Queer Arts Festival Celebrates 15 Years Of World-Class Arts & Queer Solidarity

Queer Arts Festival (QAF) turns 15 years old with QAF 2022: Hauntings, a playful and profound exploration of Queer existence throughout time and place.

Pushing Boundaries And Initiating Dialogue

Established in 2008, QAF is an annual artist-run transdisciplinary arts festival traditionally held at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. In recent years, QAF has grown, and so has its venue base. Long-time sponsor Modo has contributed to this growth by providing QAF staff the support they need to move from venue to venue and event to event. This year, Queer Arts Festival events are taking place not only at the Roundhouse Community Centre but also at the Sun Wah Centre in Chinatown, the James Black Gallery and Granville Island. Fifteen years later, QAF is not only a festival but also a strong community of queer artists who keep favouring challenging, thought-provoking art.

What Haunts You?

From June 18 to July 8, 2022, QAF’s dynamic suite of visual art, performance, music and literary events explores the theme of hauntings, asking audiences: “What haunts you?”

For Queer communities, fear, insecurity and longing have punctuated collective existence for decades. Queers everywhere exist with the haunting reminder of what colonial culture attempted to erase and an ephemeral suggestion of what future lays in wait. As with the generations that came before, this foreboding emphasizes the need for more celebrations, more art, and more community—this year, QAF doubles down on all three.

QAF 2022 welcomes visiting artists for the first time since 2019 and reignites its longstanding relationship with Roundhouse Community Centre for exciting performances such as Bijuriya, the experimental drag persona of Montreal’s Gabriel Dharmoo, and Catalina La O Presenta: Now With Me, a solo show created by performance duo JK JK and winner of the 2020 Vancouver Fringe New Play Prize in its live theatre debut! QAF also continues with its annual curated film & literary nights—in keeping with this year’s hauntings theme, media nights return with Reel Eerie, an exciting selection of Queer horror shorts! To view the festival’s full list of events, visit www.queerartsfestival.com.

Support QAF

To commemorate 15 years, QAF has launched its first-ever matching fundraising campaign! Reflecting on how far they’ve come over the last 15 years and excitedly looking forward to the next 15 years, QAF is calling the community to help them shake and shimmy their way to a $30,000 fundraising goal. During QAF 2022, all audience and crowd donations up to $15,000 will be matched by a group of loyal, long-time supporters who have graciously committed $15,000 in matching funds. The QAF team is counting on you! Visit www.queerartsfestival.com/15Matching to find out more, or watch the video below!