Aberration’s Got Talent, Bank Vault bar, Aberystywth. Sign up for your five-minute slot (limited numbers) by emailing aberrationcymru@gmail.com
A fun talent night with all the excitement of a TV show but none of the competitiveness. Come along and enjoy the show!
Live acts from the local LGBTQ+ community. Expect comedy, music and radical drag! Compered by Helen Sandler.
Bank Vault is a gorgeous venue that kindly welcomes Aberration without charge, so please support this lovely intimate bar in return by buying lots of drinks! They are well stocked including superb craft beers.
Also please bring cash for donations to AllOut, the international campaigning charity that channels funds direct to LGBTQ+ projects at grassroots level.
SPONSOR
Aberration is generously supported by Aberystwyth University.
For LGBTQ+ History Month UK, Aberration presents ‘Double Lives’ – an evening of talks and live performances in the Studio at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, plus an afternoon workshop.
Details are being firmed up and will be announced soon. Get the date in your diary! Saturday 24 February 2024.
We are thrilled to welcome Aim King to Aberration at the Bank Vault – intimate bar venue in Aberystwyth. Doors 6pm, onstage around 7pm. Host Helen Sandler. Free Entry. Donations to All Out.
Prepare to be bathed in sound, as haunting new voice Aim King performs original spoken word over live beats from their new band. A unique evening!
Aim writes amazing lyrics that wash over you and evoke visions and emotions – unique but with an affinity with artists such as Arlo Parks or Kae Tempest, or going back in time Massive Attack and Tricky. You can have a listen to the stunning Liminal album here: https://aimking.bandcamp.com/album/liminal-l
Aim King is an ecologist, filmmaker, and poet, who grew up in London and is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD at Aberystwyth University. Through writing, they are interested in drawing together threads of inner and outer worlds, in accessing the collective heart-mind, and in making transitory feelings tangible. This year they released a spoken word album, entitled liminal(l), which explores the in-betweenness we exist within.
Bank Vault is a gorgeous venue that kindly welcomes Aberration without charge, so please support this lovely intimate bar in return by buying lots of drinks! They are well stocked including superb craft beers. Also please bring cash for donations to AllOut, the international campaigning charity that channels funds direct to LGBTQ+ projects at grassroots level.
Aberration is generously supported by Aberystwyth University.
14 December from 6pm – festive drinks and chat, Bank Vault, Aberystwyth
Come along and enjoy a relaxed evening together in a festive atmosphere. Free!
Bank Vault is a gorgeous venue that kindly welcomes Aberration without charge, so please support this lovely intimate bar in return by buying lots of drinks! They are well stocked including superb craft beers.
Also please bring cash for donations to AllOut, the international campaigning charity that channels funds direct to LGBTQ+ projects at grassroots level.
Aberration is generously supported by Aberystwyth University.
13 July 2023, Bank Vault bar, Aberystwyth. 6pm doors, 7pm start
The popular Queer Diary night from ‘That London’ is on tour – and they’re coming to Aberystwyth especially for Aberration! People, get ready!
Would You Read Your Teenage Diary Aloud To A Room Full Of People?
A brave group of LGBTQIA+ folk are doing just that at Queer Diary – the night where queers share our teen angst (and joy, dreams, follies, and fabulousness). We can’t promise to reunite you with your first crush, but we do aim to reignite that rush of adrenaline you got when they first noticed you.
In here the goths, the punks, the emos, the nerds, the glee-clubbers (and maybe a few populars?) come together as grown-ups, to escape cis-het-normativity by sharing our younger selves’ innermost thoughts via old diary entries, fanfiction stories, tumblr posts, and possibly the odd bit of cringey poetry!
Mae croeso i chi ddarllen yn Gymraeg – rhowch wybod i ni pan fyddwch yn cofrestru, a chrynhowch yn Saesneg ar ddechrau neu ddiwedd eich darlleniad os yn bosibl plis.
If your contribution is not in English – whether it’s in Welsh or another language – please let us know when signing up so we can facilitate your reading. It would be great if you could summarise in English if possible at the start or end of your reading.
Note: If you have registered to read then you don’t need to book a ticket. If you incur expenses you can claim them back from Queer Diary.
Don’t want to read? Come and listen! We need an audience!
Please book if you possibly can, so that the fabulous Queer Diary presenter and producer, Beth and Josie, can share details with you!
TICKETS: Pay what you can – between zilch and £12 depending on your circumstances. Book via OutSavvy here >>
ACCESS: Ground floor bar. Wheelchair access by side door which bar staff will need to open for you. Let us know if you would like us to meet you outside at a specific time to make this easier. (Email aberrationcymru@gmail.com) There are two unisex toilets. We are sorry but the toilets are not accessible by wheelchair.
Ethos
This is an LGBTQIA+ themed night, and all open-minded folk are welcome. Trans and non-binary people are of course very much part of our rainbow at both Aberration and Queer Diary. Straight allies are welcome in the audience too.
Please note this event is themed around memories of teenage years gone by, and is aimed at adult audiences.
Reading and telling tales from his books and his colourful past!
Thurs 29 June 2023 Doors open 6pm for bar and chat, onstage around 7pm
Venue: Bank Vault bar, 1 New Street, Aberystwyth
Mike Parker by Ming de Nasty
Writer, broadcaster and friend of Aberration, Mike Parker, will read from his new book All the Wide Border – in which he walks the borderlands between Cymru and England. Mike also has some tales up his sleeve especially for the Aberration audience. Would you like to hear about when Mike met Lily Savage, when he kissed Dana International (the first trans Eurovision winner), when he admired the Cerne Abbas Giant (giant by name and giant by endowment), or just how he got his very gay house? Mike will entertain us with as many of these encounters as he has time for!
Mike is a fascinating and entertaining speaker, a witty wanderer who has queered travel writing and psycho-geography for the 21st century.
He is also an activist for Welsh independence and LGBTQ+ rights. In his previous book, On the Red Hill, Mike rewrote the history of the past 50 years via the heritage of his own house and the gay couple who lived there before. And before that, he stood for parliament and wrote about it in The Greasy Poll.
Mike previously co-wrote the first edition of The Rough Guide, came out as a Map Addict, and sailed round Wales in the TV series Coast to Coast (by boat) and Great Welsh Roads (by van).
About the night
Everyone is welcome at this edition of Aberration yn y Dre / Aberration Goes to Town. Just turn up on the night at the Bank Vault bar (1 New Street, Aberystwyth). We have an LGBTQ+ ethos, with trans people very much included. But you don’t have to be queer to be here – straight and cisgender people are welcome too. Just bring an open mind.
Come early from 6pm to get a good seat and have a drink and a chat. Free entry but please buy drinks to support our lovely venue – and bring some cash to get a personally signed copy of the book for yourself or a friend. Plus donation box for AllOut charity.
ACCESS: Ground floor bar. Wheelchair access by side door which bar staff will need to open for you. Let us know if you would like us to meet you outside at a specific time to make this easier. (Email aberrationcymru@gmail.com) There are two unisex toilets. We are sorry but the toilets are not accessible by wheelchair.
Queer Tales from Wales are back on the road in the sunshine this summer (2023) with our most popular show, ‘An Extraordinary Female Affection: The Life and Love of the Ladies of Llangollen’.
This is a playful performance (in English) that brings these intriguing women and their household and friends back to life. Described by audiences as ‘superb’, ‘sensational’ and ‘fabulous’! You can catch the show at these venues:
Sunday 11 June 5pm Out & Wild festival – thanks to those who came along and threw flowers!
Sat 24 June 3pm Storiel Bangor Tickets include tea and cake.This will be our first-ever performance at Storiel. Edrych ymlaen! Details and booking line here >>
Sun 2 July 3.30pm Plas Newydd, Llangollen – home of the Ladies! Tickets are £22.50 (plus booking fee), to include tea and cake with the Ladies, our promenade performance, and entry to the House so you can look round during the day and see the Gentleman Jack Costume Exhibition too. Book via Eventbrite >
The Ladies will look forward to reading your letters of introduction and meeting you and your cows. Croeso cynnes i bawb!
The author and comedian VG Lee is coming to town for Aberration on 16 May at the Bank Vault bar!
The brilliant novelist and short story writer VG Lee is coming all the way from Hastings to entertain us. Venue: Bank Vault bar, 1 New Street, Aberystwyth.
This event is FREE. No booking. Arrive from 6pm when the Bank Vault bar opens for a great range of craft beers, wine, spirits and superior soft drinks!
Please support this lovely venue by buying drinks And please bring cash too, to buy signed books from our special guest. She will be onstage around 7pm.
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ABOUT OUR SPECIAL GUEST: VG LEE
VG Lee (aka Val) is an author and comedian. She’s written five novels and two collections of short stories, the latest being Oh You Pretty Thing (Tollington, 2019).
Past books are: The Comedienne, The Woman in Beige, Diary of a Provincial Lesbian, As You Step Outside, Always You Edina, and Mr Oliver’s Object of Desire – runner up for the YLVA Publishing Literary Prize for Fiction 2017. Val was long-listed for the BBC National Short Story Award 2022. She is a judge for both the Polari Book Prize and The Hastings Book Festival Short Story Prize.
VG Lee also writes for newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, Diva and The Lady. She embarked on a stand-up comedy career just when other people might be planning their retirement – and made it to the finals of Hackney Empire’s New Act of the Year.
VG Lee is an old friend of the Aberration organisers and we are absolutely delighted she is coming to Aberystwyth especially for our fabulous audience. Be there! Edrych ymlaen!
And please bring cash too, to buy signed books from our special guest. She will be onstage around 7pm. 
