Generations of Love: A Queer Up North Panel Event

How can we build community through culture, and why was that so important for us – then and now? How important is intergenerational connection and passing on the ‘knowledge’? What was Queer Up North building on?

The discussion will also consider how we can maintain a space for transgressive, experimental work and radical queer practice in an increasingly commercial world.

The panel will raise the following provocations:

Provocation 1: What was QUN building on and what did it build?

Provocation 2: How can we build community through culture (or culture through community?) in 2026? What can we learn from QUN?

Provocation 3: How can we maintain radical queer practice in an increasingly commercial world?

🎟️ Book your free tickets HERE 🎟️

Meet the Panel

John E McGrath – Moderator

John is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Factory International where he has has commissioned some of the most ambitious new work seen in the UK for the company’s venue Aviva Studios. For Factory International, John also curated four editions of Manchester International Festival, featuring new work by an international range of artists including Yoko Ono, Philip Glass, Skepta, Ibrahim Mahama, Tania Bruguera and many more.

Prior to this role, John was the founding Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales. He has also led Manchester’s Contact Theatre, and was Associate Director at Mabou Mines in New York. He has a PhD in cultural theory from New York University.

Gavin Barlow – Panellist

Gavin was co-founder of the Queer Up North festival in 1992, remaining as co-Director of the festival with Tanja Farman until 1998. He subsequently became Executive Director of Contact Manchester, and Chief Executive & Artistic Director of the Albany in Deptford, South East London. He was Director of We are Lewisham, the Mayor of London’s Borough of Culture 2022, and, as of 2026, he is Co-Director/founder of Future Arts Centres, a network of more than 180 venues across the UK.

Dr Phoebe Patey-Ferguson

Dr Phoebe Patey-Ferguson specialises in the social contexts of contemporary performance, focusing on queer and trans practices in festivals, nightlife and Live Art. Their work considers how countercultural practices by marginalised artists generate community, resist assimilationist narratives and embrace radical methodologies. As a lecturer and Programme Director of MA Queer Performance at Rose Bruford College, they are dedicated to developing queer pedagogical approaches to studying and creating performance. Phoebe co-convenes the Queer Futures Working Group of the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR), is the co-research lead for The Night Club: an international queer performance research network, and is co-chair of the board for Duckie.

Claud Cunningham

Claud Cunningham is an artist, performer and cultural organiser whose work is rooted in queer community, culture and the creation of radical spaces. They are a co-founder of Black Angel, the pioneering Manchester club night that created an important space for Black LGBTQ+ people and helped shape the city’s queer cultural landscape.

Claud’s practice and experience reflect a longstanding commitment to building community through performance, nightlife and cultural organising. Their work speaks to the power of queer spaces as places of connection, visibility, experimentation and resistance.

This event was made possible thanks to generous funding and support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Granada Foundation.

Thanks to National Lottery players.