Lead Me Into Temptation Please 2024

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Celebrate queer history with superstar David Hoyle and Rupaul's Drag Race UK's Black Peppa! Enjoy market stalls, performances, film screenings, a cafe, a bar, a DJ, workshops, and an exhibition.

Humanists UK and Conway Hall are excited to announce the flagship event of Humanist Heritage: Doers, Dreamers, Place Makers, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Lead Me Into Temptation, Please: LGBT Summer Fair is a hub of creativity, embracing freedom of expression beyond the oppressive tendencies of some religious contexts. The historic spaces of Conway Hall will be transformed with market stalls, performances, film screenings, a cafe, a bar, a DJ, and workshops, as well as an exhibition of archival materials and contemporary art. Highlights include cabaret superstar David Hoyle and Rupaul’s Drag Race UK’s Black Peppa.

Inspired by LGBT Humanists (who were founded in response to government censorship of the ‘blasphemous’ Gay News in the 1970s), this fair invites us all to reflect on religiously-motivated discrimination and to express ourselves despite it. Rather than the prayer, ‘lead us not into temptation’, we say Lead Me Into Temptation, please.

Lineup: Black Peppa, David Hoyle, Beth Watson, Carrot, Claire Mead, CN Lester, EM Parry, Housmans Bookshop, London Humanist Choir, Mahatma Khandi & the Khandi Shop, Orlando, Prinx Silver, River Manning, Rachael Field, Saintmaking: The Canonisation of Derek Jarman by Queer ‘Nuns’, SL Grange, Theophina Gabriel, Tomara Garrod, and more!

#LeadMeIntoTemptation

During the day, fairgoers can:
- Screen print their own Lead Me Into Temptation, Please t-shirt with artist River Manning;
- Create zines, badges, and poetry over a series of creative workshops;
- Watch a special screening of the short film Saintmaking, depicting the canonisation of Derek Jarman by the London Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence;
- Browse the wares of artists and sellers, including Housmans radical bookshop;
- Explore the landmark exhibition Picturing Nonconformity: LGBT Humanist Heritage.

From 18:30, the Main Hall will be transformed into a performance space, featuring artists including:
- The evening’s host, Carrot, ‘everyone’s favourite drag vegetable’;
- David Hoyle, the first English ‘saint’ to be ‘canonised’ by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence since the ceremony in 1991 for artist and activist Derek Jarman;
- Black Peppa, Rupaul’s Drag Race UK star, who spoke openly on the show about her struggles with homophobia in religious contexts throughout her upbringing;
- London Humanist Choir, the UK’s foremost non-religious choir, who will be singing a repertoire of LGBT classics, from Queen to Elton John;
- Mahatma Khandi and the Khandi Shop, an iconic drag troupe who will be strutting their stuff to the likes of numbers from Sister Act;
- Orlando, drag performer and cultural historian from the University of Oxford, whose research-led work has been featured in major institutions like the National Gallery, Tate, and the V&A.