Weekends Away
We hold three to four weekend residential events each year in a beautiful rural location, hosting up to 26 people (including the team) from the Friday evening until Sunday lunchtime.
The weekends away are a chance to be with other trans and non binary people to explore, share, learn, and relax away from the pressured environment that many of us spend much of our lives in.
We focus the workshops around a particular theme that has been suggested to us or by us. The TBA team organises and facilitates the workshops throughout the day, and each session will build upon the one before. Most people attend all the workshops. Don't worry, we make sure there are lots of breaks throughout the day and can cater to people's energy needs.
In the past we’ve had weekends that explore disability visibility, relationships, creativity, sex, gender outside the binary, loss, BDSM, body confidence, our future selves and more!
We cook together (following an allergen-aware menu) and we share dorm-style accommodation with four or six people per room.*
The weekends away are also a chance to socialise, play boardgames, laugh, unwind, and just be together.
As one of the founding principles of TBA is around supporting body confidence, our events include naked space in which everyone present is welcome to wear as little or as much clothing as they feel comfortable in. As Lee has described, “We found that when people took their clothes off, the conversations changed. Because they had already bared their physical self, they were more open to baring other stuff as well.”
We also have a tradition of holding a show and tell session on the Saturday night - anyone who wants to can show any part of their body (hands, scars, tattoos, bellies and more) and talk about the significance of that. This can be a chance to talk about change and shift, as well as to ask questions - for those who welcome it - about other people’s bodily experience of both transition and more widely this funny experience of being human.
We welcome you to join us in baring yourself as much or as little as you wish!
* If you’d like to come but are worried about sharing a room with strangers, please know that while it might not be something you’ve done since you were a child, it quickly feels quite comfortable. We have a small number of two-person rooms that are available for those with accessibility needs. If you’re not sure about this, please contact us to talk it through.
Access note: enabling as much access as possible is very important to us, and something we are always striving to improve. If you have any access needs such as those relating to physical and/or mental health, financial, and so on, please contact us to let us know what you need. We will do our best to help you come and take part!
