About
A four-day love letter to Queer Austin
The Big Queer Weekend brings film, music, art and conversation together from September 24 to 27, 2026 — six feature films presented by aGLIFF and SXSW Film, plus a free evening of Queer music and a maker marketplace from the Austin LGBT Chamber's Pride In Local Music initiative.
The idea
Celebrate the creative community that built this city
Austin’s Queer creative community has always worked across disciplines — filmmakers who run venues, musicians who host drag shows, artists who organize. The Big Queer Weekend is built the same way: four days that move from a red carpet to a documentary double bill to a backyard full of bands and makers.
The programming spans high camp and hard truth. There is drag spectacle in Lady Champagne, radical fatherhood in The Dads, sporting history in Give Me The Ball!, global legal struggle in Out Laws, and a story of coming out after 41 years in WICKET — each followed by a live conversation with the people who made it.
Saturday, the weekend steps outside. The Pride In Local Music showcase at Drinks Backyard is free and open to the public, hosted by Maxine LaQueene & friends, with a Queer artist and artisan marketplace running alongside it.
When
Thursday, September 24 – Sunday, September 27, 2026
Where
Austin, Texas
Galaxy Theatres Austin · Drinks Backyard · Rain on 4th
What
6 feature films · 2 shorts · filmmaker Q&As · a community conversation · 2 red carpet receptions · an after party · a free music, drag and marketplace night
Tickets
$20 per film · $50 limited weekend pass · Saturday night free
Presented by
Three organizations, one weekend
Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce
Austin's advocate for LGBTQ+-owned and allied businesses. Its Pride In Local Music initiative programs Saturday's music and art showcase, and its Texas Competes work anchors the weekend's community conversation.
aGLIFF
Austin's LGBTQ+ Film Festival, one of the longest-running Queer film festivals in the country, programs the weekend's six features and two shorts and handles all ticketing.
SXSW
SXSW Film joins as a programming collaborator, bringing titles including The Dads — which world premiered in Austin at SXSW Film 2026 — back to a Queer Austin audience.
Sponsors
Thank you
The Big Queer Weekend is possible because of the partners who back Queer art in Austin.
Texas Commission on the Arts
Justworks
Delta Air LinesSXSW
Deep Eddy Vodka
Crunch Consulting
PrismTone Entertainment
Pearlsnap Music Group
Galaxy TheatresThis project is supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.