Over the last few years Melbourne has definitely seen a rise in female and femme DJs, artists, promoters and party throwers and our scene – to me – has never felt more welcoming, safe and positive. With club nights like Cool Room and Bunker putting an emphasis on patrons comfort and safety, it feels like there’s been a shift in mentality from the industry too. In the end though, I’m a bloke. I hope that feeling is shared by Melbourne’s women, but honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if it wasn’t. The electronic music scene has a pretty rubbish ongoing-track record at times. Even last week we saw ABC’s Signal podcast expose an Australian Facebook group called ‘Tracks & Snatch’ (gross) where members of the male-only group shared non-consensual photos of women. It’s extremely disappointing this yuck boys club mentality still exists and permeates the community. I hold onto hope that this is a dying trend and we’re moving past it – there’s no room for it and the more women behind the decks, tinkering with machines and running the shows, the better.
Serious talk aside, there is one massive party going down on Thursday for International Women’s Day that I’m super excited about. Glamorama are hosting one of the world’s most sought-after DJs and accomplished producers – The Black Madonna. In town for Pitch Festival this weekend, the American queen’s euphorics sets that journey through Italo, disco, boogie, house and techno have gotten her frequent bookings at all the world’s biggest clubs and festivals. In support, they’ve put together a line-up of incredible local women that have all been staples of Melbourne over the last few years: Toni Yotzi, Merve, Jennifer Loveless, Rev Lon, Mtlda-S and Millú & Pjenné. 100% door sales and 10% of the bar sales will be donated to International Women’s Development Agency, a brilliant organisation working toward gender equality alongside the Australian government and many other organisations. It’s door sales only so get there as early as possible. Doors open from 6pm – $30 entry before 9pm, $40 entry after.
In other news, we copped some very unfortunate news this week: one of the best club spaces is Melbourne is being taken from us – the Hugs&Kisses building is being sold. The building has an exceptionally bizarre history. It’s been owned by a centuries old UK-based fraternity called the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes for some 60-odd years. However, the Melbourne arm of this odd mens social club is dwindling in numbers and the ageing members can’t find affordable carparks in the city so they’ve opted to put the 2-storey property up for auction. It seems unlikely the space will remain a nightclub, but it’s unclear when Hugs&Kisses will be given the boot. The building is being auctioned on March 16 as vacant, but Hugs&Kisses operator Hugo Atkins is hoping the new owner allows them to stay until they decide on what to with the building. Extremely unfortunate timing for Atkins, he’d just bought the now-defunct Mercat Basement’s sound system. Clearly, it’s cursed.
