THE HERALD
NEWS 3RD FEBRUARY 2019
Two decades of
Glasgay! How the
legendary festival
helped shape LGBT
Scotland
It was a ground-breaking event that broke the
mould for how LGBT people across
Scotlandwere viewed and treated.
Now more than 25 years since it launched, the
Glasgay! Festival may no longer exist, but its
legacy remains.
Launched just 12 years after homosexuality
was decriminalised in Scotland, Glasgay was
the first of its kind and gave mainly lesbian
and gay artists a much-needed platform to
showcase their talents.
Cordelia Ditton, co-founder of Glasgay!,
explained: “It was kind of bonkers – so
outlandish.
“One of the articles I remember reading
literally talked about ‘the twilight world of the
homosexual’. I thought ‘you cannot have a
paper like this, talking about gay people like
that'.
“Due to Section 28 [brought in 1988] a lot of
people were very politicised about lesbian and
gay rights and how we were seen.
“When I moved to Glasgow in 1990 I was
amazed as there was very little visibility.
There were certainly things going on below
the surface and people doing some amazing
work, but it was largely invisible. I found it
strange and thought there had to be something
we could do.
“I thought it wasn’t fair. We wanted to make
the argument that we pay our taxes and we
disproportionately contribute to the arts, so it’s
about time we had something for, and about,
us as well.”
Cordelia teamed up with freelance arts
administrator Dominic D’Angelo and put on
the first Glasgay! in 1993, with more than 60
events running between October 30 and
November 6. However funding, which was a
long-running issue for the event over its 21
years, forced a blackout in 1994 and again in
1996 before the organisers stepped down and a
new team took over. Steven Thomson,
producer from 2004 until 2014, said his focus
was on not only curating a festival but
commissioning artists who were under-
represented.
He said: “We didn’t really make a big deal of
it, but when Creative Scotland changed the
whole funding process, we applied to be a
regularly funded client as we had been before.
“In 2015 we didn’t get through. I had seen
many years of people and organisations going
down. I witnessed a lot of loss, and the reality
is we felt pulled apart for this, but we
ultimately wouldn’t survive by laundering that
in public.”
Steven said he hasn’t “ruled out” bringing the
festival back, and will next week launch a
retrospective publication featuring
photographs and highlights from its 21 years
Organised by Outspoken Arts, the charity
which replaced Glasgay organisers Gala
Scotland Ltd in 2015, the launch takes place
on February 14 at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow.