Artistic Director, Alan Cumming, invites audiences to a celebration of all things LGBTQIA+ to look at this world, and one another, in a new light from the hills of Pitlochry.

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Turning eyes since their announcement as Artistic Director, Alan Cumming and the Pitlochry Festival Theatre make their first significant move; turning a corner of the Highlands into a three‑day celebration of queer creativity with its inaugural Out in the Hills festival, running from 16th–18th January 2026, a much-welcomed force for good and inclusivity in a greying world. The programme pairs marquee names with experimental work and community activity, moving effortlessly between rehearsed readings, spoken‑word performances with live soundscapes, panel conversations, family drop‑ins, a queer ceilidh and late‑night DJ sets. The ambition is both cultural and civic: to create space for joy, solidarity and new perspectives in a part of Scotland not usually billed as a hub of queer programming.

Alan Cumming frames the festival as both a programming statement and an invitation: “Out in the Hills is my first piece of new programming in 2026 as Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre and I think it perfectly demonstrates the ethos I want to infuse all my work with here. We have a combination of big names as well as new faces and ideas, and I’m inviting the public to take a chance on new experiences as well as revel in those they already love. Also, I love a party! Out in the Hills is a celebration of the amazing contributions the LGBTQIA+ community has made to all our lives. And, at a time in our history when the queer and trans community is once more under threat, this is a chance for everyone to come along and show solidarity and support and be part of a weekend of queer joy!”

The festival opens on Friday with a quietly powerful afternoon of music: the Resol String Quartet presents Rainbow Classics, a programme that traces queer contributions to the classical canon from Tchaikovsky to Barber and Caroline Shaw. That programme, steeped in the romantic sweep of the repertoire yet attentive to voices too often sidelined, sets a tone of reclamation and musical tenderness that reappears across the weekend. Later that afternoon there is a very particular film screening and conversation: who will be remembered here, a collaboration by Lewis Hetherington and artist CJ Mahony made with Forest of Black and Historic Environment Scotland, which brings four queer writers; Robert Softley Gale, Harry Josephine Giles, Robbie MacLeòid and Bea Webster into historic sites and languages (English, Scots, Gaelic and BSL) to reimagine presence, absence and belonging. The screening is introduced by award‑winning piper Malin Lewis and followed by a discussion hosted by Pitlochry’s Associate Director Sam Hardie with Hetherington and Robert Softley Gayle on the panel.

Friday evening foregrounds an intimate, hybrid performance: Juano Diaz reads from his memoir Slum Boy while Evelyn Glennie provides an improvised, immersive percussionscape and visuals, a combination that promises an emotional, sensory experience rather than a conventional author event. Armistead Maupin and Jackie Kay close the Studio for the night in conversation, two writers whose work, one transatlantic, one rooted in Scotland, has shaped modern queer narrative with warmth, wit and political clarity. The day finishes with a reimagined ceilidh: the Malin Lewis Trio and host Chris Wilson lead Queer as Folk!, an exuberant trad‑music dance floor that reframes the ceilidh as an inclusive space for celebration.

Saturday shifts between kinetic and reflective. The morning begins with Kilted Yoga led by Finlay Wilson, a restorative, body‑positive session that speaks to the festival’s intention to welcome a variety of bodies and starting points. In the Studio, a conversation titled Match of the Gay examines LGBTQIA+ voices in football, chaired by Scotland’s first openly gay professional player Zander Murray, joined by Amy MacDonald, Coinneach MacLeod and representatives from LEAP Sports; the panel is part of the Football v Homophobia Scotland campaign and promises candid reflections on visibility, courage and the work still to do. A later Studio conversation, Whose history is it anyway?, pairs archivist Catherine McPhee with historian Dr Ashley Douglas to excavate queer traces in Scotland’s past, tracing threads from oral tradition to the 16th‑century poet Marie Maitland—the kind of cross‑disciplinary exploration that quietly reshapes how we think about heritage.

Saturday afternoon contains a family‑friendly, drop‑in art slot called Colour Outside the Lines and a treat for cookbook lovers and cultural‑life audiences: Coinneach MacLeod, the Hebridean Baker, in conversation with Tony Kearney about growing up gay on Lewis and the role of food, place and storytelling in forming identity. The evening in the Auditorium presents a rare theatrical event: Equinox, a new one‑man play by Laurie Slade directed by Sean Mathias, gets its first public reading with Ian McKellen in the role of Ed, an older man wrestling with memory, desire and mortality; the piece promises to be intimate, poetic and at times cosmic, a text amplified by McKellen’s particular capacity for tenderness and comic precision. That night sees one of the headline pieces with Graham Norton joining Alan Cumming on stage for what is billed as a conversation between two of the UK’s most recognisable queer voices; expect humour, candid recollection and the kind of easy repartee that reveals both craft and character. In the Studio, the hugely influential and impressive Niall Moorjani’s The Green Knight (but gay) reworks Arthurian myth with irreverent warmth and queer joy, a cheeky counterpoint to the evening’s more solemn moments.

Programmer Lewis Hetherington describes assembling the programme as “an absolute joy,” a deliberately plural festival intended to expand empathy and curiosity: “Come with an open heart and mind and you’ll leave with a richer understanding of the world around you and a deeper sense of empathy for your fellow humans. It’s going to be mind expanding, moving, and fun!” National treasure and headliner Graham Norton, noting a long personal history with Pitlochry, adds: “When I left drama school almost forty years ago, the very first job that I didn’t get was at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. I went on to not get jobs at many other theatres, but Pitlochry holds a special place in my heart. I am delighted to finally be making my debut and in such stellar company.” For many, the festival is a ‘thank you’ to the community and theatre; a sign of the future ambitions of Cumming to place Pitlochry as a figurehead on the map, both culturally and historically, taking bolder strides than neighbouring venues.

Sunday closes the festival with a gentle, restorative morning and a sequence of candid conversations and performances designed to widen the weekend’s frame. Finlay Wilson returns with Kilted Yoga to ease the body into the day before Mhairi Black speaks with Gemma Cairney about politics, queerness and resilience, and Val McDermid joins Louise Welsh to unpack crime fiction, craft and queer women in contemporary writing. Family and participation remain central: the Colour Outside the Lines drop‑in art sessions continue for young people and families, Jo Clifford and her daughter Catriona Innes discuss family, queerness and love in a moving Studio conversation, and Kim Blythe’s stand‑up Cowboy offers a wry, self‑aware comic hour. The evening’s theatrical centrepiece is Me and the Girls, Neil Bartlett’s adaptation of Noel Coward featuring Cumming among a six‑strong company, a staged reading that re‑casts Coward’s voice as sharp, intimate and unflinching about ageing, cabaret and desire

Across the weekend the festival deepens its commitment to memory and visibility through exhibitions and film: Camp Trans Scotland, curated by Jules Lacave‑Fontourcy and Tam Omond, uses photography and the film The River and The Glen to offer a restorative, nature‑rooted portrait of trans community life while acknowledging difficult material; Portraits of an LGBTI+ Generation pairs Tiu Makkonnen’s photographs with short films to celebrate queer elders; and Football v Homophobia Scotland’s Oral History Archive preserves first‑hand testimonies from LGBTIQ+ players, fans and officials now deposited at the National Library of Scotland.

Likely to sell fast, tickets start from £15, with Patrons and Members eligible for 25% off two or more events (excluding headline pieces) and non‑members able to claim 20% off two or more events (excluding headline pieces). Priority booking for Patrons and Members opens on Monday, 27th October at 10:00am, Festival Friends on Monday 3rd November at 10:00am and general sale from Monday 10th November at 10:00am.

Out in the Hills positions itself as more than a string of events: it is an argument by example that high‑profile names, community on paper, is a weekend that insists on joy without shirking complexity; it’s an invitation to listen, dance, learn and celebrate in equal measure.

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