there to represent and to show people that we're not going to be beaten down, that you may try and come for us but we will always stand back up. Our art is our politics and representation does matter and inspire.
“For us, Eurovision is a European cultural institution and we've not got many shared institutions like Eurovision, it's totally unique. It's seminal for us because we never know when we're going to get it again, it's part of history and we're going to be part of the Eurovision legacy of Liverpool. We're really stoked and excited about that.”
Black Gold Arts will be delivering over 50 artists to watch on the day including the likes of actor Ricky Beadle-Blair MBE and Scouse DJ Jade.
Darren said: “We are going to be leading with love instead of hate. Like the hippies in the 60s who handed out flowers for peace, we are going to be heading out heart balloons for love. So hopefully we have a sea of red balloons at the festival which is about floating love and transcendence.
“We're ready to show how fierce and beautiful and wonderous our communities can be when they are given the space. We’re also really excited about bringing this to Liverpool because the people of Liverpool are a very distinctly unique set of people on the UK landscape.”
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