Founded in 2024 by Ty Autry in collaboration with Out Front Theatre Company, Lavender Performing Arts Festival’s first season hosted nine unique shows, 17 performances over a 4-day period and kicked-off it’s inauguration with an captivated audience of 650 people. Lavender Fest is on a mission to foster multiple generations of queer performance art by giving new and experienced voices a space to explore and express themselves. As a curated week-long festival, Lavender Fest will have something for everyone. Bringing together every aspect of the queer spectrum together by showcasing the full range of the rainbow for one week. With this festival, it becomes one of the few spaces in the United States dedicated to the advancement of queer artists.

Ty Autry

Festival Director

After growing up in the Deep South, where his love of engineering, marketing, and storytelling first developed, Ty went to Atlanta to pursue a degree in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech. While there, Ty was an active member of DramaTech Theatre and used the space to express himself to grow as a performer. After graduating summa cum laude, Ty decided to become an apprentice at Georgia Ensemble Theatre to pursue his dream of performing even further. He then spent a few years in New York City, graduated from Atlantic Acting School, and joined the faculty at that conservatory for some years to teach Website Design & Digital Branding for Creatives. It was in New York where they learned to unleash their full creative potential as a playwright and producer of bold queer works. Since then, Ty is proud to call Atlanta home and has written multiple plays. Two of which, A Southern Fairytale and At Birth, have toured North America, Europe, and Australia.