Queer and trans joy like this can be felt across the site. I only started properly playing in September last year, so I feel very happy and proud that I’ve got to this place.” “If I’d told myself a year ago that I would be playing a festival this year I don’t think I would have believed that,” Misfya says after her bouncy, energising DJ set. One newcomer is Misfya, playing their first festival after winning one of Flesh’s LSA scholarships. Like inclusive queer club nights Pxssy Palace, Crossbreed and Body Movements, Flesh centres queer and trans people members of those collectives play at Flesh, joined by resident DJs from London parties Inferno and Big Dyke Energy.
“I wore a really skimpy outfit for Homobloc and I kept getting touched by cis gay men and it felt really uncomfortable, whereas here I feel like I could have both nips, front bum and back bum, and it would be totally fine, which is great. “At all the festivals I’ve been to, like Stray and Homobloc, I’ve worn various levels of clothes,” they continue. The camping, hanging out and seeing queer people dancing in nature has been really special.”įlesh festivalgoers. “When you’re with a lot of queer people it’s usually only at a queer night. “It has been really fun though,” says Jenny, who was at Flesh to celebrate their friend’s birthday. Food trucks haven’t opened nor has the music restarted.
On Sunday morning, punters queue for the event’s sole coffee seller. “You can change people’s future.”įlesh’s debut outing is not without difficulties: sound systems have technical problems early on, the bar runs out of cold drinks by 8pm, and at 11pm on the dot, the music stops – which was flagged by organisers the day before the festival, but still surprises many people. “It takes effort, but it’s possible to create meaningful opportunities,” Togni says. As well as the inclusive lineup, they wanted to give “newcomers to the industry a way to flourish”: Flesh ran a competition for queer, trans and intersex people of colour where two winners got scholarships to the London Sound Academy (LSA) to hone their skills, and a slot to play at Flesh. Organiser Sam Togni, founder of London label Boudica, explains that one of the main intentions of the festival is “to celebrate our community, especially after being separated from it for so long and seeing so many parties, clubs and events around the world forced to shut down”.