Fox&Badge FLASHBACK #8: 2023
2023 felt like a truly vintage year, with a sequence of really strong, varied and unique explorations of incredible cultures. We felt deeply immersed and in love with each theme, inspired to rove the world and its great history to unearth the potential that lies within each of us.
🌿VIKINGS🌿
Until very recently, when anyone asked me what my favourite Fox&Badge was, I always said VIKINGS. There was something extremely special about this event - the electric warrior energy of the crowd, the repetitive beat of the drums, and the inherent wildness it called forth.
We gravitate to themes that have a deep poetic power - with a rich social and musical culture and that recall rituals of the collective that feel so distant in our modern Western world. To ones that offer imaginative, sexy costume options (especially for men!) and that awaken powerful archetypes within us.
Vikings: Spring Saga hit all of these notes perfectly. It’s still one of my favourite events, and marked a real turning point for us in terms of the level of production, professionalism, and performance. And the crowd, as usual, was absolutely stunning - unified by its collective rune-painted faces, horns, fur, and fabulous leather and metal.
It introduced us to the haunting sounds of Heilung and Wardruna, activated our inner warriors, and gave us the incredible opportunity to use fire inside for the first time at scale. Dave (Ddraig), Daria, Lawr, Naomi and Lamis wowed the crowd with their spectacular performances. Izzy and I led a troop of Viking Warriors clad in the beautiful creations of Vitta, a macramé master from our community.
It also felt like a step up in terms of decor as David Norman and his father lovingly crafted and painted loads of amazing Viking shields and spears, both for performers and the walls of our great Hall. We hung ropes from every vertical of the balustrades with seats, encouraging people to play and hang on them, and awoke to the realisation that the best decor is interactive; that all objects can become moments; that space activates time.
🌹WAX COLLABORATION🌹
WAX got in touch and invited us to host a moment in the main room at their launch event at the legendary Heaven in May, and we concocted something we’d always dreamed of - a nonstop performance, powered by Aldanya’s mesmerising set.
Inspired by Vikings, we set a pagan theme. WAX had a team of resident performers shared by the various teams (like Torture Garden and HeSheThey) hosting rooms; many others from our performer community stepped up and joined them, and the dancefloor exploded with 2 hours of wild hot abandon and ritual. David wove hazel crowns for the maidens and Ryan built our 1st splosh tray.
Izzy & I baptised in cream; Andromeda consecrated in clay. Jai lit it beautifully, and it was the 1st time we really began exploring live VJ visuals. We again used lights as props - a glowing Maypole; illuminated wings. It was strange to perform for such a hybrid nonF&B audience, but a privilege to work with both WAX & Heaven, both of whom became instrumental to our journey ahead.
We chose the theme SUMMER OF LOVE for many reasons - because we wanted something light and fun and beautiful to honour this youthful season of the sun; because we wanted to explore the archetype of the lover after the Viking warrior; but mostly because we were so captivated by the 1960s and the way its values so align with Fox&Badge. liberation, revolution, free-thinking, authenticity, full expression, peace & love.
And what an ecstatically joyful event it was! We loved the creative signs guests came up with for our ‘anti-protest’ picketing line of positivity, the powerful performances, endless playful interactions and loving embraces (we even had lomi lomi massage!), and the incredible effort of each flower-laden guest.
We ended the night in unity on the dancefloor, as we had recently begun to do as a new tradition, to Fort Nowhere’s haunting remix of Bob Dylan’s immortal “The Times They Are A’Changin’”.
💀DAY OF THE DEAD💀
I wasn’t in London for Day of the Dead, having been temporarily deported back to the US, but I’ll never forget it. We had spent months delving into the culture, music, and history of the theme - exploring the interplay between light and dark, death and life, to do justice to this very special day. The team did an amazing job transforming the space and we even created our first ambient music room devoted to sensuality and connection. We also welcomed Natalie to our team (a longtime performer) as our new, incredible PA.
We held a death café in the weeks beforehand and a grief circle with the brilliant Sarah and Tony Pletts just as the night began, and hosted shrines throughout the venue where each guest could contemplate and celebrate their loved ones. We remain deeply drawn to explore death and grief - the flip sides of life and love, which bring us all our meaning. But, unfortunately, the night brought more grief for many than we ever anticipated.
We’d never run an event at Egg before, but we had to find a new home quickly when the Steel Yard informed us of an unfortunate double booking. Although we’d done several careful site visits and the staff had assured us of their capacity, it soon became apparent that the venue was struggling to accommodate an event of our size and complexity. The queues for entry and the cloakroom began to stretch down the road. I watched on my laptop in helpless horror from back in the US, feverishly trying to communicate with the venue. It was an event organiser’s worst nightmare to see our guests in such pain out in the cold. It was chaos.
The artists, ever resilient, did beautifully to navigate the crowded conditions, and the music was sublime - but we learned our lesson. Fox & Badge is no ordinary event: it requires a lot of space to dance; for lying down and sinking in and connecting; distance from which to see and admire people’s costume and art projects ( there were so many spectacular ones that night). We learned a difficult lesson, and selling a conservative number of tickets is now a top priority for us. We trust less, and safeguard more. We always try to do our very best.
🐺FERAL🐺
FERAL was a beautiful, intimate event back at the Steel Yard, the night before New Year’s Eve. It was simpler, sensual, wild yet also somehow wholesome; all our events increasingly feel like that. In a way it feels like leaning into the feral and unleashing the untamed self is the essence of Fox&Badge. Allowing you to be wild and liberated is always our ultimate goal; ferality is freedom, and we are all animals…
The makers on our team tackled the immense project of building a forest, and cut and painted dozens of birch branches from plywood that utterly transformed the space. Natalie and Claire graced the sky and stage as snowy owls. Foxes frolicked in dark corners and Izzy wowed the crowd with Dave in a fit of sensual vulpine sploshing to kiss 2023 goodbye.
By chance my visa had finally arrived and I flew back immediately, arriving that afternoon, greeted with tears and streames and love and cake by the team, and when I danced my finale dance to “Cuatros Vientos”, everyone climbed on stage and into my arms for the most beautiful collective embrace as we soared joyfully into the last day of the year…
