June is the month the world remembers to pay attention. Rainbow flags go up in shop windows, brands update their logos, and for a few weeks the word “pride” gets used by everyone — including people who spend the rest of the year looking the other way. But somewhere beneath all of that, for the people it actually belongs to, Pride is something resilient and more stubborn— the insistence on being seen, on taking up space, and on building communities.
Affections: The Queer Festival is one such annual festival that aims to give space to the queer artists. Curated by Sunshine House, the festival is a full-day celebration of queer art, music, installations, workshops, performances, and food. You can view it like a genuine, joyful gathering of queer people and the artists among them, taking up space, loudly and openly, for an entire day.
The artists this year bring work that is personal, playful, and made from the inside out. Rose, who creates under the name Fivefootfart, started making things for the people she loved and gradually found that others wanted them too. Her crochet creatures and doodles are not incidentally queer, yet she says, “I am queer. I cannot separate myself from my identity. I breathe a piece of me in every creature I bring to life through yarn or doodles. They are all unapologetically weird, silly, fun, and always, always queer.”
At her stall, Rose is running a live experience that is sweetly brilliant. Come with a feeling. Leave with a sticker made just for that feeling, on that day, for you. "Because when your feelings get a bit too much, at least you have a little sticker that is uniquely made just for you!"
Another artist Ash, who sets up a live upcycling booth at the event, says, “Queerness influences many of the values that sit at the heart of my practice. World Over Waste is built around the idea that things society overlooks, disregards, or misunderstands still possess beauty and worth. That idea resonates strongly with me and my identity.”
At her booth, visitors can pick a CD or cassette, paint it, customise it, and add song QR codes of their choice. "The idea is to transform forgotten music formats into personalised keepsakes that carry both memory and meaning," Ash says.
Meanwhile, Yamini is bringing a collection she calls “whimsical and eclectic”— paper collages, digital prints, hand-collaged badges, journalling kits, cartoon stickers, and editions from her monthly mail club. Talking about the event, she says, “I’ve felt isolated in my queerness before, as have many others, but having a physical space that includes us and makes us feel seen and safe is so important and necessary. It’s life-changing to know you’re not alone.”
INR 100 onwards. On June 7. 2 pm - 8 p m. At The Backyard, Adyar.
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