Cultural and community events

Our programmes primarily target LBTQIA women, but we also welcome non-binary/gender neutral persons and non-LBTQIA women. Should any programme be limited to a narrower target group, we shall indicate this in the post of the event. The general policy of our events is available here.

Monthly events:

Labrisz Evenings

Labrisz Evenings are among the oldest and most significant programmes of the association. At these discussion events, which have been going on regularly since 1996, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer women can meet in a safe, supportive space to share their experiences, stories and questions. The story started in the mid-1990s, when some lesbians started publishing a photocopied, unofficial newspaper, and later organised discussion evenings for its readers. The group met monthly and evolved into Labrisz Evenings. Later, ten of the women frequenting the events founded Labrisz Association.

The aim of this programme is to end seclusion and closetedness, and provide an opportunity for the strengthening of identities, for self-acceptance and connecting to a community. It plays a community-building role, and provides a safe space for sharing personal issues as well. The topics of the evenings are varied, from coming out and closetedness to motherhood, rights, media representation or our lesbian herstory heritage. The discussions are led by members of the association, but we regularly invite guest speakers – Hungarian and international experts and activists. The evenings can be visited by any woman regardless of her identity.

This is the only such forum not only in Budapest but in the whole country; we regularly have participants from the countryside. For many, this is the first step towards coming out.

The time and place of each Labrisz Evening is publicised among our current events.

Queen of Spades Game Night

Queen of Spades is an open, friendly game club run by Labrisz Lesbian Association, where the focus is on the joy of playing together. It started in 2009 and is organised each month, welcoming all those who would like to connect to others on a relaxed, cheerful and laid-back afternoon.

We have a variety of board games, card decks and a welcoming community for women who like playing, whether they come for the game or to meet new people. You are welcome to bring your own games – here everyone can find a place, whether a long-time player or someone who is about to try board games for the first time. Queen of Spades is a space where laughter, being together and connecting to each other is as important as playing itself.

The events of the club usually fall on Sundays, in different places in Budapest. We always publish the time and venue in our calendar of events. Come and play with us!

Crocheting School

The Crocheting School is one of the newest community events of Labrisz, which started in February 2024. We welcome anyone who would like to learn crocheting or knitting – you can be a complete beginner or a person experienced with handwork.

This friendly, creative space provides an opportunity to create things together, learn from each other and have great conversations on the side. The events take place monthly, usually on a Friday or Saturday, between 5 and 7 PM.

We can provide thread in a limited amount, but please bring your own knitting needles or crochet hooks. The place and time of the event is subject to changes – you can find the latest information in the calendar of events.

Join us, try yourself and experience at how great it feels to create and connect together in an accepting community.

The Crocheting School will temporarily suspend its activities in the autumn of 2025.

Quizzznight

Quizzznight is a new community event of Labrisz since 2024, which offers an opportunity for learning, relaxing and having fun in a playful way. The events do not only provide intellectual challenge but also a friendly, accepting atmosphere – anyone is welcome who would like to test their knowledge and curiosity in the fields of LBTQIA culture, history and social issues.

The topic of the quiz is always related to some actuality or important issue. We have had quizzes on LBTQIA representation in films and video games, we have discussed visibility and commemorated events like the International Day Against Homo-, Bi- and Transphobia or Bisexual Awareness Week.

There is no fixed time for these events, but all of them are special, providing new knowledge, new people and a lot of laughter together. You can find the latest information in the post of each event – come and play with us again!

Gobbi Hilda Film Club

The Gobbi Hilda Film Club is a series of film showings with lesbian and feminist content organised by Labrisz, which started in 2007 with the films of the Budapest Lesbian Film Committee. We show films that explore the questions of identity, social justice and visibility from a female perspective. After each film we have a discussion where, together with invited guests and the audience, we think about the messages of the films, and our personal and community experiences.

Our aim is to create a safe, inclusive space where lesbian and queer women’s life stories, perspectives and voices can really get space and where the key values are visibility, solidarity and thinking together.

The time and location of the film club will be indicated under our current events.

Events

Annual programmes:

LIFT Fesztivál

LIFT – Festival of Lesbian Identities started in October 2005, and since then, it has provided a unique space for celebrating lesbian and queer women’s culture, community and self-expression. The aim of the festival is to create visibility for the variety of LGBTQIA women’s identities, and strengthen community ties through films, discussions, literary events, workshops and exhibitions.

LIFT is not only a cultural event but also a safe and inspiring space where stories meet, where past and present are connected, and where visibility becomes a true experience.

The festival will not take place in 2025; it will return in the autumn of 2026 with a new momentum and a new set of programmes. Until then, follow our websites to be informed in time of the latest updates.

You can find out more about LIFT Festival here.

Labrisz Carnival (costume party)

Labrisz Carnival has been one of the most colourful and most popular events of the community since 2000; a fancy-dress party where playing, self-expression and visibility meet. Carnival is a special time for stepping out of the everyday, and have fun together behind or without a mask.

Every year, the theme of the party reflects on some LBTQIA+ historical or social topic, while creating a liberated, joyful atmosphere. Here you can be whoever you want to be: a reimagined icon, a forgotten hero(ine), or a character who has finally deserved the limelight.

A recurring performer is the lesbian lip-sync band Pink Csikk, who are often joined by stand-up artists and surprise guests to create a good atmosphere.

This is a night of freedom – come join us, celebrate, dance, laugh, and be part of an unforgettable community experience!

A separate house policy applies to the Labrisz Carnival party.

Labrisz Picnic

Labrisz Picnic has been one of the loveliest traditions of the Budapest Pride Weekend for many years. It started in the early 2000s, and since then every year, the day after the Pride March, we gather on Margaret Island to finish celebrating Pride by relaxing, chatting and picnicking together.

This is a real girls’ picnic: blankets, snacks, games, dogs, balls and many-many rainbows – everything we need for a relaxed, happy afternoon together. We sit in the shade of trees, chat, laugh, and make new friends.

Labrisz Picnic is about connecting to the community, about freedom and the joy of relaxing together – whether you took part in the Pride March or only join in for this event, it is a perfect occasion for meeting people.

Come, look for the rainbow on the clearing, and join us for a relaxed summer afternoon!

LGBT History Month

Since 2013, every February or March, the LGBT History Month offers an opportunity to think and celebrate together, for the community – and anyone who is interested in the LGBTQIA past, culture and presence. The aim of this series of events is to make visible the historical and current values that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people, often silenced or sidelined, have contributed to society.

Over the whole month, presentations, discussions, exhibitions, film showings and community events help us remember, learn and connect, not only within the community, but in the broader social space as well.

The series of events is jointly coordinated by three civil society organisations: Labrisz Lesbian Association, Háttér Society and Szimpozion Association. The individual events are published each year on the LGBT History Month’s website and social media pages.

Aims and background

LGBT History Month is about the Hungarian and international LGBT past and the values created by members of sexual and gender minorities, most of which have been invisible until now. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have always been part of national and world history; with their presence and activities, they have helped to shape it even if they had to do it while hiding their true lives and identities. This series of events wishes to demonstrate the presence of LGBT people in history, while also playing an important part in LGBT community building.

Our most important aims:

to point out the presence of LGBT people in history, culture and art;
to call attention to the values that members of the LGBT community have contributed to
to spread information, create discussions and discourses;
to address those who are interested in history, culture and the arts, and to encourage them to discover these in the LGBT context as well.

With this series of events, we wish to create space for the exploration of various histories, be they personal, historical or related to the arts. We hope that, by showing points of connection, we will help not only to reinforce community feeling among LGBT people, but also to gain a wider recognition for the fact that issues related to LGBT people concern society as a whole.

LGBT History Month was first organised by secondary school teacher Rodney Wilson in the USA in 1994. The idea was adopted by England in 2004, Scotland joined two years later, followed by more and more countries.

Hungarian experiences

The series of events was first organised in Hungary in February 2013: we had almost 30 events in Budapest, Szeged and Miskolc. Since then, the LGBT History Month has shown a huge development. In its third year, 2015, we already had 37 programmes with over 1700 visitors altogether. The number of sites outside Budapest also increased, with an event organised in Tahitótfalu and another one in Csobánka.

In the past three years, we have involved nearly 30 cooperating partners into this series of programmes: besides LGBT organisations, the list includes the Faculty of Law of ELTE Budapest University, Hosszúlépés. Járunk? city walks, the MERKAZ Hebrew and Israeli Cultural Centre, the József Attila Circle Literary Association, the Sociology Institute of the Centre for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Open Society Archives, the Serbian Theatre, the Subjective Values Foundation and the Association of Hungarian History Teachers. The series of events was opened in 2013 by film director Károly Makk, who had directed the lesbian-themed feature film Egymásra nézve in 2014, by philosopher János Kis, who had formerly spoken up against the state refusing to register LGBT rights organisation Rainbow Association; and in 2015, by Günter Grau, internationally acclaimed researcher of the gay holocaust.

Over the past years, we have held discussions and presentations on outstanding LGBT historical events and well-known LGBT historical figures, the beginnings of LGBT activism in Hungary and abroad, changes in the attitudes of psychology and the churches towards LGBT people, the appearance of LGBT people in films, the coming out of gay and lesbian politicians, as well as the possibilities of including LGBT history in the school curriculum. The series of events has also included film showings, ballroom dance nights, theatre performances, presentations, sports events and parties. For the first LGBT History Month, a series of graphics depicting well-known Hungarian LGBT people was created by Zorro de Bianco, which were collected in a successful exhibition in 2015.

For further information and actualities, please visit the Facebook page of the event series.

The website of the LGBT History month is: http://lmbttortenetihonap.hu/

Labrisz pilgrimages

Labrisz pilgrimages offer a special community and cultural experience. We follow in the footsteps of outstanding figures of the Hungarian LBT heritage. We visit places – former homes of writers, actresses, philosophers – where personal histories, life paths and memories shed a different light on the past.

The first pilgrimage was organised in 2002 to the small village of Ménfőcsanak, the birthplace of acclaimed writer Erzsébet Galgóczi. Since then, the homes of several other artists have become community pilgrimage places. These programmes are about memory, literature, art and deep personal connections at the same time.

We have not had any pilgrimages recently, but we plan to continue the project – actual information about the next event will be publicised in the calendar of events.

Former pilgrimages:

2002: Ménfőcsanak, pilgrimage to the birthplace of writer Erzsébet Galgóczi
2003: Esztergom, pilgrimage to the former home of writer Sophie Török
2005: Pilgrimage to Szatina, the village figuring in Agáta Gordon’s lesbian-themed novel Goat Lipstick
2006: Szentgyörgypuszta, pilgrimage to the former holiday home of actress Hilda Gobbi
2022: Ménfőcsanak, pilgrimage to the birthplace of writer Erzsébet Galgóczi