OUTsider, the Austin-based non-profit arts festival and conference celebrating the LGBTQI creative community, returns for its second season Feb. 17 – 21. The festival will feature five days of multi-disciplined art showcases including film, performance art, theater, visual art, dance and music from more than 30 queer artists from Texas and around the country. 

OUTsider seeks to foster a progressive, collaborative festival space for LGBTQI artists to present works of art, while engaging with audiences through panel discussions, participatory events, scholarly presentations and boisterous shindigs. This year’s festival highlights will include performances from erotic icon and educator Annie Sprinkle and her partner, ecological sex (“eco-sex”) artist Beth Stephens. Additional performances will include “The Lost Boys,” an LA based dance troupe exploring internalized homophobia shared by millennials who grew up during the AIDS crisis, “Y’all Come Back: Stories of Queer Southern Migration” and the sure-to-be frisky and fabulous opening-night burlesque showcase. Visual art exhibition highlights feature “Gay Men Draw Vaginas,” a curated exhibit of vagina art drawn by men who identify as gay, and “LA/ATX Pocket Expo: the New Rules of Flagging,” a video installation exploring the new “hanky code.” Festival conferences will be held daily and offer audiences the opportunity to engage in salon-style panels and in-depth conversations with scholars, festival producers and artists.

More information can be found at: http://www.outsiderfest.org/mission/