Rosie Jones, Yotam Ottolenghi, Armistead Maupin, Val McDermid and Stephen Libby to appear at Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Out in the Hills Festival 2027.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre is delighted to announce that, following its huge success earlier this year, the Out in the Hills Festival is set to return in January 2027 for a four-day celebration of all things LGBTQIA+.
Curated by Lewis Hetherington and running from 28-31 January 2027, the festival will offer conversations with LGBTQIA+ icons, first looks at new plays, dance and music events, poetry readings, and discussions on topics ranging from house renovations to snowboarding to ecology and much more.
The Festival’s in-conversation events feature legendary American author Armistead Maupin reflecting on his career and iconic novel Tales from the City with Scottish Novelist and Journalist Zoe Strachan; Comedian and actress Rosie Jones and Scottish theatre-maker Robert Softley Gale will discuss queerness, disability, bodies and their collaboration on last year’s stage show (We indulge in) a bit of roll play; Celebrated Scottish crime writer Val McDermid joins current Chair of Stonewall UK Kezia Dugdale to mark 40 years since her debut novel Report for Murder, which introduced readers to Lindsay Gordon, the first out UK lesbian detective; 2026 Traitors co-winner Stephen Libby will speak to actor Greg McHugh (Gary: Tank Commander and Only Child) about growing up on the Isle of Lewis; and Australian interior designer Banjo Beale and his husband Ro join actor and writer Johnny McKnight (The High Life) to discuss their hit BBC Scotland series Banjo and Ro’s Grand Island Hotel, which follows the Australian dreamers as they transform a derelict mansion into a stunning boutique hotel on the remote Scottish Isle of Ulva.
Food lovers can hear food writer Chitra Ramaswamy in conversation with broadcaster and author Gemma Cairney about how food shapes us and connects us to community, memory, family, belonging, and identity. Audiences can also hear from and sample the food of world–renowned restaurateur and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi.
The 2027 festival will also celebrate with a series of artistic performances. not for glory is a restless, relentless exploration of traditional storytelling, dance and music, following three queer people’s journeys with highland dancing and traditional music. Scottish Ballet’s Artistic Director Christopher Hampton and Film Director Oscar Sansom will introduce their new film These Violent Delights, a vivid retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet brought to life by Scottish Ballet. Acclaimed Scottish theatre company Birds of Paradise will stage a reading of extracts from Life Worthy of Life, a new play commissioned by the Glasgow company for the festival and inspired by a real disability rights movement in the early days of the Nazi Party. Scottish poet Mae Diansangu will discuss her work and Scottish queer poetry with writer Shane Strachan, while harpist Christina Gordon will perform queer pop classics in the foyer on Sunday afternoon.
Though it may be dark outside, the building will be filled with joy and light as audiences dance the evenings away with the hugely popular Queer as Folk! - A Big Gay Ceilidh, featuring the Malin Lewis Trio and hosted by Chris Wilson, and Disco in the Hills, which takes over the Theatre’s foyer for an evening of dancing to queer classics, featuring sign singing by deaf artist and visual artist Jamie Rea and award-winning drag king Loose Willis with a high camp glamour, rock and roll performance.
Other festival highlights include the return of Finlay Wilson’s popular Kilted Yoga; Let’s Go Outside, a panel discussion on queer people and the outdoors with The Traitors’ Matt Hyndman, who runs Wee Gay Hike Club, snowboarder and ‘accidental activist’ Lauren MacCallum and Mhor Outdoor who deliver empowering hikes to break down barriers to the outdoors in Scotland; Glasgow Community Sauna; (Un)Seen (Un)Heard, a carefully curated exhibition of objects chosen by LGBT young people from across Scotland to tell their stories; and finally, Award winning drag king Bi-Curious George and glamorous slug-out-of-water Dr Elysia Chlorotica are teaming up to shatter the heteronormative lens through which we view the natural world. Combining drag, comedy, music and serious scientific research, they will interrogate concepts of ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ and celebrate the abundant queerness of the natural world.
Programmer Lewis Hetherington said:
“We’re back! After our glorious first ever festival, we’re back with another amazing line up of performance, talks, workshops and much much more.
From bonafide queer icons, to pop anthems on the harp in the foyer, to a wood fired sauna there is plenty to light your spark.
It has been a total joy to put together the programme for this year. More than ever we need to come together in a spirit of celebration, Out in the Hills makes space for everyone to do just that.
The festival already feels bigger than us, it feels like a beacon for LGBTQIA+ people and allies to be part of something special, something welcoming, something which looks forward to what kind of world we want to be in.
If you’ve got ideas, come and find me, I’ll be there all weekend! Come along and tell me what kind of future you want to see.”
Alan Cumming, Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre added:
“Nothing pleased me more in my first season of programmed work as Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director than the success of our inaugural Out in the Hills festival last January. It showed me that I was right to think our audiences, both past and future, are ready for difference and change as well as eager to celebrate our tradition and the people who have contributed so much to our multi-faceted, multicoloured Scottish culture.
Out in the Hills will be a regular fixture at PFT and I cannot wait to welcome you all to this year’s rainbow explosion!”
Out in the Hills is supported by PITLOCHRYhotels.com
Out in the Hills runs at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 28-31 January 2027.
Tickets are on sale to Patrons and Festival Circle Members from Thursday 5 November, Festival Friends from 12 November and General Sale from Thursday 19 November. For tickets and further information call the Box Office team on 01796 484626 or visit our website.