Music: Younger Queers in the west end of the city are into electro-sexual, 80's, classic new wave and street beats, punk and current indie.

Queer West Fest Photo Gallery queerwestfesttoronto.buzznet.com

Overview

10 Day - 3rd Annual Queer West Fest Friday June 13 to Sunday 22, 2008

Queer West Fest- Hotel Sponsor - The Gladstone We would be pleased to offer Queer West Fest visitors a rate of $165/night. (Our regular rate is $195-$215). We can offer this rate for June 13 through 22 with the exception of June 14 when we are completely sold out for a group booking. For Queer West Fest rate contact: reservations@gladstonehotel.com Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West at the corner of Gladstone Avenue and Queen Street just east of Dufferin Street. In the heart of the Queer West Village Toronto. www.gladstonehotel.com a supporting host hotel.

Our tentative plans (particle details) as of Monday May 5, 2008

We will be rolling all our offical events on a "new page with full details on or before May 31"

Events just about ready to rock and roll below

June 12 to 22 - The Fur Real Art Collective presents: "Fur Real: Bears Without Boundaries Art Show" Opening party will be on Thursday June 12th, 2008 at 8pm to 10 pm at Gallery 1313 located at 1313A Queen St. West...madame HAIR will have 2 paintings in this show. Show will run from June 12th to June 22nd, 2008 at 1313A Queen Street West, FREE No Cover www.g1313.org | /www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10989833517&ref=mf Parkdale Neighbourhood

June 12 to 22 - Art Show & Artists Exhibition: Plus we have 5 other different queer artists that will be showing works, 5 painting each (Beaver Cafe); Confirmation pending

Friday June 13 to 22 - Queer Lounge @ Gladstone Hotel - Will serve as 10 day volunteer staff "a hub of event information" for queer and queer-friendly festival-goers and R & R resto lounge FREE No Cover () Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood Confirmation pending

Friday June 13 - Queer West Fest Opening Night Art Show launch party and a night of Mayhem @ Beaver Cafe & Patio Art show launch party and exhibition (Beaver Cafe, 1192 Queen W. Cover Charge $5:00 Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood Confirmation pending

Saturday June 14 (morning and afternoon) - Mix and Mingle Community Fair & Marketplace @ Drake Hotel 1150 Queen Street West, artisans, retail vendors, dozens of community organizations, lots of super door prizes and much more. FREE No Cover Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood

Saturday June 14 (evening) Dirty Bingo with Shirley "Fund-raiser" @ The Friendly Bar & Restaurent Dirty Bingo will hosted by Shirley, a drag queen with a cast-iron hairdo, but a heart of gold. Shirley will be donating the proceeds to Gay West Community Network Inc. Her bingo-calling is somewhat, um, eccentric but highly amusing (if occasionally politically incorrect) -- as are the prizes that she awards. But it's all in good fun and for a good cause. Everyone is welcome. (and we have a big surprise, something to do with the Stonewall riot in NYC, and no it's not drag queens.www.shirleysdirtybingo.com 1116 Queen St W at Lisar Avenue, The Friendly Bar is also known as Queer Star, just moved recently to this new location.Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood

Sunday June 15 - 4th Annual Toronto Pride Ride cyclists travel along Martin Goodman Trail (two way Sunnyside to Eastern Beaches 25k, Ride Leader Bryen Dunn. Not associated with Pride Toronto. FREE No Cover Gay West Bicycle Club

Sunday June 15 - The Fat Femme Mafia Fat Flea Market from 10-5 PM in the Art Bar at the Gladstone. If you have old Fat Clothes you would like to donate...please email us with your address and an appropriate time...and we will come and pick them up. Or we will provide you with an address where you can drop off your stuff! We are looking for clothes...size 14 and up. Nothing else please. In exchange...you will receive Fat Flea bucks that you can use to shop freely at the actual event....if you choose to do so. Give us your old wardrobe and we will give you a new one!!! Please email this to all your fat friends! Circulate WIDE-ly! Fatfemmemafia@hotmail.com | www.myspace.com/fatfemmemafia |Video www.mefeedia.com/entry/715891/ Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood

Monday June 16 - Queer West Art Crawl - Tour the diversity and ethos of Queen West; one of the city’s most precious cultural resources – a natural habitat for queer individual artists, not-for-profit arts organizations, artist run centres as well as a dynamic range of creative enterprises and enterprising creatives who live, work and play in the neighbourhood. Your guide will visit galleries, businesses, restaurants, cafes, community organizations and public spaces along Queen Street West from Spadina to Dovercourt A street "Out Travel magazine" dubbed Sizzle! (Starts at www.g1313.org from 6 pm to 9 pm, (Close to being confirmed) Trinity Bellwoods and Parkdale neighbourhood Confirmation pending

Tuesday June 17 - A Java Knights - An International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Panel Discussion @ Gladstone Hotel Art Bar 1214 Queen St. W. Find out about equality issues for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people and their liberation from all forms of discrimination in other countries. Learn about supportive and education programs, protest actions, diplomatic pressures, from international organizsation's representatives on the panel. Followed by a Q & A from the floor. Gladstone Hotel Art Bar - 1214 Queen St W at Dufferin -- FREE, fresh finger food served and soft drinks, cash bar. Event runs from 7 PM to 9 PM. Street Map Please RSVP- ASAP seating limited to 30 - Bryen javaknights@hotmail.com or Call 416-551-1709. Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood

Wednesday June 18 - Hump Day Bump @ Gladstone Hotel Regular Hump Day Bump with some live bands added to event for the first time,Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood Confirmation pending

Thursday June 19 - Lief Harmsen's HOMODIGITAL Art Show "a censor's worst nightmare" @ Fountain Contemporary Gallery . Leif Harmsen's series of large digital nudes in oil on canvas read as abstract at close range, but with more distance they can be imaginatively discerned as photo-graphic male nudes or gay porn, depending on your unique politically and sexually informed way of seeing. People see what they will —be that colorful digital abstraction, obscenity, or humanist erotic delight. They prove to would-be censors that obscenity, a legal term, rests squarely in the eye of the beholder.

The idea for the series began in the 90s from the artist's frustration with the Canadian institutions of censorship and his love-hate relationship with formalism. The finished pictures now stand on their own as abstract color field painting, as digital art and within our social context of digitized sexual expression.

The Details: Fountain Contemporary Gallery 652 Queen St. W. at Palmerston Ave.Street Map. Opening Thu 19 June 7-10pm. Duration: 19 June - 9 July, 2008 Hours: Saturdays & Sundays 2-7pm or by appointment. Artist - Leif Harmsen: www.harmsen.net Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood

Friday June 20 - Forte - 24-voice Men’s Chamber Choir @ Emmanuel Howard Park United Church (Sanctuary) Forte under the leadership of Edward Connell, one of Canada’s finest choral directors. Its membership is drawn from Toronto’s talented and diverse gay community. Forte tries to have something to say about the gay world, either through its unique repertoire, or through the events it performs at. Although not exclusively gay in its membership, its repertoire or its outlook, some of what Forte does is noticeably gay.

The Details: Emmanuel Howard Park is located at 214 Wright Avenue, at the corner of Wright and Roncesvalles in the city's west end. To reach us by subway, go to the Dundas West Station, and get on the 504 street car. Get off in front of the public library at Fern. The church is half a block north on the west side. Show starts 8 P.M Cover: PWYC. One and all welcome. www.forte-chorus.com Parkdale neighbourhood

Saturday June 21 - Knotty Nights Dance Party @ Lot 16 Bar 10 PM 1136 Queen St. W., Featuring Toronto's number one Queer DJ Triple-X spining new wave, punk, and junk from the 80's (just the kind of hot and sweaty dance music west end lesbians love) Last year the bar was filled to capacity with a large influx of inner-city Parkdale-kids young and old, Bay Street CEO's, Trinity Bellwoods queer in-crowd, westend lezzie's and arty fags from Church and Wellesley, all having a good time. FREE No Cover Trinity Bellwoods neighbourhood

Sunday June 22 - Queer Community Brunch @ Mitzi's Sister on the patio Parkdale neighbourhood Confirmation pending

Queer West Festival Street Team - Next meetings: Tuesday May 13 - 7 P.M. A dynamic committee organizing team. We're , out of the gate, long before Pride Toronto has put pen to paper. Want in on our eight member Street Team? Get a chance to work as trained event organizer, make long lasting connections in the music and arts community If interested then Contact TX Productions info@themarsbar.com ( 416-551-1709)

Gay West Community Network Inc., a not-for-profit centre and TX Productions are again teaming up to bring Toronto its 3rd alternative Festival for queer arts, culture and music. Having successfully coordinated several LGBTTIQ2S Pride focused events over the past ten years, 2008 marks the first year that a series of events are being presented over the course of 10 days, as part of the new Queer West Fest. (QWF - History) Queer West Fest is a non-profit festival for everybody with a queer perspective - regardless of gender or sexuality.

Gay West's community objectives are: To produce performing arts festivals for the purposes of educating and advancing the public’s understanding and appreciation of performing arts and to educate artists through participation in such festivals and related workshops and outreach programming for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, questioning and two-spirited (queer community). Our network provides educational workshops, community events, and public forums. Our mandate will be to work with all members of the community, including youth, seniors, disadvantaged, and unemployed to provide the necessary counseling and services needed. Contact Us Our main point is to show that there is a real and strong alternative to traditional Pride Festivals. Subscribe to Inside Story enewsletter

Festival Innovator & Media Relations Director: Bryen Dunn - info@bryendunn.com - www.bryendunn.com 416-551-1709 ext 2

Volunteers
Volunteers remain crucial to providing the leadership and hard work of organizing, producing, and operating Queer West Fest. Gay West Community Network needs a large pool of dedicated and highly-skilled volunteers to sustain the event and its growth.

The term Queer
A quick note on the term "queer" is necessary. Queer is an umbrella terms designed to be inclusive of a broad range of self-identifications. Within the gay and lesbian community, there are those who identify as bisexual, transsexual or transgender as well as those who do not want a label at all. Rather than use the more cumbersome acronym 'LGBTQ' (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, trans- and queer), we find the word 'queer' to be a more inclusive term for sexual minorities and simpler. The term 'queer' is also used by a number of organizations for this reason and is well-recognized.

Diversity
West Toronto is made up of multicultural neighbourhoods, a younger queer crowd and Queer West Fest bears a responsibility to represent all segments of the community. We must produce an event that meets the needs of all queer sexual identities, gender identities, ethnocultural groups and an organization that is welcoming to all.

Community Relations
Members of the queer community express a diverse range of opinions about Queer West Fest and what it should be. Some activists want the event to be a protest. Business people want to increase its economic impact. The spectrum of different opinions demonstrate a strong sense of community ownership of the event. Queer West Fest is obliged to navigate the waters of the community in order to produce an event that reflects the diverse views and priorities of the entire west central Toronto community.

Profiteering
Business people – both straight and queer – have in recent years recognized the value of the “Pink Dollar,” and are keen to market to the queer community. Market studies have indicated high disposable incomes among its members. Many businesses are seeking opportunities to use Queer West Fest as a vehicle for profit-making. Queer West Fest faces the challenge of regulating these business interests, achieving a balance between business interests and community identity, protecting the community ownership of Queer West Fest, and ensuring that where appropriate, Gay West Community Network and Queer West Fest benefit from the economic returns that private businesses earn in conjunction with Queer West Fest Week.

Queer West Village
We are not like Toronto's traditional 'gay' village with all the sort of conservative and essentialist ideas that go with that. The Queer West Village is about queer practises, and being, not about identity and some fixed notion. We are open, younger, non-traditional, about possibilities and opportunities for connection and collusion, not something to to be confused with Church Street.

TX Production is still booking for Queer West Fest
www.themarsbar.com/future

Would You like to PARTICIPATE?
If you want to do a workshop?, show/do some queer art?, volunteer?, join the Queer West Fest Committee?, organize or stage manage one of the events? play music?, make a queer performance?, show your short-movie?, have a discussion?, do a lecture? or whatever queer related stuff you would like to do? Please Contact TX Productions info@themarsbar.com ( 416-551-1709)

Are You an ARTIST, ACTIVIST MUSICIAN?
Write an email and describe how you could contribute. If it is a workshop or an exhibition, a presentation or an activity. Describe what you need and what you would expect us to provide. Then the planning group will look at the proposal and get in touch regarding the possibilities of realising the project within the framework of the festival. Please Contact TX Productions info@themarsbar.com ( 416-551-1709)

Are You an ORGANISATIONS: INTERNATIONAL, NATIONAL or LOCAL?
Write an email and describe on what level you would like to collaborate with us. We are also interested international partners who could help to develop an international network for QUEER culture and activism. We would also like representatives from any QUEER organisation to come and make presentations or hold an art or education workshop. Please Contact TX Productions info@themarsbar.com ( 416-551-1709)

Bryen Dunn, media and event co-ordinator for the Queer West Fest, is the perfect example of how putting together a successful Queer celebration is not only about what you know but about who you know. "Having a good networking base of supportive media partners and entertainers is just an added bonus. This year's event seemed to have naturally evolved into a full week of activities that will hopefully appeal to many different individuals."

Out Traveler (Summer issue Cool Canada, 2007) a division of PlanetOut Publishing Inc. an American gay travel magazine had this to say about " Gay Toronto" These days the Queer West in Parkdale and "Queer Street West," as a section of Queen Street is now dubbed, Sizzle!

Gay West's Mission Statement

Gay West Community Network Inc., a not-for-profit centre believes that providing a safe and nurturing environment for individuals, groups and organizations is the key to keeping our community alive and vibrant.  It is our goal to foster individual empowerment and to give everyone a better sense of the queer community spirit in Toronto's queer west village neighbourhoods. We do this by organizing and sponsoring community activities and by increasing public awareness and understanding of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer lives. Gay West welcomes the participation of all, regardless of age, creed, gender, gender identification, HIV status, national origin, physical, mental or developmental ability, race, religion or sexual orientation. Only by standing together can we make a difference.

Gay West Community "Contact Us" has been around for nearly 10 years promoting queer events and happenings, as well as the multitude of queer-friendly establishments that are in the west end of Toronto. Parkdale/Trinity Bellwoods is a place to party, as well as a place to call home. For wonderful sightseeing tour in the heart of the Queer West a place where all orientations feel welcome Take a walk in the Queer West Toronto

Queer West Fest Guide - Overview 2008 | Overview 2007 | 2007 Official Events | | Related Events 2007 | Press Reviews | Sponsors

Gay West Site Map