Under the theme "Cruising for Art", this year's Homotopia organizers have put together an energetic and eclectic package of artistic events and performances, including five world premieres and four UK firsts. This year's festival highlights will include Pin Ups, a world premiere exhibition of provocative portraits by Sadie Lee and Matthew Stradling, at The Gallery Liverpool; Savage Style: Costumes From Lily’s Wardrobe, featuring frocks worn by famed British drag comedian Lily Savage, at the Walker Art Gallery; and the world premiere of Cruising, Clubbing, Fucking, a dance/theatre piece exploring the history of gay male hook-ups, at the Unity Theatre.

Also making their Homotopia debut will be two boldly gender-bending performance events, the Alternative Miss Liverpool pageant and Tranny Hotel.

Alternative Miss Liverpool will be held on November 12 at The Kazimier, and is open to all people of all genders. A Pop Up Charm School will be held in the lead-up to the pageant, ensuring that contestants are prepared to compete in such categories as Butch/Femme Realness, Extraordinary Gentleman, Liverpool Spinster, Ladyfag, Queen Of The Nile, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Tranny Hotel, meanwhile, will be a three-day dragstravanganza held over the weekend of November 11 to 13, bringing in transgender artists from all over the globe to perform in a variety of intimate hotel settings. The event moves to Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel following a very successful debut in Cologne, Germany in June.

This year's Homotopia festival comes on the heels of a very successful year for both festival organizers and Liverpool's gay community at large. Homotopia's artistic director Gary Everett curated an acclaimed retrospective of Tom of Finland's work in the artist's hometown of Turku, Finland, as part of that city's European Capital of Culture exhibition (the show opened at the beginning of the year and remains on display until December 18). Then in August, Liverpool's city council voted to officially recognize Stanley Street as the center of the city's gay quarter, and approved further plans to pedestrianize it and commercially develop its surrounding area.