“We need a space that is completely our own”: Body Movements festival is queer chaos in the best way

This festival considers and cares for every attendee
Gemma Bell
Isobel Van Dyke2 August 2022

This year has truly been a summer of love for the UK’s LGBTQ+ community. London Pride broke records with over 1.5 million attendees, as did Trans Pride the following week with its largest numbers ever. Last week it was announced that Eurovision is to be hosted in the UK next year, and the Lionesses brought it home while captain Leah Williamson wore a rainbow captain’s armband.

On Saturday, another event on the UK’s queer calendar took place. The second installment of electronic music festival Body Movements swept Hackney Wick, welcoming thousands of community members as well as more than 60 artists and DJs.

As a twentysomething queer person living in London, there are a few spots that you can guarantee running into an ex or two. London Fields on a sunny day; the bagel shop on Stoke Newington Highstreet at 4am; the Chromatica Ball; M&S’s cotton underwear section; and, undoubtedly, Body Movements. The heat was far from the only reason people were sweating.

Founded by Saoirse Ryan and Clayton Wright, the festival was postponed for three years due to Covid, but kicked off with a bang last October. “I was playing as an artist at a lot of queer events around the country and realised there was this abundance of talent that existed in these very small subcultures but there wasn’t a large platform for them”, said Ryan, “it’s an amazing melting pot of people to be in”.

Gemma Bell

Freedom is the aim of the game for Body Movements but to achieve it safety must come first. Thanks to Ryan and Wright, Hackney Wick was transformed from industrial dystopia to queer utopia, taken over by beautiful anarchy - without the usual side of danger.

Split across 16 different spaces, highlights from the festival included a DJ set from J.Aria at CRATE Brewery (which crowds battled to get into). Big Dyke Energy took over the Colour Factory mezzanine with sets from FAFF, Angel D’lite and Sadidas, who took us from day to night seamlessly - even if slightly confusing when re-emerging into darkness. Meanwhile, the crowd over at the Lot went from high energy to euphoric weeping as Jennifer Loveless switched from electronic to Kylie Minogue’s Love At First Sight.

The day was slightly chaotic. That said, a little chaos can keep you on your toes, especially the sheer chaos released by a music switch playing techno to day-old Beyoncé tracks.

Clayton Wright, founder of queer events such as Gay Little Brother and Feel It got involved in the nightlife scene as “there was never any queer or gay spaces within the festival community, for years we were trying to carve out space, to allow people to feel seen and respected, but what I’ve learnt is that it’s really hard to do that in the straight festival space. We need a space that is completely our own and that we control every aspect of. That’s why Body Movements is so unique”.

This year the festival partnered with We Exist, the trans-led healthcare fund and community action group providing more spaces for trans people through things such as pop-up cafes, art spaces and exhibitions, in order to raise funds for healthcare.

June Lam and Jo Cunningham-Alloway from We Exist have both spoken at Trans Pride in the past and had this to say about this year’s protest: “It wasn’t about enjoyment, the reality is that right now in the UK, trans people are under attack. There were 20,000 people on the streets, it was a protest, there wasn’t much coverage, there wasn’t much attention, and that’s part of the problem, that nobody’s listening or when we do try to talk people ignore. Actions like Trans Pride are going completely unnoticed”.

Because Body Movements is created for and by the queer community, it cares for and considers every type of person who might attend. From Gay Little Brother to Big Dyke Energy, Pxssy Palace as well as trans-only spaces, Body Movements looks after its crowd in a way no other festival would. You may not be able to prevent your ex from attending, but the festival provides many escapes.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in