On the last weekend of June, as the final Pride Month fêtes drew to a close and last queer hurrahs rang out across the city, an outstandingly campy, avant-garde queer crowd amassed under a Brooklyn bridge.
No, not the Brooklyn Bridge, the K Bridge— but it’s a feat of brilliance either way. Now seven years on, Ladyland Festival, nightlife fixture Ladyfag’s labor of love, has become a Pride Month mainstay, celebrating queer artists and the LGBTQ+ community in the heart of queer counterculture, Brooklyn.
Part festival and part rave— the latter more so this year than ever— the annual celebration welcomed upwards of 40 performers to Greenpoint’s Under the K Bridge Park, bringing folks from all walks of life (and fashion circles) together to enjoy hours of jubilant, transcendent tunes. It was a two-night affair as always, with DJs and live performances split across three stages. The theme this year was not only queer joy, but queer joy and liberation in spite of, as the current political climate hung over this year’s festivities.
The mood, however, was anything but somber; if anything, it was once again a testament to the LGBTQ+ community’s resilience in the face of adversity that they’ve faced time and time again. Queer artists and allies came together beautifully to unite the crowd, hurling set after set of blissful, euphoric music. Rapper Sukihana was as galvanic and fired-up as ever, sloughing off her pink cowboy boots and chucking them into the crowd, and f5ve, the beloved Japanese girl group self-described as “inter-dimensional dream agents” delivered a sharp, coordinated act that committed to the visuals. Ditto Isabella Lovestory, who—in her avant-garde outfit—remained entirely wedded to campy visuals, even as she explores a different sound. COBRAH and Cardi B deliver equally exciting sets, separated only by an hour DJ set by Jersey Club queen DJ Uniiqu3.
And surprise guests were abound this weekend, marked by a genuinely unexpected Kaytranada and Justine Skye appearance during Alex Chapman’s DJ set on Friday. Scarlett Envy, the beloved drag queen and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum, popped up to introduce Cardi B (yes, they were both the drama), and Eartheater, who performed a near-hour, bodypopping DJ set on Saturday, was joined by FKA Twigs just before her own set to preview a new remix of “Striptease,” off Eusexua.
Outside of the headliners, the festival still brought the house down. Chase Icon is the kind of artist the club-crowd will always get behind: songs “Bang” and “Like Me” were big, danceable moments. Sofia Kourtesis’s punchy electronica was an exciting singalong that extended far beyond the dancefloor, and Santi back-to-back with Gallipony on the Resist stage was as fun as it got. Day Two’s undercard brought Cortisa Star—who delivered a bracing set that is soon to propel her straight to stardom—and Meth Math, who always turn heads with their reggaeton-propelled experimental pop. Toccorocco and Chippy Nonstop play standout DJ sets, each pairing dark, sexy, tropical glamour with their own brands of genre-surfing, sweaty rave pop.
FKA Twigs’ performance, though, spoke for itself. It was in a high-concept league of its own—a white-hot spectacle of a performance that brought a magnificent theatricality to her latest eleven-song offering, Eusexua. Clad in an edgy, club-ready leather getup (that mirrored the dress code of most of the attendees), she was an effortless performer, cosily playing up the crowd with a string of non-stop, choreographed dance numbers. It was a busy stage, but it was the work of a pop star operating at the highest level. It was the most glamorous way to close out the festival, which was, as expected, another one for the books.
All images courtesy of Valerie Magan