Virtual LGBT+ Christmas Day party set to ‘deck the halls with disco’ and vanquish festive loneliness
Christmas Day is getting a ‘big gay party’. (Queer House Party)
Queer House Party, a London-based DJ collective, is throwing an event on Christmas Day to tackle isolation and loneliness in the LGBT+ community.
With the UK in the grips of a second wave of COVID-19, as many as 1.9 million are expected to spend Christmas alone. And even for those spending the holidays with family, isolation can still be a crippling issue.
“Christmas is the campest holiday of the year but can sometimes be the worst,” says Carla Ecola, director at LGBT+ homelessness charity The Outside Project.
“Our community can feel isolated in their own homes, many don’t have any connection to family the towns they grew up in, or are still struggling to find their queer family in big towns like London.”
To help alleviate some of these feelings, Queer House Party is throwing “a big gay party” on Christmas Day.
The organisers, Harry Gay, Wacha and Passer, started their Zoom discos at the beginning of the first English lockdown.
“The reason we all head out to queer nights is because of the community and sense of belonging that comes with it,” Gay told PinkNews earlier this year.
“It is so important to be able to socialise with people like yourself.”
The latest, festive party aims to provide entertainment to “anyone who would have been facing spending Christmas Day alone”, as well as to “provide performers with a platform and income when they need it”.
Regular host Liv Wynter will introduce an incredible line of of performers, who they tease will “be decking your halls with disco, stuffing your stockings with slaggy anthems, and who knows, maybe there’ll even be an unwrapping or two”.
Queer House Party is famous for their accessible events. Their parties all have audio description, captions and British Sign Language interpreters.
Tickets are already available online for free, although they encourage those who can to tip performers and organisers.
