LGBTQ+ Sheffield September: A Welcome to all Students!

It’s September which means we see it getting busy again as the students return, and this month we may need to rename the Steel City the Rainbow City! We’re arriving back to the busiest month of queer events, so hold onto your hats!

First up at Sheffield’s longest-running nightclub and music venue, The Leadmill, we see the much-anticipated return of No Shade (Sat 2 Sep) for their drag bingo extravaganza – the most flamboyant and extravagant game of Bingo in the world! Prepare your bingo daubers, and may the best Queen win. Also taking to the legendary stage this month is Grace Petrie (Sun 10 Sep) with her hilarious new comedy show ‘Butch Ado About Nothing’. Join her as she explores what butch identity means in a world moving beyond labels, and tries to work out where it, and she, belong in the new frontline of queer liberation.

There’s more comedy over at City Hall this month, with Grayson Perry (Thu 28 Sep) also taking a mischievous look at the nature of identity in his new show ‘A Show All About You’, and Suzi Ruffell (Thu 14 Sep) with ‘Snappy’ – a show all about settling down (but not settling), becoming a mother (without becoming mumsy) and still worrying about everything.

Sadly life in the LGBTQ+ community is not all laughs as over the past year we have seen a 41% increase in reported homophobic hate crimes and 56% in transphobic hate crimes. SAYiT will be hosting Break The Hate: Responding to Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate Conference (Mon 4 Sep) at St Mary’s Conference Centre discussing how we can challenge anti-LGBTQ+ hate in all forms going beyond just that which is classified as ‘hate crime’, looking at the mental health impacts of hate, bullying in schools and youth settings, civil discrimination and hate online and in the media. SAYiT will also be co-hosting the Sheffield LGBT+ Multi Agency Network (Wed 6 Sep) with LGBT Sheffield, an online forum for those working with LGBTQ+ people to come together and share information, discuss issues affecting our communities and work together on joint events.

There are a variety of LGBTQ+ social groups and events to get involved in with the newly relaunched Rainbow Minds (Every Wed) a weekly LGBTQ+ social café at the Sheffield Mind Wellbeing Centre and the LGBT+ Over 50s Group (Thu 14 Sep) hosted by Zest at Weston Park Museum. Trans-Active also run a range of sports and active meetups with their regular trans and non-binary swimming (Every Sat) at Heeley Pool alongside a rolling calendar of events including walks, tennis, trampolining, kickboxing and more. If you’d rather exercise your mind, then head to Dempseys and join a team for their Quiz night (Tue 5 Sep) to test your knowledge.

DiversityFest (Sat 23 Sep) finally make their post-Covid return at Old Sharrow Junior School with a line-up of live music, dance and spoken word including Anna Kissed, Treebeard, Nick Robinson, 2 Robyn Gair, Silk & Custard, The Bleeding Obvious and Alice Nicholls And The Dangerous Coats. There’s more live music at Greystones from ROSH and his band playing songs of ecology, mortality and protest with support from queer icon Rhiannon Scutt (Sun 10 Sep), who combines the angst of PJ Harvey with the introspective melancholia of Adrienne Lenker, all while being a monster talent on the guitar.

Over at Sheffield University’s drama studio we have a queer-led production of Night of the Living Dead (Wed 27-Sat 30 Sep). Based on the original film Night of the Living Dead™ this is more than just a recreation of the story, the play is a fun and hilarious re-imagining that celebrates the history and influence of the movie. With styling from Sheffield’s own drag monster King Confuza, this is also guaranteed to be visually brilliant. Also at Sheffield University, Grapefruit (Fri 15 Sep) returns for their freshers welcome special, a vibrant night that celebrates diversity and welcomes all! Bring yourselves, be yourselves and come and get down on the dance floor to let loose and celebrate all things Queer!

And as always we have plenty of drag events throughout the month, with Bipolar Abdul returning for Drag Bingo (Wed 20 Sep) at Hagglers Corner and Drag Bingo does Barbie! (Fri 22 Sep) with Ivy Alexxander and Ladonna Dick. Malin Bridge Inn’s line-up this month features DJ Brook [Sat 2 & Fri 8 Sep], Bella End vs Electric Blue (Sat 23 Sep) and Tanya Minge’s drag bingo (Fri 29 Sep). And last but by no means least, you can find Emma Maezin hosting Dragoke (Every Thursday) at Maggie Mays, Drag Karaoke (Fri 8/Sat 16 Sep) at The Ball Inn and Drag Bingo (Wed 13 Sep) at Revolucion de Cuba.

That’s your lot for this month, make sure to check out the latest event announcements at www.facebook.com/sheffieldlgbtevents.

Until next time, love and sparkles…

Heather

@heatherpaterson

Heather x