OUTBURST QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL
Nov. 14th-22nd 2014 SUBMISSION DETAILS
Thanks for your interest in Outburst. We are open for business. Show business. Over the last eight years, OUTBURST has grown from a small community event to a dynamic celebration of local and international queer Arts, culture, visibility and ideas. OUTBURST aims to entertain and inspire a diverse audience, while raising awareness of LGBTQ stories and issues in Northern Ireland through performance, screenings, talks, workshops, visual art and much more. It’s probably a little bit on the more fabulous side of how that sounds. As a curated festival that loves sharing new ideas and new ways of telling our stories, we are as passionate about facilitating a creative space for developing queer voices as we are about bringing you brilliant professional and international touring work. We are particularly excited about work that says something new or explores new or previously unexplored territory for queer audiences. OUTBURST is a festival for everyone. And we can’t wait to hear your ideas.
WHAT WE PROGRAMME OUTBURST programmes work that fits one or more of the following criteria: 1. Has a lesbian, gay, bi, trans or queer theme 2. Is by an LGBT or queer identified writer/producer/performer 3. Is of particular interest to people who are LGBTQ. To keep the festival fresh for audiences, we give priority to artists and work that haven’t be seen in Northern Ireland before and that will not be available to see or experience elsewhere here throughout the year. Please let us know if you have plans for other Irish dates this year.
We do welcome new work or new ideas from returning artists. We aim to balance the programme across all genres, platforms, age groups and audiences. From avant-garde theatre performance to interactive kids’ entertainment, we try to have something in there for everyone. No matter what the tone or who the targeted audience is though, we want events to be a different, challenging, fresh experience. OUTBURST favours the surprising, the new and the wonderfully queer. We particularly welcome work that shows an understanding of specifically Northern Irish queer experiences in all their complexity and diversity. We want people to engage and have opportunities to learn from each other through OUTBURST, so we always love to hear from groups and artists who can provide engaging workshops or interactive opportunities as part of their submissions.
HOW TO SUBMIT WORK AND EVENT IDEAS The final date for accepting submissions is May 31st 2014. Ideally though, we would like to see your submissions as soon as possible for funding purposes, so please don’t leave it ‘til the last minute if you can! That helps us a lot with planning. Thanks. Please email the following information to submissions@outburstarts.com or pop it in the post to SUBMISSIONS 2014, OUTBURST Queer Arts Festival, 1st Floor, 18-22 Hill Street, BELFAST BT1 2LA, Northern Ireland. 1. Contact name, address, phone number, email address and Skype details (if available) 2. An outline of your proposed event (no more than 300 words.) 3. A full budget breakdown of your proposed event costs, including info on any funding you have already secured or applied for. Please include costings for (a) performance fees (b) accommodation, travel, transportation (c) tech (d) any other essential costs 4. Details of any productions, screenings or performances of your proposed event to date, including any reviews, audience feedback etc. Please don’t forget to let us know if you are planning other tour dates before or around Outburst.
5. Additional support materials such as your website, social networks or other digital links. Any scripts, images, books, screeners or videos relating to your event are also very helpful to us in building up a full picture of your proposal. 6. Details of artists, performers, writers etc. involved in the event, including all relevant CVs. A group or company CV is fine where more appropriate. 7. A short paragraph on why your event is particularly relevant to LGBTQ people and our wider audiences in Northern Ireland.
NOTE FOR NEW AND EMERGING ARTISTS If you are not a professional artist, company or group and so don’t have a lot of backup materials, you can send us what’s relevant to you in relation to the submission list above. We understand that new or emerging artists and groups may need additional support or development time once ideas have been submitted. OUTBURST is happy to facilitate this developmental way of working if there is potential for your idea in the programme. We’ll arrange a chat to see how we can best support you. If you are part of an LGBTQ group or a non-LGBTQ group, organisation or body that would like to take part in or support the festival, we’d be delighted to hear from you. We are happy to discuss or suggest event ideas or tie-ins that may support your work or aims.
PLEASE NOTE All programming is subject to funding. It’s not always possible to enter into detailed discussions about each submission but we will always do our best to answer any queries. (email: submission@outburstarts.com) Because of large volume of submissions we now get for Outburst and the fact that we’re a very small festival team, we will generally only get in touch or enter into discussions if we feel your work is the right fit for this year’s programme. Sorry about that. We’d love to include so much more that we get offered but, if it isn’t a fit this time, we’re happy to look at your idea again. We are also happy to offer feedback on proposals at your request but please be patient and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. Love from OUTBURST x