Fox&Badge FLASHBACK #7: 2022
What a luscious, rich year, as we roared back to life, full of depth and pageant, darkness and light. All 4 events felt extremely different, yet also full of their own identity, touching on issues and archetypes that beckoned further.
🌿PAGAN SPRING🌿
We finally ran the Covid-postponed Pagan Spring - our most ritualistic event so far. Mythical figures and characters bathed and baptised, eloped and married, died and rebirthed. Flabbergast theatre’s cast caked their skin in clay & pounded their vast drums whilst live music rang out from the alcoves.
A shamanic choirmistress invited us to chant, whilst plant and mushroom-bedecked guests sashayed through the arches. The tone was ancient and primal, shifting to sleek scifi at the very end, as candles ceded to lasers. We ended the evening dancing around a Maypole, before sitting round the fire to Ram Dass.
🎭CIRCUS of DESIRE🎭
Summer’s Circus of Desire was more raucous and joyous, pink and bubbly, tinged with the pathos of lovable outcasts. The speaker stacks became cages from which the animals escaped, or a podium for the sax clown (live sax returns this New Year’s Eve!).
Acrobats whirled magnificently through the air whilst sideshow artists sploshed and creamed, an artist painted with her anus (it’s true), and Susie built wigs from candyfloss.
J'aiMime brought out a huge pink balloon, and hilariously disappeared inside it before bursting back out naked. It was adorable, and so much fun.
🔥VAMPIRES of the HEART🔥
Halloween’s Vampires of the Heart at E1 explored our ostracised sexuality. We filled a bathtub with milk, then turned it to blood as vampire Natalie voraciously drowned her victim in it.
Later, 3 guests would dive straight into the blood and splosh merrily all night; we absolutely adore how wildly committed and engaged our crowd gets!
Venus crucified Amy whilst Nik; Anna strung Tatiana between the columns; fiends feasted on flesh, whilst we laid out a ceremonial dinner in our parlour. We chanced across our amazing production manager Ryan, who led a team with Quinn/Aurora to build a forest of stage branches.
✨INTO the LIGHT✨
Finally we could host INTO THE LIGHT for New Year’s Eve, exploring light as both material and metaphor. Light in all its forms ricocheted everywhere.
We walled the Steel Yard in mirror, hung new minimalist lights, and built a glowing pyramid from which Pretzel hung her bunny.
Saskia pulled a vast floating room-size plastic dress over all our heads before melting into aerial partnership with Maxine.
The Showjokers wowed us with their bespoke LED costumes, flashing “Happy New Year” as DJ Lauren Mia unleashed the midnight drop, and the air thickened with confetti and joy.
This year we return to that seminal final transitional moment of 2022 - & 2015, when we were born - and re-investigate what it means to celebrate New Year’s Eve in unison; to connect and consecrate one of our few remaining collective rituals. We’ve explored and learned so much, and are so excited to deepen this experience.
Penultimate release is just about to sell out and we very much hope you can join us; let's transition and transform together!
