Founded in 1997, Homoelectric railed against the tacky scene in Manchester’s Gay Village with acid, techno and Italo disco. It has now scaled up to a 10,000-person festival, complete with unicorn drag queens
‘For homos, heteros, lesbos and don’t knows.” Since 1997, these words have guided Manchester’s Homoelectric. Started as a retort to the entrenched etiquette and increasingly tacky music of the bars clustered around Canal Street in the city’s Gay Village, Homoelectric grew to become one of the UK’s best-loved institutions. Prioritising a musical policy of house, techno, space disco, Italo, acid and outsider pop that was uncommonly eclectic for the time, it has survived waves of changes to Manchester’s physical landscape, as well as shifts in the wider social ones. Upscaling an independent and nomadic gay night to a 10,000-capacity festival, though? A high-stakes manoeuvre.
It had been in Homoelectric co-founder Luke Unabomber’s mind for years, but repeated attempts to establish it as a summer knees-up on the outskirts of Manchester kept falling through. Suddenly, a dream spot was available. The cavernous Mayfield Depot, just a few hundred yards from Homoelectric’s first venue, Follies, and within earshot of Piccadilly station, had broken free from red tape. In 2018, Warehouse Project, the big beast of Manchester clubbing, acquired the rights to host shows there. They were keen to assist in making Homobloc a reality, but aware enough to let it be established on Homoelectric’s terms, so as best to encourage discerning Mancunian clubbers who prize independence and authenticity. From the announcement on 10 July, the hype was deafening.
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by Gabriel Szatan via Electronic music | The Guardian
