The Queer Met Gala of Massachusetts returns on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, at Mechanics Hall in Downtown Worcester. Queer AF, the art and fashion show fundraiser for the nonprofit Love Your Labels, invites you to explore a world beyond boundaries and binaries with this year’s theme: Ethereal Beings.

Trans and Queer people are often treated as intangible — myths, projections, misunderstandings — but our lives are real and revolutionary acts. Through light, reflection, color, and form, Queer AF 2025 will immerse you in a world free of the fixed perceptions many try to impose.

We’ll be announcing our headliner and featured designers and performers this summer (follow @thequeeraf on Instagram for the latest). Queer AF is known for its community-grown runway, which recruits local models and uplifts people of all sizes, genders, identities, and abilities — this fashion show sends the message that all bodies are beautiful and worthy.

How do you embody light? Bring your most mystical, otherworldly, dazzling self to Queer AF Ethereal Beings on Friday, Sept. 5, at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m.