Features / FROOT
Diversity, pop and definitely no Robbie Williams
Bristol’s queer nightlife is constantly evolving and growing. However, there are some issues that need addressing. For one, a lot of Bristol LGBTQ+ nights are overly house and techno-focused, with a consistent lack of representation for queer people of colour.
A pair of queer event promoters, Patrick Browne and Joe Young, are looking to fill a gap in the city’s LGBTQ+ scene with a new event called FROOT.
They want FROOT to be a space to listen to good pop and dance music, for it to be open later than similar spaces, and mostly for it to be fun – they’re not taking themselves too seriously.
is needed now More than ever
The two laughed about the night that inspired them to create FROOT. “We were at a queer club in Bristol, it hit 3am and Rock DJ by Robbie Williams came on. And I thought, ‘We deserve better than this!” said Joe.
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“Well, we just lost any opportunity for him to come and DJ for us,” laughed Patrick.
Patrick explained that they want FROOT to be led by their audiences: “We did a set at Don’t Tell Your Mother. My set was mostly tech-house remixes of pop songs, you could hear everyone singing along, and I really want that for FROOT.”
FROOT will be using a venue that has not been utilised much by previous queer club nights, Death Disco, on St Stephen’s Street in the Old City.
“It’s a really fun venue. There are disco balls everywhere, pictures of celebrities with disco balls on their heads. It’s all vaulted underground and will give [the event] a good vibe,” said Joe.
The first FROOT event will take place in February – photo: FROOT
However, because the venue hadn’t seen a lot of queer nights before, Joe said that there were lots of points they needed to drive home to management. He explained: “We want everyone to feel welcome, for it to be as diverse a space as possible. We made sure the door staff were briefed in treating our attendees correctly.”
Patrick added: “We’re also aware we’re two white, cisgendered men. It would be easy for the space to be dominated by people similar to us. We don’t want that. We’d love to have diverse DJs and make sure it’s a safer space that people feel welcome in. It was important to make sure the venue was accommodating to that.”
Each FROOT will feature guest DJs from across Bristol’s LGBTQ+ scene.
Joe said: “For our first event we’ve got Chris Morgan from Don’t Tell Your Mother. We also have Idiorythmia – he’s got a really fun style.”
FROOT will have guide rails for its DJs, so there is a consistent vision and brand for music played on the night.
Patrick wants FROOT to be a place where everybody feels comfortable singing along – photo: Felicity Ann Clarke
However, they still want DJs to have freedom – they just want to put a FROOT spin on it. Joe said FROOT nights would be the ultimate queer party playlist – people will be dancing.
Patrick hopes FROOT events can live up to the amazing LGBTQ+ events he’s been to in London. He said: “I loved nights like Duckie at The Vauxhall Tavern where I saw a huge range of music, from The Chemical Brothers, to Kylie, to The Smiths. Joe’s looking very seriously at me now.”
Patrick looked over to Joe who laughed and replied, “We’re not going to be playing The Smiths.”
Looking to the future, Joe said: “We’d love to grow it. We’ve been talking about potential splinters – Rotten FROOT, a Halloween Special maybe.
“We’d love it to become a regular night. There’s so much potential…maybe something at Pride, big gay boat parties… we want it to get it off the ground first.
“We’ve got some fun ideas to dress the space. Tropical fruit vibes, it’s all on the drawing board at the moment.
“We’ll be playing around with music and genres but we won’t be playing Rock DJ by Robbie Williams.”
The first FROOT will be on Saturday February 22 at Death Disco. Tickets can be purchased on Headfirst. Follow @froothq on Instagram for more information.
This article is taken from the January/February 2025 Bristol24/7 magazine
Main photo: Felicity Ann Clarke
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