Eight of London’s Leading Queer Nightlife Collectives Unite for Historic Photoshoot and Urgent Warning on Venue Crisis

As INFERNO marks 10 years, the queer techno institution rallies London’s grassroots nightlife for a powerful collective statement on soaring venue closures, economic abandonment, and the corporate takeover of queer culture.

Eight of London’s most influential queer nightlife collectives — INFERNO, Queer House Party, Riposte, RIOT, BUMPAH, Coven, UHAUL Dyke Rescue, and PLASTYK — have joined forces for a landmark photoshoot and collective declaration calling out the escalating crisis threatening the capital’s queer nightlife.

Captured by photographer Rae Tait, the image marks an unprecedented moment of unity between groups who, together, represent the beating heart of London’s DIY queer culture: from trans femme-led dance floors and sex-positive kink spaces to dyke nightlife, sound system crews, community raves and performance-art-driven techno.

The statement arrives as INFERNO celebrates its 10th anniversary, a milestone underscored by founder Lewis G Burton’s first new music in six years — the visceral ‘Mother’s Milk’ — and a stacked 25-track compilation marking a decade of defiant, community-led culture. But the celebration is shadowed by grim numbers. Between 2006 and 2017, London lost 58% of its LGBTQ+ venues, and closures continue today: G-A-Y Bar has shuttered, and Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club faces imminent threat from developers.

Meanwhile, the economics have become untenable. Venue hire fees that once sat at £0 now routinely top £1,000, leaving most grassroots promoters operating at a loss. Communities who face higher rates of unemployment, housing precarity and discrimination are being priced out as the cost-of-living crisis deepens. At the same time, corporate nightlife brands repackage queer culture — from ballroom to underground raves — into £60 mega-parties, while the collectives who built the culture fight to keep their doors open.

“This photoshoot is an important moment of solidarity,” says Burton. “These spaces are a lifeline — it’s where we build chosen family and community care. Queer nightlife deserves to be treated as cultural infrastructure, not an afterthought. When it isn’t funded, the careers of artists, creatives and musicians stagnate.”

The collective’s message is clear and uncompromising: queer nightlife is not a luxury — it is essential cultural infrastructure, with profound social, creative and emotional impact. As events are cancelled under the guise of being “near schools” and working-class LGBTQ+ communities struggle to access spaces they built, the collectives argue that the crisis is the result of political neglect and profit-driven cultural erasure.

Their declaration ends with a challenge London cannot ignore:“What version of queer nightlife do we want in ten years? One built on profit, or one built on care, collectivism and liberation?”

For INFERNO, this moment is not a memorial — it’s a rallying cry. And the eight collectives standing together signal something powerful: the future of queer nightlife will be built collectively, or not at all.

WATCH / LISTEN to 'Mother's Milk' 

LISTEN to INFERNO 10