London’s largest LGBTQ+ electronic music festival returns this summer for a third year in a row. Taking place at its usual Hackney Wick watering hole, Body Movements hosts thousands of attendees and over 60 artists and DJs, with this year promising to be the most exciting instalment yet.
In February, the festival launched its first ever winter edition held at Printworks, with a line-up that included the likes of Bored Lord, Cobrah and Crystallmess, to name a few. The event was a welcome surprise to Body Movements fans, who are used to having to wait a full year for the event. “The queer clubbing community deserves to take over phenomenal spaces such as Printworks, giving our community a rare chance to showcase their talent on a huge scale,” says festival co-founder Saoirse Ryan, “our ethos is about visibility, to platform queer artists to a wider audience. Local talent will always be at the forefront of our events and we are excited to platform more incredible queer DJs, live acts and performers in exciting spaces in the future.”
And that’s exactly what they’ll be doing come July 29th, as they introduce a plethora of DJs, crews and artists, both established and emerging. With tickets already disappearing at an alarming rate, we get to know the people behind London’s most highly anticipated LGBTQ+ rave.
“I run Inferno, a queer rave-come-art platform. We have thrown events at the ICA and hold regular events at Colour Factory in Hackney Wick. The winter edition of Body Movements at Printworks was incredible! I had the honour of representing Inferno and played a banging set, finishing on a rave remix of TaTu’s All The Things She Said. The room filled with queer euphoria and it was so beautiful. We are super grateful for Saoirse [Ryan] and Clayton [Wright], as well as the rest of the Body Movements team for all of their hard work and including us in a stellar line-up each year.”
Mairi Houston - Little Gay Brother
“There are so many crews within the queer community whom I respect and feel inspired by, but I also have huge gratitude towards the collectives I’m a part of. Little Gay Brother, Sue Veneers, HeSheThey and Feel it, have all helped shape me as a performer and who I am as a person. Body Movements feels like a playground for queer adults where we can truly express ourselves and come together whilst feeling completely safe.”
“Queer House Party is a London-based grassroots and DIY queer rave. As well as being professional party starters, our majority trans and working-class core team are also frontline workers, campaigners, and activists. We centre our experience and politics at our parties, creating a space that is open-minded, non-judgmental, and accessible to all queers. We want to see more queer working-class babes putting on raves for the gays!
It’s an honour to have been involved with Body Movements since the beginning. We’ve been holding down the free and accessible stage for a couple of years now at the summer editions, which is absolutely what QHP is about. Bringing clubbing to those that are shut out of those spaces - even shut out of the mainstream queer spaces - due to finances, disability, or other social parameters.”
“I’m the founder of GGI, a rave and arts platform for London’s queer and trans ESEA (East and Southeast Asian) community. It’s our second year working with Body Movements and I’ve loved this opportunity to showcase a taste of what GGI has to offer to a wider audience. As a new and more grassroots event, our parties tend to be quite intimate and tailored for the queer and trans ESEA crowd, with food, performances and film screenings, so it’s exciting to do something different and also to get a chance to be on a stage alongside pals such as Queer House Party and Howl!”
“I’m Akeil and I am the founder and creator of Queer Bruk, an inclusive black and queer-centred night that aims to bring Afro-Caribbean music to queer nightlife. Our ethos is to create spaces that celebrate blackness within the context of queerness, removing the idea that they cannot live together. Current crews, artists, collectives we’re loving are Jungle Kitty, Donnie Sunshine and To The Left . We’re also obsessed with Lady Shaka and Jordss. We want to celebrate them all!”
“I’m always excited to work with new people and I’m drawn to open-minded creatives. London is full of people pushing boundaries and that’s one of the reasons I love it here. I was at the first edition of Body Movements - it’s been amazing to see this monumental growth and success. Printworks has never seen a party of this kind, it’s a huge achievement to fill and sell out that space.”
Get tickets to the summer 2023 edition of Body Movements here.
