How do you celebrate ten years of seminal London club night, Girlcore? Well, you throw another party, of course. Founded in the year of our Lohan 2007, Girlcore began as a way of promoting female talent and ended up spawning exhibitions, galleries, an online mag, as well as a host of spun-out, spin-offs across the world. Of course, the original aim was just to throw a really mega party and, over the duration of a few glitter-dabbed years, they succeeded; recruiting the likes of Peaches, Annie Mac, and Charli XCX for nights of “estrogen-induced destruction” and creating a heap of lifelong friends in the process.
Ten years on, the original Girlcore gang are coming together for a funeral themed last hurrah and, to celebrate, we spoke to them to see what it’s all about.
Ten years, bloody hell. If your 2007 selves were to travel through time to 2017, what do you think they’d say?
I think we’d look around and be like, “Wait… Taylor Swift stole our thing.” It’s funny to think of GIRLCORE as being an OG girl-crew, long before feminism and girl-power girl-squads were as prevalent and commercialised as they are today. We were like the proto version of that, except way more drunk and DIY.
What was the original aim of Girlcore?
Girlcore was founded as a way of promoting female talent, which is why our parties always featured female DJs and performers. It was never a man-hating thing. The goal was primarily just to throw a really fun, unpretentious, queer-friendly party that inspired people to dress insanely, with the goal of not taking anything too seriously. We’re an international bunch (coming from the US, France, Colombia, Iran, Argentina, UK, Canada and beyond) and wanted to be supportive and there for each other, personally and professionally.
Every month, our Girlcore party had a different theme with a different lineup of all female-identifying (or sometimes just dressed as a girl) DJs and live acts including Peaches, Annie Mac, Lovefoxx (CSS), Romy (The xx), Charli XCX, Chicks on Speed, Little Boots… Weddings, pageants, female drag shows, summer camps and simulated space travel were all part and parcel for a Girlcore night out. If you didn’t wake up with glitter in your hair, you weren’t really there.
In what way did it evolve?
Aside from throwing parties around the world, we began to find other ways to help promote women outside of the nightlife space. We started Girlcore Magazine, an online gallery that also released physical art books and curated exhibitions as a way of promoting talented female artists, photographers and content makers. We also invented the “Girlcore toilet,” which is when you form an all-girl huddle and then sneak people inside your human fortress in order to pee with (at least some) privacy. I think it basically revolutionised the way that people pee at festivals.
Lovely. Who were the sorts of people that came along to the nights?
The night was always inherently very silly, and most people there were wearing ridiculous DIY costumes. It was the sort of place you could walk into and not feel alienated, although anyone who didn’t want to get their clothes dirty would have hated it. We wanted it to feel like a mix between a rave, a gay night and a hen party, and for it to be very inclusive, so it really attracted all kinds.
So why a funeral? Why now?
“Funeral” felt like an apt theme, since this party will put the final nail in the coffin for Girlcore’s party run. These days the OG Girlcore members are making films, writing for Vogue, starring in TV shows, running radio stations, producing festivals, making commercials, taking photos, designing handbags, delivering babies, booking superstar DJs, making music, publicising some of the world’s biggest artists, being marketing extraordinaires, saving rain-forests, being mums and all round badass lady bosses (before Girlboss was a thing).
What can we expect from the night?
Dancing, debauchery, corpses, flowers, coffins, silliness… Girlcore resident DJs and the performance of a lifetime by our very special guest, Icy Spicy Leoncie.
Finish this sentence, the music sounds better with…
Glitter!
BONUS QUESTION!
Your Twitter bio reads “a hen night on acid”, something that sounds, frankly, terrifying. If you were to go to a hen party on acid, where would you go and what would you like to do?
This actually happened after we wrote that. We took a big trip to Brighton one weekend when one of our Girlcore members was about to get married. It happened to be Gay Pride weekend and we happened to all take acid. It was weird, wild, wonderful — but mostly weird more than anything else.
Girlcore are Laetitia Descouens, Laurelene Chambovet, Naz Fooridian, Julia Corsaro, Ruth Bartlett, Isa GT, Tara Taylor, Rebecca Lucy Mills, Karley Sciortino, Marisa Brickman, Kirsten Campbell, Naomi Williams, Maria Elisa Gomez, Carmelita Morales, plus a ton of of other honorary members, friends and family.
Credits
Text Matthew Whitehouse
Photography Julia Corsaro