Despite the straightforward acronym, Atlanta’s varied DIY nightlife is anything but. The DIY sentiment in Atlanta spans scene, identity, and space. From backyard drag shows and trans-inclusive raves to parties curated by Atlanta’s best DJs, queer Atlantans are taking matters into their own hands by finding alternative ways to foster community and collaboration through the time-honored tradition of partying.
Creating an alternative space
For young queer people like Haisa Nguyen, traditional queer clubs and bars are often not the spaces they truly want. Nightlife spaces that aren’t strictly for gay men are often not queer enough for the 22-year-old Georgia State graduate. Nguyen says she often feels disappointed – and sometimes not completely safe – as a femme-presenting queer person in the ambiguity of Atlanta’s queer spaces.
“I love traditional LGBTQ+ nightlife spaces, but my biggest qualm is that they rarely make it known that they’re queer spaces,” she told Georgia Voice. “I think this often leads to straight people dominating the environment because they don’t know or can’t tell that it’s not necessarily for them,” Nguyen added. “It’s frustrating because how will queer people know these spaces are for them if no one makes it known, and how will they be safe queer spaces?”
This frustration has led other queer Atlantans in their 20s to create parties, raves, and spots where LGBTQ+ people know they’ll be accepted as their true selves.
While all LGBTQ+ people are forced to the margins of the dominant society, alternative queer people may find themselves on the margins of even queer spaces: LGBTQ+ people who express their gender in non-conforming and uncommon ways; BIPOC people who experience racism in white-dominated queer spaces; leftist organizers who want to distance themselves from the demands of capitalism; or people who simply prefer harder, weirder music than dance pop.
From this position comes underground, DIY parties: niche events for and by members of marginalized groups, often unknown or inaccessible to those outside of the scene. (In other words, if you know, you know.)
Moon Glow Collective is a trans-organized market that features queer DJs, drag performers, and artists. While some events are hosted at venues like coffee shops – the last market was hosted at Mr. Tombstone’s Coffee Emporium – the markets are often held in organizers’ backyards. This alternative, DIY sense of venue is reflected in Moon Glow’s ethos: without the strict financial demands of paying for a permanent place to host events, Moon Glow can focus on fostering a fun and truly queer space.
“Places like Moon Glow are amazing spaces for queer people because the people there care about you, and they take care of each other,” Nguyen said. “They also make it very known that they’re for queer people.”
Moon Glow, like most underground events, operates via word-of-mouth facilitated by social media. The collective is clear from the jump (i.e., the Instagram bio) that it’s for “hot trans ppl.” If you’re not trans or in community with trans people, you likely won’t even know that Moon Glow exists.
Don Fairylèon sought to foster a similar sense of community when forming Club Saturn with friend Erik Thurmond, aka Pasquale. Club Saturn is an underground dance party and safe space curated specifically for the queer and femme alternative community.
Fairylèon said that he struggles going into traditional gay and queer spaces “because I usually feel too different to be in those spaces.” At Club Saturn, there is no such thing as “too different.” The lineups include myriad of queer talent spanning sound, culture, and ethnicity.
“Our space is also for DJs to push the boundaries–no boxes over here,” Fairylèon said. “Our people don’t usually get seen or really feel accepted or vibe in many spaces, even within the queer community [in Atlanta]. And one thing about us is we love our people, and I really think it shows at our events.”
Club Saturn’s sibling rave, Malware Café, has a similar ethos. The queer and Black-led electronica collective, founded in December 2020, drew inspiration from the political unrest of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement to create a space for queer liberation through music.
“Malware Café aims to shake up the traditional status quo of queer nightlife in Atlanta by introducing queer liberation through the experience of raw chaos, pleasure, and catharsis through harder, heavier and oftentimes faster music,” said Jaguar, the founder of Malware Café. “[Members of the collective and I] met during an unprecedented time of collective and political unrest, [and] somehow meeting these new friends made the world feel less scary.”
Members of the collective include Fairylèon and Jaguar, as well as Dread404, laCOCHINO, HotLilDxddy, Nakotiq, EatMyThumb, and DJ Sweatsuit. Over the last five years, Malware Café has served as a crucial space for “Black [and] Brown trans weirdos” and others who, like Jaguar, struggle to see themselves in traditional queer clubs.
While mainstream LGBTQ+ clubs can make more alternative or non-white queer people feel out of place or like they need to conform to belong, Malware exists to break that all apart,” Jaguar said. In this alternative space, Malware rave-goers are encouraged to let loose and connect in a visceral and embodied community. In connecting over movement, sweat, and vulnerability, Jaguar said, Malware attendees are able to better learn and be reminded of how to support one another and keep each other safe.
“[Attendees] are experiencing crazy music that inspires them to reach new heights in their life, helping them to think about things outside the box and challenging them to further investigate why the club can be so cathartic and the sociopolitical renaissance and resistance that can be dissected from the dance floor,” Jaguar said.
After a hiatus, Malware Café, now simply known as Malware, is ushering in a new era. That begins on June 12, when Malware brings a night of hard techno, club, and dance music to Purgatory at The Masquerade. And Jaguar, along with the rest of the collective, is ready to host late-night, underground raves again at lesser-known Atlanta venues like Eyedrum and Seek Studios.
While spaces like Malware, Club Saturn, and Moon Glow are creating alternatives to mainstream queer nightlife in Atlanta, other collectives and organizers are bringing the DIY ethos into the city’s traditional LGBTQ+ spaces.
Related stories:
• DJ Gorp on ‘Finding their Frequency’ in Atlanta’s Club Scene
• Lore brings unpretentious queer fun to Edgewood Avenue
• My Sister’s Room: Atlanta’s landmark lesbian bar continues to endure
DIY in the Club
Atlanta’s mainstream LGBTQ+ club scene largely caters to gay men, with spaces like The Eagle, Heretic, and Bulldogs, which are specifically gay male-oriented. Atlanta’s single lesbian-specific space, My Sister’s Room, often attracts a more varied clientele than just sapphic women. Even so, self-proclaimed weirdo NeonHorror still longed for something more than the hunky circuit parties that dominate Atlanta’s gay party scene.
“We have enough DJs for gay events, like circuit events, where the perfect specimens of gay men go and dance,” he said. “I support them, those are my friends, but I wanted something where it was like a hodgepodge of the queer community can come and feel like it was something for them.”
NeonHorror parties are for “the weirdos and the queerdos.” Hosted at venues like Lore, Mary’s, and the now-defunct Basement, NeonHorror has hosted and DJed “Qtopia: A Club Kid Rave,” “Prom of Trash” with Wussy magazine, and “Baywitch Goth Beach Party,” along with more broadly appealing parties like “The Powerpop Girls” and “Himbo Dance Party.” Basically, any party NeonHorror wanted to attend, he created and curated for different groups among the LGBTQ+ community.
When Ree de la Vega founded the daytime dance party Chaka Khan Hacienda, she was also looking to create something different in the male-dominated club scene.
“I felt like everything in clubs was geared towards men,” she said. But she wanted to create “something cute” for femmes and queers. The popular daytime party has traveled across Atlanta, from the former 8Arm restaurant on Ponce de Leon Avenue to Pullman Yards in Kirkwood. Chaka Khan Hacienda now resides at Underground Atlanta. While Chaka is still alive and well, de la Vega has redirected some of her energy into helping other DJs and promoters find performance space at her Old Fourth Ward music club Pisces.
“I think people don’t understand how expensive [DIY] is,” she said. “I bring in the stage [for Chaka], the DJ equipment, I rent the table that the DJ equipment sits on,” she said. “I have to rent the gates, I have to pay for event permits, I have to pay for APD, I have to pay for security. It’s a lot of work, it’s really expensive.”
De la Vega said that a Chaka Khan Hacienda party can cost upwards of $19,000.
Instead of paying those costs themselves, DJs and promoters only have to worry about “what [they’re] gonna drink and what [they’re] gonna play” when they perform at Pisces and often end up making more money than they would at larger venues.
Related story: DJ Ree de la Vega opening music-driven restaurant Pisces
Collaboration is the keystone of Atlanta’s DIY and alternative queer nightlife scene. While the acronym suggests you do it by yourself, cooperation is a necessary component in creating spaces throughout the city where marginalized people feel at home, even if just for a night.
“We all have different experience levels and different groups that we’re tapped into,” Wild Cherry, a member of the queer DJ collective Deep South said. “Once they’re all in that same place, this beautiful community emerges.”
“For people who have been in the scene for a long time and people who are newer to the scene, you still really feel connected to the cultural diversity here, which is what I think makes Atlanta really beautiful.”
Where to go
If you want to dive deeper into Atlanta’s diverse and varying parties, raves, and events, here are some other collectives and organizers bringing LGBTQ+ Atlantans together to dance, celebrate, and revel in unapologetic queer joy.
Gimmick @ Pisces
Stroke @ Pisces
Fat Puss by DJ Gorp @ Mary’s
Queen Butch @ Heretic, The Eagle
Unruly @ Eyedrum