The party putting accessibility and politics centre stage

The middle of the first lockdown in spring 2020. Silent streets filled with ambulances and people out for their government mandated exercise. Police cars with loud hailers slowly circled parks and commons, berating anyone who had the temerity to sit. Across the city, clubs, bars, spaces sat empty. For those of us who find community, joy, connection and meaning on the dance floor it was a desperately lonely, bleak time.

It was in this dark hour that the shining light of Queer House Party appeared. The brainchild of DJ and organiser Harry Gay, the live-streamed DJ sets and online drag performances quickly drew a huge following, creating a community shaped lifeline for queer people across the country.

Almost five years on from the first DJ sets streamed from their south east London kitchen Queer House Party is still going strong. Their events pack out warehouses, whilst their festival appearances pull crowds of thousands. They fill dance floors with sweaty joyous people, soundtracked by an eclectic, genre fluid parade of the best DJs on the scene. With performers, musicians, dancers, vendors and more, there remains no party like a Queer House Party. 

Now a core group of three in the shape of DJs Harry Gay and Passer and host Taali not Charlie we caught up with the Huck List alumni to talk through the last half decade, the ethos that keeps their parties going and what the future holds.

Tell us about how Queer House Party came into being?

Harry Gay: Passer and I first met through community organising and direct action back in 2017. At the time, we were both (very inexperienced and not particularly skilled) DJs, and we started running regular fundraisers in solidarity with organisations supporting queer people in the asylum process. Taali and I go way back—we first met in a club about a decade ago.

By 2019, passer and I were living together in an overpriced, run-down house share in New Cross, South London. That’s where we were when the pandemic and lockdown hit. Both of us were working frontline roles at different homelessness shelters—I was with The Outside Project. As part of my work there, we developed an online community centre, which gave us access to a corporate Zoom account usually reserved for conferences.

When lockdown began, I had the idea to pull together all our battered DJ equipment at home and see if we could pull off a live-streamed DJ set. I put out some DIY promo, inviting people to our “Sexy House Party,” where we’d stream a DJ set live—and realised we could also include online drag performances. We thought a handful of friends might join, but on the first night, over a thousand people tuned in.

That’s when I knew we’d stumbled onto something special. It was an intense and uncertain time, and people were desperate for a sense of relief. They were also looking for new ways to engage with nightlife and electronic music—something that combined accessibility, politics, and a banging time. And so, Queer House Party was born. We quickly taught ourselves how to DJ properly and became experts at throwing accessible online parties on Zoom and continued to make everything up as we went along.

Lots of people I know talk about how important Queer House Party was for them during lockdowns, what did it mean for you guys?

Taali Not Charlie: Queer House Party meant everything to me in lockdown! At the time, I was living in my family home, and just before QHP started, my family got covid really badly and my dad was hospitalised because of it for 10 days. When he came out, we were all looking after him and as he started to recover, I saw Harry’s story about Queer House Party on insta. I was really missing my queer community, and after my dads experience, I was in real need of a dance and a pick me up so I got dressed up and went and from then on I went to every single QHP online. It really saved me in lockdown and gave me hope.

My mum, who at the time was in her late 50s, also came out as a raging bisexual at a QHP online in lockdown, and she was shown so much love. I really believe a huge part of the reason she felt able to do that was because she had been virtually attending so many QHP and seeing people of all ages in the community there. We still hear stories from people at our parties about how it saved them in lockdown, so I’m forever grateful for it and to be the host of it now.

Once lockdown ended you took the party out into the world, talk us through what that has been like!

Harry: We quickly made a name for ourselves on the queer nightlife scene, blowing up in a way none of us had anticipated—or were remotely ready for. Coming out of lockdown and into the clubs was a whirlwind. We had to translate the community we’d built online into physical spaces, throwing parties that honoured everything we’d created. Before lockdown, if we’d pitched our concept to a club, it would’ve been rejected outright. But post-lockdown, with the online following we’d built, venues were lining up to have us. It was surreal but empowering—suddenly, we could do everything on our own terms.

Early on, we were spotted by Years & Years. [Lead singer] Olly Alexander asked if he could do a surprise performance at one of our parties, which then led to us joining the band on an arena tour and opening Wembley. That still doesn’t feel real.

The festival circuit picked us up early on, and before we knew it, we were flying out to different countries to throw parties, then coming straight back to London on no sleep to take over huge stages at huge festivals. Those early days were a chaotic blur of energy and excitement. The highlight, though, has to be our Glastonbury debut last year. We were booked to play at 4 PM at The Rumshack, and we were convinced no one would turn up. We poured everything into that show, booking all our friends out of our own pocket, and I told everyone backstage not to expect much of a crowd. Five minutes later, we found out they’d stopped letting people in—the queue was over capacity before the doors even opened. We later heard it was the busiest that stage had been in over a decade. Those two hours are something I’ll never forget.

Over the years collective members have come and gone onto do their own incredible things. Our core team is now the three of us and we’re stronger than ever - we’re a mix of organisers from working class, QTIBPOC and trans backgrounds and this really informs how we curate our parties and run them. This means that our crowd is one of the most diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, age and class backgrounds that I’ve seen in London which feels really special. The three of us are backed by a huge network of amazing queer creatives that we work with and we’re really focused on making next year bigger and better than ever.

How important are your politics to the parties you throw?

Passer: It’s basically the reason we throw parties.

Politics, care and community were the catalyst for us starting QHP and as we’ve grown and developed we’ve always tried to keep the politics at the core of how we organise. At the end of the day, we are just a party, we know this isn’t the place where the ‘revolution’ is going to happen. But we believe there’s huge political potential found on the dance floor, found through music and creating a safe, inclusive and liberatory queer space; for expression, release, community building, fundraising.

Over the years we’ve DJ’d on the streets supporting demonstrations calling for divestment from fossil fuel companies and weapons manufacturers. We throw an online event every Christmas alongside The Outside Project so that queers that may be homeless in temporary accommodation or at home with their phobic parents have access to queer community. At our next event on 7th December we are raising money to support The Outside Project to open their recently announced Trans+ Winter Shelter; and we will always ensure that those we are raising money for will gain free access to our events.

People engaging in queer liberatory politics, activism and campaigning are the only reason we are able to do what we do. We want to honour that history and think it’s our duty to continue the fight; it’s not over.

Harry: Despite all the attention, we’ve stayed true to our politics, keeping them central to everything we do. That’s meant we’ve never fully integrated into the music industry—I like to say we’re “industry-adjacent.” The usual trajectory for a collective like ours hasn’t been possible. We’ve turned down countless opportunities and ended professional relationships because we refuse to compromise or filter what we have to say. Most recently, we’ve been campaigning and fundraising for Gaza, despite the “script” of what’s deemed acceptable to say. We refused to stay silent, and in turn, some people have refused to work with us. That’s not something that will ever change.

Accessibility is a big part of Queer House Party, what does that mean to you?

Passer: Beyond the obvious I think our events are so accessible because we really try to listen to communities needs and act upon them. That means, for example, making sure we always have lower income and free tickets for those who usually can’t attend club nights. It means having the incredible safe only as our welfare team with us at every party to make sure everyone knows there is always someone for them to talk to and a quiet space if they need a minute as clubs can be overwhelming spaces for many people. It means having one of our rooms at our events dedicated to being a calmer space where you can sit down and make a badge with badge cafe or do something with our other incredible vendors and with our community that is a bit calmer before you head back to the dance floor if you choose to.

As independent party throwers and promoters, do you find it difficult to be able to meet the diverse needs of your audience?

Passer: Of course it’s difficult. We don’t always succeed in trying to meet the range of needs of our audience, and we’re always trying to improve. There’s no such thing as ‘fully accessible’ because some people’s access needs conflict with other individuals and the facilities to meet the needs aren’t always present within London’s venues. But that’s not stopped us trying our best, finding workarounds, gathering feedback and implementing it, always evolving, being flexible and humble.

London’s venues, on the whole, aren’t very accessible, particularly many of the queer venues. Because it costs a lot of money to make the alteration to make a venue accessible and queers have been pushed to the margins, geographically and financially. But I think, inherent in that experience of marginalisation, and for us particularly having started in a very DIY way, means that we know how to be adaptable and get shit done. So yes it is difficult, but it's worth it, no question.

Describe a QHP event to us! What makes it so unique?

Taali: For me, what makes Queer House Party unique is the different elements our events bring and who we book for our events. We take a lot of time curating each event, making sure it’s a different vibe and experience for every single one. The music genres and fusions are different each time, we make sure to book talented DJs, gogo dancers and performers that have worked hard and made a name for themselves. We book people who are incredible and at the start of their journey, and those who should be being booked more but due to racism, colourism, transphobia, fatphobia and/or ableism aren’t.

We also book performers from sub-sections of our community that consistently have their culture stolen by club nights but are rarely booked like those from the ballroom scene like Haus Of Telfar and sex worker collectives like Cybertease and Sex and Rage. We always have queer and trans vendors at our events which bring a wholesome exciting element, and we still have our events live-streamed so anyone who for any reason can’t attend irl can stream in and be part of the night. We’re by no means the first to have some of these elements at a club night, but having them all definitely makes our crowd one of the most special and we will always give flowers to the events we’ve learnt from like Pxssy palace and Misery party.

Whats next for Queer House Party? What does 2025 look like?

Harry: Firstly, we have our last party of the year on December 7th featuring Tash LC and Tom Rasmussen as headliners alongside Nadine Noor from Pxssy Palace, Thempress, Sana, a new south london punk-absurdist-drag collective POMP! And as always we’ll have a take over from Haus of Telfar.

We’re turning five next year, which is absolutely wild! Everything has happened so quickly, and it genuinely feels like yesterday we were opening up Zoom every Friday night during lockdown. I’m so proud of what we’ve built together and how we’ve managed to carve out a space in London’s queer nightlife—a space that draws in so many people who might not otherwise be out queer clubbing in the city.

We’ve just finalised the lineup for our March birthday event, and it’s ridiculously huge. It’s all about family and friend vibes, featuring loads of people who’ve been part of the journey with us and have gone on to blow up in their own ways. We’re also planning to hit the festivals hard again next year, although there’s nothing we can announce just yet.

Right now, we’re really focusing on making our London events the best they can be—it’s something we all care about deeply. We haven’t had much of a plan these past five years; we’ve just taken things as they’ve come. I reckon next year will be more of the same: bigger, queerer, and better than ever!

Tickets for Queer House Party’s next party are available here.

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