Fox&Badge FLASHBACK #2: 2016
2016, our 1st year, was about exploration. It was exciting, and exhausting. We didn’t know who we were or what we were doing, or what would work, so we tried 4 different events in 3 different locations.
These were still quite small events (~150, expanding to ~250 by the end of the year) so at one point I suggested we could even contemplate doing an event every 2 months - but by April we were already burned out, and it was only later that year that we decided we missed it & to throw a fourth. We’ve still never thrown more than this.
Valentine’s 2016: FORBIDDEN LOVE
Valentines was already growing kinky.
Our inspirational imagery was heavily artistic, and becoming ever more erotic; I shared the work of lots of artists, but there was a strong emerging sexual tone to match the theme that’s never really left ;) Something was awakening.
We all simply wore red. I wore red bondage tape, latex shorts, heels, a wig - and some chilis.
The venue was Grow in Hackney Wick, which was just 1 room and when I wrote our 1st ever internal manifesto, I thought this was one of our USPs: “we run one-room events where we can keep everyone together”.
Grow had an outdoor space on the canal; we turned a corner of it into a very discreet kink-zone experiment, and most of our gear walked. I spent hours editing together a heavily-blurred abstract video of porn scenes to project - magically undulating blobs of colour that for just a micro-second every hour would unblur to reveal the briefest vignette (I later uploaded them to YouTube; a few years later a bot found them & shut down my account)
We had just 2 performers. Jemma Jane Gore (who just DJed brilliantly at Wild West), who did a magnificent champagne-glitter pour (our 1st ever splosh!). Maya Petrovna Hilcisin emerged in a spectacular gown & I had always thought that we’ve only just got into singing but no - Maya actually briefly sang contemporary opera, there at our 2nd ever event.
Sinead ran the doorlist with Chloe, and introduced a few immersive games, getting guests to lock mini padlocks on each other & hunt for the keys.
3 DJ mates spun - Pete Ellison, Craig Gunn, Giovanni Calemma; Stine Vang did makeup. We allocated just 4 hours to set up in the afternoon, and 5 kind friends helped us hang streamers and a few other very low-key elements; we packed away quickly & took everyone back to ours for an epic afterparty.
Woodlands go to TOKYO
Our 2nd venue was a gig venue in Stoke Newington - & the last time we ran an event in a white-walled space (we run them at night to immerse in the magic of shadow and darkness - and white walls kill that).
The theme was the 1st in a series of 2 called “Woodlands go to..”; there was an edge of innocence and comedy as much as insight as we all explored the ways in which we resemble cute little British woodland animals - here on a trip to Tokyo. Looking back I feel a bit squeamish - though enjoy the bravery that naivete allowed. These days we feel more cautious and evaluative, balancing provocation and sensitivity. I feel we’ve swung a bit too boring - and should more deeply (& respectful) explore the majesty of the wider world. If we find the world in our DNA tests - we could explore that.
I learned that a whole culture is far too vast a theme; that a narrower time period focuses the imagination.
Costume was still an art in progress, & still felt a bit random & fancy-dress; we’d still get a bit of cowboys or flappers or whatever-i-could-muster. We were permissive, like any kinda-house-party really; it took a long time to feel that the whole art project of collective costuming enables a journey, and transformation - and all those refusing to enrol unwittingly prevent the journey.
Sinead’s sister Grainne edited together an anime reel and we put up a few curtains and posters, but were extremely light and quick on decor, with kind help from Jayne & Tina.
The DJs were Sas Darvish, Nick Oxley and Aidan Doherty, who early flagged a sound issue, and helped us grow to always take sound as seriously as possible.
We now had 4 stage performers, and Maya came out in a wild costume that was just made of breasts - a theme we seem to have explored quite a lot more recently ;)
Fancy Chance dragged guests up to dance with her, and the People Pille (Lauren Bridle & Lucy Ridley) created wild crazy costumes bursting with a swarm of pen1ses.
We served Nantaimori sushi off a graceful human platter
Dan ran our 1st ever shibari demo on Emma - & we’ve done shibari ever since.
Woodlands go on SAFARI
Our 3rd event, “Woodlands go on Safari”, hinted at our inner animality, asking: “what is your PARTY animal?”. I think somehow our core friendship group had already seen this as an escape - the liberation of animals. These days I think more in terms of archetypes; this event was lighter of touch.
If SInead personified a Fox and thought I was a badger; other friends identified as bat, boar, chipmunk, deer, dog, hare, hedgehog, mole, owl, rabbit, raccoon, squirrel, vole
We ran it across all 4 floors of the King’s Head Member’s Club - a treasure trove of taxidermy, mostly African fauna - thus our theme.
It was amazing to work with such an elegant venue, which needed no intervention and really elevated the event, and brought out an elegance in our guests (It’s for the same reason that I’m so excited to work with Omeara as a new & elegant venue for New Year’s Eve).
It was clubby but not nightclubby; the only dedicated dancefloor was hidden downstairs, and the least amazing space; it felt a little like a surprising upmarket house party.
Again we had just 3 DJs (still all male - Grant, Wyth, Kai), and 4 performers (Humanimal, Sorcha Ra & People Pile) - but added an immersive moment in the lounge upstairs where Hari Karam Singh created a soundscape; it feels so strange to look back & see how little we curated in all those incredible spaces - but all of this was still just a side project. Still - it was all a little too much for us, and though it was only April, we said this’d be the last event of the year.
NOVEMBHER
We couldn’t resist, and ran a 4th event in November, referencing and complementing the male-focused Movember campaign to create a gender-bender exploration called NovembHER.
The invite text, if a little naive, still resonates; “We all play roles; we all act and mimic, conceal and reveal. Each of us projects a mixture of genders - our own mix of stereotypes and individuality, constantly evolving. Tonight's your night to try something new; lose you; find you.”
Of all the events that year, it was probably the greatest growth space for us.
We returned to the Kings Head, and used the floors more.
It was our first time working with Naomi Wood, who I’d recruited on her podium at Noisily, and who over the years would become our go-to performer (we used to joke that we were Fox&Badge&Naomi).
It was the first time we did mini aerial - with a portable rig and hoop in the 1st floor living room. Naomi floated above us on it, using the male slaves she’d unleashed to pin its legs.
We now had many more performers, including award-winning drag queen Georgie B, who fake-squirted on our guests, and Cock-a-Doodle in the basement. Gareth and Charlie had a fake bitch-fight in the bar, where Rodent DeCay did drag walkabout, whilst Chester Hayes performed in the upstairs Living Room.
We finally had our 1st ever female DJ lineup - & have never looked back.
It was also headlined by our 1st ever non-friend superstar DJ, Just Her, alongside Dani, Bahar (playing a rare vinyl techno set), Ebru, Chloe (& her then-partner Paulo from His Hers) - & Alexandra, in her public debut; I’ve only just realised it was a reunion when both Alexandra & Ebru came back to play for us at MadMaXXX last year.
The venue - a plush members club - is probably still the most lavishly-decorated space we’ve ever worked with (a joy), so needed almost no decor. But my OCD artist went crazy & went round the whole venue measuring all the pictures - then returned and subtly pimped them all with additions so minute that almost no-one noticed: tiny red lips and heels that turned all the Victorian gentlemen and cricketers - and horses - into drag queens.
We produced our 1st ever sweet F&B video - by Thomas Stephens (Onyx Visuals): https://youtu.be/b12ngQfPW24 Antony Newman also created this sweet variant: https://youtu.be/pkTiy6LbWjU
I look back with a warm feeling to this time that now feels so far away.
Things are so different and complex now, but it’s so touching for me to contemplate this gestational period, and see us all growing and exploring. In some ways our contraction in size for New Year’s Eve also comes from this lingering question: what would it be like to take all that we’ve now learned and apply it in a more intimate space? There’s so much to explore in the intersection between scale and identity; space & persona.
You can find 9 photo albums from 2016 at the base of our facebook group (which was our only platform) at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1648415505435346/media/albums
Thanks to all of you that joined us on our journeys that year!
You’re the reason you’re reading this & that we’re still here!
AUTHOR: Alex Haw
Photographs by Nicholas Beutler, Phil Watson, Anatoleya, Alex Haw
