"The International Festival of Queer Culture 2009" will be the
largest-scale festival of this type in Russia so far. It is held from
19th to 27th September in St. Petersburg, Russia and the program will
be composed of several diverse elements such as seminars, workshops
and discussions, films, theatre, photo exhibitions, poetry and music.
One of the main-headliners for the closing festival event RockFest is
the American group Betty http://www.hellobetty.com/.

The positioning of the festival is "Queer" as opposed to just LBGT,
and the emphasis of the festival is on celebrating diversity and
unity, as opposed to simply LBGT-culture. "Queer" in this instance is
defined as diverse, eccentric, un-ordinary and as a concept that
aspires to expand the rigid frameworks surrounding social stereotypes
and stereotypes of identity. The message the festival hopes to bring
forward is that all of us are different but we are united by one
language - the language of art, and by common values - values of love,
tolerance and mutual respect. The aim of our Festival is to unite the
most different people around constructive creativity, common values,
and positive emotions.