A QUEER arts festival is returning to Worcester to mark LGBTQ+ history month.

Loud & Queer Arts Festival 2020 has been launched and will run between February 27 and February 29 at four different venues across the city.

The festival is a continuation of last year’s Out In The Shires Arts Festival. It has received another grant from the Arts Council England for £15,000 which has enabled the organisers to build on last year’s success.

Nicole Roman, co-artistic director at Provisional Act Theatre Company, said: “We want to celebrate queer art and give the opportunity to non-urban audiences to see really high quality acts they wouldn’t normally see outside of a bigger city. We want to show that Worcester can be on the map for queer arts and drag and also show the need to invest in non-urban audiences.

“It feels really important to us to bring another queer event of high quality to Worcester audiences especially during LGBTQ+ history month.”

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She added: “We want to showcase the immense talent coming from the queer community and so we have a lot of emerging artists as well performing alongside really big names.

“All this is made possible by the Arts Council England and the amazing community that supports these events.”

There will be a dance evening and a theatre event at the Swan Studio with renowned queer artists from across the country. This will take place on February 27 and February 28. A queer workshop will be introduced at the Hive on the afternoon of February 28.

On February 29 a drag night extravaganza hosted with featured guests like Ginny Lemon and Adam All will take place at Velvet Lounge.

Provisional Act Theatre Company has been producing art event for the past four years with the last two years running being queer focused events.

Miss Roman, from Worcester, added: “We also rely on our close collaboration with the Swan Theatre and other local businesses for spaces, design and print.”

Queer is an umbrella term used to incorporate all of the LGBTQ+ community.