After many years of hosting the legendary Legrand Balls all over Johannesburg including the recent Boiler Room extravaganza in Soweto last week, the LeGrand brand is back with its inaugural queer arts festival happening on Saturday 4 March 2023 at Tshimologong Precinct in Braamfontein.
In collaboration with The Fam, Brainbow Conscious Creatives, Future Kwaai Records and Llewellyn Mnguni, LeGrand Queer Art is a multi-sensory experience bringing together a music concert, market, kids edutainment, exhibition, fashion, dance, and movement as well as an engaging VR and AR story experience. This year’s theme of African Queer Sovereignty will shine through the streets of Johannesburg, in celebration of queer pride and African cosmology.
Featuring live music queer artists such as Umlilo, Gyre, Mx Blouse, Mr. Allofit, Hlasko, and Lotion, the festival offers a platform for both audience & performer, to indulge in queer, black excellence, and the celebration thereof, pioneering an annual cultural festival. The dance and fashion program will also Llewellyn Mnguni, KSkits, and Siyababa Atelier.
Brainbow Creatives will also be curating an augmented reality story experience exploring queer art and African Cosmology, and there will be a VR decompression room as well as queer market and panel discussions during the day.
Throughout the festival, the African Queer Sovereignty story experience will provide access into the history, present and future of African Queer Culture. This will be a walk about art and story experience of African Queer culture in history, what African Queer Culture is today and what African Queer Sovereignty can create in the future. By bringing to life African Cosmology, key queer figures in African history, and present-day leaders and infusing this with Afro-futurism, the festival will give African queer bodies and their allies equity in creating a future of belonging.
The LeGrand Queer Art experience is funded by the National Arts Council in partnership with OneBeat USA, Tshimologong Precinct, and Story.
Date: Saturday, 4 March 2023.
Time: 12pm to 12am.
Venue: Tshimologong Precinct, 41 Juta street Braamfontein.
Buy tickets here.
