CELEBRATING QUEER CULTURE

A REYT QUEER EXTRAVAGANZA: OUR BIGGEST PARTY EVER!

a group of three black performers strike poses on a catwalk. The person in the centre wears a gold dress and has gold paper flowing from their body.

We showed Leadmill how to really throw a party this July with our biggest event ever – A Reyt Queer Extravaganza!

An evening packed with lewks, lipsyncing and crazy choreography, our artists and fantastic audience made it a night to remember.

Legendary MC Rikki Beadle-Blair kicked off proceedings in full bridal couture, and served powerful looks and even more powerful laughs throughout the night.

Rikki Beadle-Blair, a black man, stands at the front of the stage with his hands outstretched. He's wearing a classic long white wedding dress and veil
Host Rikki Beadle-Blair stunned in bridal couture – Credit Emily Obeng

After weeks of exploring queer dance and movement, Sheffield’s very own Forgeous made their debut bringing style, vogue, attitude and queer joy to the catwalk.

Forgeous made their debut. Credit – Misha Warren

Jaws were seen dropping as South Yorkshire legends Bi Polar, King Confuza, Ivy Alexander, Ditzy O Darlin, Northern powerhouses Val Qaeda, Kaan Ghetto, incredible singer/rapper Meduulla and the unstoppable House of Noir and House of Blaque – stunned with impressive looks, walks and tracks in categories from Turn a Lewk to Queer Kink to Lipsync.

Vyn Noir stands holding a big beach bag. They wear a pink latex swimsuit, long black PVC platforms, a sailors hat and they hold a multi coloured giant beach ball
Yvn Noir kept it cool – Credit Emily Obeng

Overseeing the evening was our judges – Stuart, Claud Cunningham and Heather Paterson who gave 10s across the board to our performers.

Stuart – one of the judges – Credit Misha Warren

Tasty vegan cake, merch and a slightly more chilled vibe was found in room 2. There, our audience could take a breather, have a chinwag, meet our fantastic volunteers and try to stop themselves buying all of our badges!

And the whole crowd looked incredible of course – were we ever in any doubt?

Party goers enjoyed a dance – Credit Misha Warren

We’re so grateful to all of you who came down and made A Reyt Queer Extravaganza our biggest event ever. Getting together in a huge party, seeing the support for the artists and being in a room full of love and joy with 300 people made the night truly magical!

Drag queen Ivy Alexander kneels on a catwalk under bright golden lights. Ivy is a plus sized queen with big blonde wig and wears a blue sequin bodysuit
Ivy Alexander performs onstage at A Reyt Queer Extravaganza. Credit – Misha Warren

And a huge shoutout to our fantastic volunteers (who really are the glue that holds everything together), our incredible audience and to our partners The Civic, Barnsley and funder Arts Council England – their support made this event possible!

Keen for more? Get tickets to The Kingdom Come #6 NOW!

a crowd of people in a dark room look upon a stage out of shot
The crowd enjoyed the show. Credit – Emily Obeng
Angel Blaque leaps onstage under pink lighting. Angel is a Black, femme with pink braids wearing a pale crop top and cute flared mini skirt with chunky white trainers.
Angel Blaque jumping for joy – Credit Misha Warren

Fresh Air Zine is Here!

An A5 zine with a cream cover sits on a lilac surface. The cover is covered in a flowing line drawing with blue, lime and yellow fill that seems to depict two abstract figures,

Take a breath of… FRESH AIR! We are delighted to launch our new zine, in collaboration with the Society of Explorers!

The Society of Explorers are an art collective of 14-18 year olds based at Site Gallery in Sheffield. We delivered our Gender Awareness Training to the Explorers, to share knowledge on how to celebrate and support people of all genders.

A detail of a double page spread in an A5 zine shows a colourful cartoon titled ‘Kiwi’s gender journey’ in a cute and detailed style
Young People from Site Gallery’s Society of Explorer’s created beautiful content for Fresh Air Zine

The full colour zine is full of the young people’s creative responses and includes poems, cartoons, drawings and recipes that aim to raise awareness of issues faced by the LGBTQ+ community and celebrate queer identity and culture.

Inside you’ll also find gorgeous artwork by artist Luci Pina, who has designed this unique zine. This collection of creative work by the young people will leave you full of queer joy and feeling inspired to make a change.

Artwork by Luci Pina, who was chosen by us and the young people to design Fresh Air zine

Fresh Air zine is offered for FREE because we believe that we should all have access to culture and community.

However, if you are able, we would encourage you to add a donation at checkout. 50% of those donations will be donated to SAYiT Sheffield, who provide support and opportunities for LGBTQ+ young people. The remainder helps support our mission to support LGBTQ+ artists and celebrate queer culture.

Order your copy of Fresh Air zine via our online shop now! 

Our thanks in producing this zine go to Peter and Alfie from Site Gallery. A huge thank you to Luci Pina for her creative vision and hard work, and to all the young people from Society of Explorers who contributed their work.

If you have a group of young people you’d like us to work creatively with, or would like some Gender Awareness Training for your organisation, please feel free to get in touch!

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