Queer Minds returns for 2026: A festival of ideas celebrating LGBTQ+ voices
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
The festival of ideas for the LGBTQ+ community is back for its fourth year.
Join us on Saturday 5 September 2026 at 21 Soho for a day of powerful conversation, radical thought, and collective imagination.
Following last year’s sold-out event, Queer Minds 2026 brings together leading voices across literature, activism, politics and community work for discussions that confront some of the big questions facing LGBTQ+ lives today.
This year’s programme features Writer and TV and Film creator, Jamie Windust, former The Traitors contestant, Amanda Collier, TV critic, Scott Bryan, award winning authors, Dean Atta and Dylin Hardcastle, as well as the co-founder of the recently closed LGBTQ+ venue CAMP, Jesse du Preez.
The day will explore queer representation, identity, community and belonging, with panels and conversations spanning television, literature, queer venues and the experiences of ageing as a queer person.
It will also be one of the first opportunities to hear from Scott Bryan and Dean Atta about their new books, Out Now and Big Man, which are both published on 3 September.
Queer Minds will be hosted by award-winning author and presenter Ben Pechey.
We are proud to again partner with Gay’s The Word, the oldest queer bookshop in London, who will be stocking books on the day.
Event programme includes:
My TV made me gay
For queer people, television is more than just entertainment. It can be a place to escape, to find ourselves, and identify with characters and stories that make us feel seen.
Writer and TV and Film creator, Jamie Windust, is joined by former The Traitors contestant Amanda Collier, and TV critic and author of Out Now, Scott Bryan, to explore how TV shapes us, and why representation matters.
Big Man: In conversation with Dean Atta
Multi-award-winning poet, screenwriter and author, Dean Atta, who collected a BAFTA earlier this year, speaks to spoken word artist Tstarnay about his debut adult novel, Big Man.
The book explores themes of identity, aging, sex, family, and trauma, turning a lens on what it means to age as a queer person.
Saving community
Beloved bar CAMP, which brought hope to the queer community of Margate, has been forced to close its doors.
CAMP was never just a bar, it was a community hub - closing it meant more than the loss of jobs, it meant the loss of a space for people to be themselves, a shield from everything outside it.
Co-founder, Jesse du Preez, joins us to share their experience of what it takes to operate a queer venue, why they matter, and what needs to change to help them survive.
Read queer
We’re delighted the award-winning author, artist, and screenwriter, Dylin Hardcastle, is over from Australia and is attending Queer Minds for a special reading.
His work has been published to critical acclaim internationally and translated into eight languages, and his most recent novel, A Language of Limbs, was hailed as ‘an instant queer classic’.
Writer, curator and cultural critic Jenny Chamarette will also be joining us to discuss their book, Q is for Garden, alongside their work exploring queer culture and the arts.
Described as a ‘wildly talented’ new queer writer, Joe Conroy, will be reading from his ‘raw, propulsive and hilarious’ debut novel, In Out.
Queer Minds will be hosted by the wonderful, award-winning, author and presenter Ben Pechey.
Date: Saturday 5 September 2026
Location: 21 Soho, 3-5 Sutton Row, London, W1D 4NR
Tickets
For full programme details and to book tickets, visit queerminds.co.uk
Ticket information:
Queer Minds 2026: day festival
Early bird tickets: £10
First release: £12
Second release: £14
Queer Minds Supporter: £18
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