London is a playground! From drag to raves, this is where to party

The hunger to go out has never been greater and the longing for different experiences than what we had before is palpable. After years of standstill, a new generation of talent has finally broken through – plus everyone’s looking a bit awesome right now, which I owe to the inordinate amount of naughty club clothes I bought during boring lockdown days. So grab this VIP wristband and browse what’s new in ’22.

Sex sells

Probably the most interesting side in London is now cross, a rave that celebrates kink and sex positivity. Its staggering popularity reflects the story of our changing sexual attitudes — a story that, frankly, everyone is too busy to have fun telling right now.

Motivated as much by activism as hedonism, parties crossed (crossbreedworld.com) offer both top DJs and targeted spaces for sex. No surprise, they are definitely not for everyone. Uncomfortable with queerness? Not for you. Afraid to wear something provocative? Do not bother. Not willing to take on board things like consent, white male privilege, neurodiversity, or the basics around pronouns? Stay at home. Believe me.

A signifier of the huge community it has created, and the general desire for nights out that are both progressive and perverted – in a consensual way – Crossbreed’s parties tend to sell out in minutes. So this year they will be held weekly at Hackney Wick’s Color Factory (8 Queen’s Yd, E9, colourfactory.com† There is a simultaneous spike in popularity for like-minded events like Meat† thorn† HTBX and howling (these are nomadic nights, but will also appear at Color Factory), or established parties such as LGBTQ+ fetish night Club banned (which is also moving, with locations to be released in the day) – proof that Londoners crave human adventure more than ever. Another not to be missed is Queer House Party †@queerhouseparty), who regularly play in the city.

Four on the ground

If you haven’t been outside in too long, here’s a warning that the tunes are probably a lot louder and faster than you might remember. London has gone techno mad in recent years and a new wave of female DJs are leading the hardcore load. Look out for Saoirse, Loraine James, Elkka, Peach, and Or:la on a bill, to name a few, while locations like Phonox (418 Brixton Road, SW9, phonox.co.uk† E1 (110 Pennington Street, E1W, e1ldn.co† pickle factory (13 The oval, E2, ovalspace.co.uk† Fold (Stephensonstraat, E16, fold.london) and Location APK Unit 18 (Surrey Canal Road, SE14, @venuemot) are typically capable of scratching any techno itch.

Play it safe

Ironically, while trends gently hark back to the 1990s heyday of renegade illegal havoc — think fast breakbeats, bucket hats, trance-invoking artwork, and a Cyberdog-esque contrast between noir and neon attire — the reality is that the warehouse party era is, unfortunately, well and truly over. A positive by-product of things being more legit is that security in clubs is slowly getting much better – many London promoters are doing the job of training security personnel to: not assume gender, handle people who overindulge (and not as criminals), and smile and listen, instead of yelling and intimidating. As a general rule of thumb, check if a club has an online respect policy. I am proud of Little gay brother †littlegaybrother.com), a weird night where I live, for the great work in this area. I’m also proud that at their NYE bash, the dancers did a routine that commemorated a Downing Street party, enhanced by poppers rather than M&S finger food. If you like Little Gay Brother try the weekly nights they host with Jodie Harsh, feel it† These run every Friday omeara (6 O’Meara Street, SE1, omearlondon.com) from 10.30pm. With nights extending until 5am and last entry at 3am, it’s one for those who want to go far.

Drag never drags

East London last week dragged the flag for a certain lineage of irony for more than a decade Let the pink sink †sinkthepink.com) played his last party. But while that side of town is still the heart – check out mimis at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club (42-46 Pollard Row, E2, workerplaytime.net) – nowadays you don’t even have to go east to experience drag culture in east London. In the former cells of Bow Street Magistrates Court, in the heart of Covent Garden, the good morals – a smashing new night lounge bar under the Nomad Hotel (28 Bow St, WC2E, thenomadhotel.com† In addition to the bar’s mischievous air and cocktail-fueled giddiness, inveterate DJ huns including Bestley and Jonjo Jury, plus drag icons like Maxi More, create an atmosphere every bit as fantastic as the names that grace the cells in the previous incarnation. went: Wilde, Westwood, Kray, Pankhurst and even Doherty.

Tear up the usual

If the tyranny of unchanging tempos and the hegemony of that 4/4 ‘hntz-hntz’ sound leaves you cold, refresh yourself with the opposite by watching Beirut record collector Ernesto Chahoud and London hero Charlie Bones throwing at their wild parties at Peckham’s well seasoned (95a Roggelaan, SE15, peckhamlevels.org† Both Chahoud and Bones come up with boxes of truly divine and obscure records from a blistering mix of styles – breakneck blues, psych rock, gritty disco and Arabic jazz – then purposefully toss them down with a gleeful disregard for the bland convention of beatmatching. It makes every song an explosive event, and when combined with their genuine, non-dick-like rambunctiousness, it makes for one hell of a party. You can follow his Instagram @doyoubabyyy for show updates.

Other destinations to escape conventional dance music are DJ nights at cafe OTO (18 Ashwin Street, E8, cafeoto.co.uk), night owls in the art space Ormside Projects at Bermondsey (32 Ormside St, SE15, ormside.co.uk), and General echo soundpunk special in Walthamstow (@generalechosound† By the way, if you ever drift away from the sounds of London DJ culture, call the London galaxy of great radio stations: Wash down† Balaami† NTS† Worldwide† Amateurism† Soho Radio and that of Charlie Bones To do!! You!!! Channel would all be a great way to start.

Go big or go home?

London still has great spaces for big nights out, but they’re getting fewer and fewer. Expansive post-industrial playground printing company (Surrey Quays Road, SE16, printworkslondon.co.uk) remains an incredible destination, while stalwarts like Egg (5-13 Vale Royal, N7, egglondon.co.uk) and Clothing fabric (77a Charterhouse St, EC1, fabriclondon.com) gave themselves a brutal revamp during the pandemic – the latest with a brand new look to Room 2. Meanwhile, after three decades of dancing, ministry of sound (103 Gaunt Street, SE1, ministryofsound.com) is still a thing; every week there is something on tuesday, friday and saturday.

London likes little

But what the city currently excels at is intimacy: small events in small locations that create a big, big atmosphere. At parties late at night at Spiritland Royal Festival Hall (Belvedere Road, SE1, spiritland.com), people tend to arrive at the same time, stay to the end, and then leave as one – like a church congregation. There is not a constant stream of gamblers coming in and out. Instead, you always bond with the people around you, kind of like a party on a desert island. It’s a really lovely atmosphere even before you factor in the honey-dipped sound system, delicious cocktails and their expert DJ programming.

Similar spots featuring world-class DJs in unnaturally small spaces include: The rifle in Hackney (235 Well Street, E9, thegunwellstreet.com† TOLA at Peckham (56 Peckham High St, SE15, tolapeckham.com), NT’s Loft in Dalston (1 Westgate St, E8, ntloft.co.uk) plus lion and lamb near Old Street (46 Fanshaw St, N1, thelionandlamb.co.uk) – where Craig Richards and friends from Fabric often perform seductive techno-hypnosis in a space smaller than the cloakrooms of most superclubs. Another place to look out for is an ornate former chapel called Stone Nest on Shaftesbury Avenue (136 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D, stonenest.org† The hugely influential DJ and producer Joy Orbison has just launched a monthly Thursday session called Just For You. Admission is free, but get there early – space is limited to 250 dancers.

Hopefully see you next – and never again on a DJ live stream, ever, never again.