Join us for FERAL
Saturday DECEMBER 30, 2023 - 10pm-6am // The Steel Yard, London
Before we leap forward into the New Year ahead, Fox&Badge invite you to look back into your (and our) very essence and ancestry; to UNLEASH YOUR INNER ANIMAL.
Come reconnect with your body and instinct, your senses and sensuality.
The power of the wild is transformative; the feral brings freedom. Senses are honed; boundaries and missions are clarified. Human addictions to drama, pretense, obligation and politics all fall away. We become deeply present. We feel; we know; we are.
We become instinctual and uncomplicated; authentic and unselfconscious, shameless and joyful in our incontestable glory.
“Other animals, in a constant and mostly unmediated relation with their sensory surroundings, think with the whole of their bodies.”(David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology)
FERAL invites you to let loose and surrender, delve into your deeper inner nature, and cherish your precious wilderness.
We invite the primal and primordial; preening and prowling, sniffling and snuffling, yowling and howling, nesting and nestling; everything physical, sensual, visceral and real.
Guests will be invited to enter on all fours; sniff and lick for clues; cosy into cuddle puddles; and luxuriate in whole spaces devoid of language, where non-verbality and tactility blissfully reign.
Once we howl at the midnight moon and welcome the last day of 2023, revisit your very earlier incarnation - your inner drive to freedom, wild abandon, unselfconsciousness, and unbridled joy.
“We are filled with a longing for the wild. There are few culturally sanctioned antidotes for this yearning. We are taught to feel shame for this desire. We grew our hair long and used it to hide our feelings. But the shadow of the wild women still lurks behind us during our days and in our nights. No matter where we are, the shadow that trots behind us is definitely four footed.”
(Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run with the Wolves)
For this event, we return to our homeland at the majestic Steel Yard which will be transformed into a beautiful bastion for beasts, curating a series of magical experiences across each of its 3 burrows, including:
the wild forest of our pumping main dancefloor (with our signature all-female international DJ lineup of magnificent melodic techno artists we love)
a more intimate, immersive meadow playing gentler gorgeous grooves
a wild world of feral performances
a herd of creatures and archetypes to interact and engage with
collective rituals and ceremonies to aid our transcendental transition
luscious chillout areas, full of nooks to burrow and snuffle, with sensual and dungeon dens at its edges
immersive and artistic transformation of all spaces
& you - the most glorious, powerful, warm & participatory community, resplendent & free
———DJ LINEUP———
LARGER DANCEFLOOR - THE CANYON
22:00 - 00:20 Fabrizia - https://soundcloud.com/djfabrizia
00:30 - 03:20 LORRAINNE - https://soundcloud.com/lorrainnemusic
03:30 - 06:00 Blanka Barbara - https://soundcloud.com/blanka_barbara
SMALLER DANCEFLOOR- THE GLADE
22:00 - 00:45 Matt Williams - https://soundcloud.com/mattwilliamslive
00:55 - 02:55 Juan Leyte - https://soundcloud.com/user-679507528
03:05 - 05:10 EBZ - https://soundcloud.com/ebzagg77
"Animals are the bridge between us and the beauty of all that is natural. They show us what's missing in our lives, and how to love ourselves more completely and unconditionally. They connect us back to who we are, and to the purpose of why we're here."
(Trisha McCagh)
DRESS CODE: Unleash your inner animal
We are in London, and our animality starts there. This is not a zoo or ark event; for this event we focus on the luscious local animals and archetypes evoked by those bold, wild creatures of our corner of the Northern Hemisphere - wolves, bears, foxes, elk, reindeer, bison, boar, crows, eagles, owls, vultures - and other wild watchers and wanderers of the night. We invite you to gently drop your cloak of civilisation, and fully inhabit the stature and power of your beast (no domestics; no pets; no rodents; no tropicals; no fish; no cutesies)
Think WILD + FERAL + FETISH.
Wild animals wear no clothes; we welcome your best approximation, adorned with the little you need to flaunt your sexual essence. This is a high-production, co-created arts & fetish event. We love sexy, wild animalism. We love intricate, elegant, crafted costumes - and especially stuff you carefully and lovingly made. Be bold and expressive and self-loving. You are the gift. Be generous. Costume-wise, you simply cannot go too far. If in doubt, ask.
This is not a children’s face-paint party or zoo theme. NO cutesy animals, no Wind in the Willows or Fantastic Mr. Fox. No irony or comedy; embrace the sincerity and solemnity of the sensual. This is a rare unleashing; a celebration of your essence; a chance to finally be and express the creature inside you!
Absolutely no daywear, streetwear, businesswear, officewear, banalwear, or anything off-theme will be allowed. If you don’t get stopped by quivering policemen, you’re probably not going far enough :) NO T-shirts, shirts, slacks, sneakers - or anything ordinary you’d just wear down the street. If you are trying to figure out how to make this as easy and basic as possible, this is not the event for you.
The outside world deploys animal tamers; we will deploy the opposite, weeding out those not wild enough. Our Wilderness-Guardians will be checking costumes, lovingly but strictly upholding standards to protect our ecosystem. They’ll do everything possible to enable you to enter, but if you come inappropriately dressed, you won’t be entering with those clothes; prepare to be asked to return to your truest animal nature - the clothes you were born in ;)
We will have a feral face-painter on hand for those emergency remedies.
Check out our growing FERAL Pinterest Board for inspiration:
pinterest.co.uk/foxandbadge/fb-202312-feral-costume/
"We patronize the animals for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they are more finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear." (Henry Beston)
An enormous thank you to all the beasts and beauties who joined us for FERAL! You can see photos and a recap of the event here and the fantastic aftermovie here. Next we will be exploring the mysteries of Ancient Egypt at Isis & Osiris on May 26th at HEAVEN.
