Hand In Hand LGBTQ+ Choir Festival

02/09/2026

Passed down through generations. Badly.
Blackpool Proverb No. 02.

29/08/2026

Five Brighton choirs have already said yes to Blackpool 2027. 💖

Actually Gay Men's Chorus, Brighton Gay Men's Chorus, Brighton Rox, Rainbow Chorus and Resound Voices — we’re very glad you’re coming.

Between them, 188 performers singing with these choirs joined us in Bristol 2024.

Now it’s Brighton → Blackpool.

Different coast. Same choir chaos.

13–15 August 2027

26/08/2026

Ancient wisdom. Approximately.
Blackpool Proverb No. 01.

22/08/2026

We’re recruiting! 📣

We’re looking for a freelance Project Manager to help bring our LGBTQ+ Community Sing and Dance programme to life for Blackpool 2027 — including our Festival Choir, Mass Sing-Along and Ballroom Dance activity.

If you’re an experienced organiser, producer or project manager who loves bringing people together and turning ideas into brilliant community activity, we’d love to hear from you.

📍 Mainly remote
💷 £7,000 freelance fee
📅 October 2026 – October 2027
⏰ Applications close 18 September 2026

Find out more and download the recruitment pack below.

And please share this with someone who might be perfect for it. 🩷

We’re looking for a freelance Project Manager to help shape and deliver our LGBTQ+ Community Sing and Dance programme for Blackpool 2027, bringing together a Festival Choir, Mass Sing-Along and Ballroom Dance. Applications close on 18 September 2026.

22/08/2026

Different choirs. Same chorus.

Your Dear Choir messages keep telling us the same beautiful truth: LGBTQ+ choirs give people joy, belonging, laughter, confidence and love.

That’s Why We Sing — in your words.

If there’s something you’d tell your choir if nobody knew it was you, share it anonymously at:
handinhandfestival.org/dear-choir/

17/08/2026

Blackpool is getting ready for you.

This week, our Festival Co-Director Phill Fairhurst has written a welcome from the town that will host Hand in Hand next August.

It’s about Blackpool’s lights, humour, history and heart — but also the smaller moments Phill is already imagining: choirs cheering each other on, familiar faces in corridors, someone arriving nervous and leaving with new friends.

If you’re starting to picture what Blackpool 2027 might feel like, this is a lovely place to begin.

Read Phill’s Letter from Blackpool:

Phill Fairhurst welcomes the Hand in Hand community to Blackpool, reflecting on the town’s history, its LGBTQ+ community, Electric Pink Voices and the welcome being built for 2027.

13/08/2026

How do you measure a year?

525,600 minutes from now, Hand in Hand Festival begins in Blackpool.

A year of rehearsals. A year of planning. A year of people finding each other.

And then, for one weekend, thousands of those minutes become ours.

13–15 August 2027.

See you in Blackpool. ❤️

12/08/2026

Small piece of spectacular diary management from us: tonight's solar eclipse reaches its peak at almost exactly the same time as our 7pm Choir Leaders session.

The session is still going ahead at 7pm as planned, but if you're outside watching the eclipse safely and join us a few minutes late, we promise not to take it personally.

We'll keep the first few minutes fairly relaxed before getting properly underway.

08/08/2026

Some weeks, getting through the door is enough.

You don’t want to explain.
You don’t want to be cheered up.

You just need somewhere you can be quiet
and still belong.

05/08/2026

OMG. Forty choirs. 🤯

Forty LGBTQ+ choirs have now said yes to Hand in Hand Festival Blackpool 2027.

We are reacting to this news with our usual calm and restraint.

We are not calm. This is HUGE.

The festival is properly taking shape: registered choirs can now tell us their preferred performance window, and early bird choir registration remains open until 31 August.

Still hovering near the registration button? Consider this your cue.