A NEW rural-based festival will bring queer arts to the city.

Worcester is hosting a five-day project ‘Out in the Shires,’ which will be the only queer arts festival in the UK involving the rural community.

Provisional Act Theatre Company has organised the event in association with Worcestershire Pride, and it will run from September 18 to September 22.

It will bring together theatre, fine art, poetry, film, live art and workshops created by non-urban LGBT+ artists from rural communities, with the aim to help diversify the cultural landscape of Worcester.

Matthew Jenkins, Worcestershire County Councillor for St. Stephen’s, has supported the project.

He said: “There is a need for a platform of emerging artists that come from the local community and who represent diversity.”

The queer arts festival will enable rural based artists to show their work, while offering new perspectives to art lovers and theatre goers in the city.

Those attending the festival have been promised thought-provoking work that pushes boundaries and initiates dialogue between LGBT+ artists and Worcester’s wider community.

Dr Daniel Somerville, lecturer in drama and performance at Worcester University and also Worcestershire Pride’s artistic director, added: “I come across a lot of University of Worcester alumni and other artists making queer-related work which is not easy to get programmed in mainstream festivals and art centres, so ‘Out in the Shires’ is a great platform for them and positions Worcester, uniquely, as a centre for rural queer art.

"This builds nicely on the success of last year’s Worcestershire Pride Festival and Arts and Culture and it’s great to see Provisional Act taking it to the next level.”

The festival will be hosted and supported by The Hive, Worcester Arts Workshop, Movement Gallery, Heroes Bar, Velvet Night Club, Paradiddles Café Music Bar and the Quay which are all located in the heart of the city of Worcester.

The project is funded and supported by Arts Council of England and Worcestershire County Council.

Anyone looking for more information or wishing to attend can visit: oitsartsfestival.weebly.com