Our East London queer-topia is diving head first into her tweens, and this Bank Holiday Sunday it’s our Ninth Birthday Bash! After nine years full of all-star special guests, heartwarming fundraisers, drag debauchery and all-nonsense brunch extravaganzas, we are cramming all the best of Dalston Superstore into TEN HOT HOURS OF MAD BIRTHDAY SHENANIGANS! This line-up of infamous faces including Wes Baggaley, Fannar, Rachael, Goldsnap, Chaka Khan’t, Super Drama, Michelle Manetti and A Man To Pet continue to be at the forefront of LGBTQ+ nightlife and have thrown some our most iconic BANGERS over the past nine years. But the real question is, what brings them back? 

We asked them to spill the tea on what they really think of our homo-pleasure palace and what we can expect from them on Sunday! 

Fannar 

My favourite experience or night in Superstore would have to be all the Meat nights, obvs! But when we did meat New Year’s Eve and my mother came down only to stay few hours but ended watching me for five hours while I pretending to be all cool and professional, and when she left that was the end of me, and I crashed out in the DJ booth! Very professional, innit! Til hamingju med afmælid Superstore! 

Wes Baggaley 

I love Dalston Superstore and feel really honoured to have been asked to play at the birthday bash for the second year running. I love it so much because it’s so much more than just a club. You can go there during the day and work on your laptop or just hang out, get food, have drinks or even look at the gallery. It’s all things to everybody. There’s a real sense of inclusivity and a proper community feel. No matter what time you go in you, will always see somebody you know. Not to mention the banging soundsystem in the basement with some of the best, most forward thinking LGBTQ+ nights in the country. My favourite memory of Superstore was playing back to back with Dan Beaumont at the eighth birthday party last year alongside my DJ heroes Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon. I’m really happy to have been asked back to play with the badass Nadia Ksaiba. Here’s a picture of my alter ego Tina Turnip with some of her best friends at Superstore. 

Rachael 

I’ve been part of the Superstore family since the third birthday!  The first time I was invited to play the birthday party (AKA the best party of the year), I was so honoured that I knew I had to pull a very special set out the bag. So I composed a vinyl love letter to Dalston Superstore. My set included Womack & Womack’s Teardrops because the very first week I worked there, we went bowling and all ended up in the karaoke booth in Rowan’s singing it at the top of our lungs. I played Sharon Redd – Can You Handle It cos Dan Beaumont bought me that record for my 30th birthday. I played Pointer Sisters – Dare Me ’cause that was basically on repeat on the disco daytime playlist every day for about three years straight. EVERY.SINGLE.RECORD I played during that set meant something to me about my time there, and every time I’m invited back to play is a goddamn delight!

Goldsnap