The Coast is Queer is honoured to host 40 panels of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, offering festival audiences the chance to see this remarkable piece of LGBTQ+ history and community activism up close.

Free to visit throughout the festival. The Quilt will be located at The Meeting House, just opposite the main ACCA building and will have volunteers present to guide you around the Quilt.

As part of the festival programme, we’re bringing poetry into the space, too. Six poets – including Maria Jastrzębska, Simon Maddrell, Robert Hamberger, John Mccullough, Sea Sharp, and more – will read their work alongside the Quilt on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the Festival, and will recite the names of the 60 people represented by the panels on display.

The Quilt commemorates more than 550 people lost to HIV and AIDS across the UK. Part of the world’s largest community art project, it began in the USA in 1985 through the work of activist Cleve Jones. The UK Quilt was established in the late 1980s through the efforts of Scottish activist Alastair Hume.

The Quilt now comprises 333 handmade panels, each created by someone who loved the person it honours. Every panel is individual, telling the story of a life through photographs, words, fabrics and carefully chosen personal details. Together, the panels create a powerful memorial and an enduring reminder of the devastating impact of HIV and AIDS on our communities.

The Quilt will be free to visit throughout The Coast is Queer. We encourage everyone to take time to visit it, read the panels, listen to the poetry and remember.