The Outburst Queer Arts Festival is an annual queer
arts festival in Northern Ireland. It involves ten days of film, music, debate, literature, visual art, theatre and other performances from local and international LGBT artists and performers. Festival events are held at several venues in
Belfast. Started in 2007, it marked its 10th anniversary in 2016. The 17th edition of the festival was held in November 2023. In 2024 the festival ran from November 15 to 23, and included more than thirty events. One event was a collaboration with Ulster Presents to host
Mixtape #1, with
Phil Collins, a graduate of
Belfast School of Art. It also included the premier of a play,
Suspect Device, about the life of transgender bus driver Wilma Creith, who died in 1980 and is considered a 'pioneering figure in the Belfast trans scene'. Creith set up a helpline and support group for Belfast trans people in 1977. The play was staged on a vintage Ulster bus. The festival has previously received funding from the
Department for Social Development,
Belfast City Council and
National Lottery sources. The festival artistic director is Ruth McCarthy, and the chairperson is David Codling. ==References==