Highlights of the weekend include:

Big Nights OUT
3pm – 6.30pm, 11 Oct 2025
Bradford Playhouse, BD1 5DL
A series of conversations exploring the activism and nightlife of Bradford’s LGBTQ+ community.

The first panel will delve into the visual culture of protest and celebration in LGBTQ+ communities. Join Curator of Prints at the V&A, Zorian Clayton in conversation with Bradford-based artist and printmaker Alan Richardson with DJ and graphic designer Leon Davis. Together, they will examine how art, design, and club culture have been pivotal in building community and driving activism, drawing from Richardson’s work with groups like the Bradford Gay Switchboard and Davis’ experience in documenting queer nightlife through the Love Conquers Clubland archive project.

The second discussion is led by host of the award-winning podcast The Log Books, Tash Walker. They will shine a light on the untold stories of support lines that shaped LGBTQ+ lives in the 1980s in a special live conversation with volunteers and callers from Bradford Gay Switchboard and Lesbian Line. The panel will explore the vital role these phonelines played in offering support and community for the callers.

Pink After Dark
8.30pm – 2.30am, 11 Oct 2025
Loading Bay, BD1 3QR
A celebration of the long-lost and much-missed spaces like the Bavaria and the Junction, longtime landmarks of the Bradford LGBTQ+ scene, with new live art commissions, performances, drag artists and DJs.

Step into history at this immersive cabaret and party celebrating and paying homage to lost spaces beloved by LGBTQ+ people in Bradford. Bringing our bespoke night to life, join national northern darling David Hoyle for his Bradford debut alongside local legends of cabaret Unknown Amazon, Jude Kershaw, Jenn Wilson, Lavender Café Orchestra, (plus special guests) and singing from the heart, musician Jasmine Kennedy.

Dancing us into the night, tunes are provided by some of Yorkshire’s finest including Michael Upson – founder of pumping gay dance party Love Muscle, bringing strong femme energy MelaD and frequent OUT OUT collaborator and regular on the Leeds scene Luscious.

Back in the Pink Cinema special
11am – 2pm, 12 October
Bradford Playhouse
A programme of films recreating and reimagining screenings organised by gay and lesbian collectives in the 1980’s.

Celebrating the role of film and cinema in community organising and gathering this cinema special reflects past programmes arranged in the city by Bradford Lesbian Line and Bradford Gay Switchboard. At the centre of this programme is the feature length documentary Before Stonewall which was screened by Bradford Lesbian Line at Bradford Film Theatre (now Bradford Playhouse) in 1988 to raise funds and awareness for the campaign against Section 28.

Before Stonewall (1984) is essential viewing and a landmark documentary showcasing the presence and activism of the LGBTQ+ community in the USA before the Stonewall uprising. The film was a catalyst for international solidarity and awareness raising and remains as important now as when it was created.

Also taking place during the festival:

Bradford LGBTQ+ History Walking Tour (sold out)
Various times, 10 – 11 October
Alice Parsons, founder of Castles In The Sky and curator of Back in the Pink, leads a special walking tour of Bradford city centre – and shows the history of the city’s LGBTQ+ activism, nightlife and community that hides in plain sight.

OUT All Night
11 Oct 2025, 12pm – 3pm and 8.30pm – 2.30am
Loading Bay, BD1 3QR
Free
A pop-up exhibition of archive materials from the newly formed Bradford LGBTQ+ Archive, which will include new commissions from Jude Kershaw, Jenn Willson, and SHARP.

Back in the Pink is co-produced by Castles in the Sky and Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.