People are all we’ve got; these are the stories of those shaping the UK’s cultural climate.
Step outside any club, and you’re hit by a barrage of sounds and smells: the thumping bass of the music, the stench of Marlboro Gold mixed with watermelon vape, and the random snippets of conversation from the people gathered around you.
In this socially-beguiling setting, if you listen closely, you might hear some of the weirdest, most interesting, and Kafka-esque words exchanged between those you find yourself stood out there with.
‘Not-So-Smart Whip’: Dealing Injuries at a Welsh Music Festival
It was June 2022. The academic year had just finished, the sweet smell of summer was in the air, and around twenty of my closest friends and I had escaped to South Wales to sesh the weekend away at Gottwood Festival, an electronic music festival advertised as a “mystical little party…hidden in the depths of the Welsh forest.”
Two days after we arrived, the energy was still ecstatic, the good vibes completely and utterly contagious, setting the tone for a summer 2022 that was going to be one for the books.
The Future is Femme: The Changing Faces of Bristol’s Bouncers
To put on a hi-viz tabard, display a Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence card and to assume the role of a door security officer as a woman or non-binary person in the UK is not easy.
It is to subject oneself to staggering levels of work-place prejudice, coming either from the management of the venue you’ve been assigned to protect for the evening, or the distrustful public in attendance who see you as an obstacle to their tumultuous brand of after-hours fun.
‘Two Shots and a Fisting, Please Mate‘: Revelations of a Bartender in a Gay Sex Club
I come from a town a two-hour drive to the north-east of the London metropolis. The two places are wildly different.
My hometown, in my view as a 24-year-old gay man with a wealth of intimate experience with those of the same persuasion, is incredibly straight. It’s the same no matter where you go; bland sports bars are ubiquitous and uninventive clubs are complacent with their playlists of soulless chart-toppers.
We Are No Longer Going to G.A.Y. or Heaven
LGBTQ+ and Ethnic communities struggle to find places where they feel welcome and can party and drink without the stress of being othered because of who they are and how they present.
It is rare to find spaces that are controlled and populated by members of the community, when u live within a homophobic, transphobic and racist society (no matter how hidden). Members of the community continuously find themselves casted out from mainstream society and are forced to hide themselves for the sake of their own safety.
Smoking is cool again, apparently, so here is a list that matches personality types to their brand of fags.
From classics like B&H to the new funky fresh taste of Lost Marys, every brand attracts a certain kind of clientele – from blue collar scaffolders to east London interns – and everyone has a brand that reflects them. Gather round and read on to see if you can spot yourself.
Mariam and Kate travel to the streets of Peckham to find out the gossip behind the bar from a bartender based in Central London.