Hot boys, wild drag, gay rights. Inside Glastonbury’s infamous NYC Downlow 2025

The six-packed boys, bears, drag kings and queens, dancers, bar boys, the Prepster
team that keep us safe… they’re all here, back to deliver delirium on the world’s most
infamous LGBTQIA+ festival dancefloor. Yes, I’m back at my spiritual home that is the NYC Downlow at Glastonbury, a place for queer freedom at the greatest festival in the
world.

Founded in 2007 by Gideon Berger and Stephen Gallagher, the curators behind the
Block9 late night dance zone, NYC Downlow brought to Glastonbury something more
than just a club, but a space that changed the game for queer representation at festivals the world over.

Across five nights, the themes untap the imagination. Crotches take centre stage on
Wednesday’s Underwear Party, and then Thursday sees the queens step into the Tardis (Tar-dicks?) for a journey ‘1 Million Years Before D’ (and that ‘D’ as in ‘Drag’… you
flighty hoe). The looks are ferocious and beastly. Although, you can hardly tell the
difference between some of them in and out drag.

Fishnets, cheap lipstick, belly tops, and mini-skirts are all the rage for Friday’s Total
Slag Night theme, serving Kat Slater realness. You know the line: “You’re not gonna just be slags, but Total Slags!” And we are. We somehow manage to make it to bed every
night, dosed-up on our 5HTP. (Party responsibly, boys.)

Come Saturday night, and we are ready for our big night out on what happens to be the
anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which took place on 28 June 1969, and gave birth
to the modern day global pride movement. Happy Pride, bitches!

Master of Ceremonies and Mother of the House Jonny Woo comes to the stage, his black moustache peering out beneath a head wrapped in bandages, body painted red with
blue and white paint dripping down him. It’s giving Union flag realness through a
deconstructed queer lens: God Save the Queers. “Gays, lesbians, queers, and allies, we say to our trans family, ‘We stand with you, and our queer voices will not be silent,’” Woo
declares to a roar from the crowd.

One by one, the drag queens, kings, performers and dancers strutt the runway, as
seasoned Downlow artistes and new faces alike parade the evening’s Pageant and
Protest theme.

As 4am draws near, we head backstage where we watch rehearsals for the annual dance performance by Maude Adams and All Those Children.

This year, they take it to new levels. They assemble on stage as the opening beats of ‘Why’ by Bronski Beat ring out. It’s a high energy epic routine that takes the crowd on a fierce journey as the troupe deliver lip syncs, hair flips, high kicks and two dramatic lifts that has me dropping my jaw lower than my jockstrap. The spectacle is worth the Glastonbury ticket price alone. As the performance ends, the ’Children take a bow and unfurl a banner, emblazoned with the message: ‘Never feel guilty, never give in.’

“Bronski Beat’s ‘Why?’ is a powerful song about anti-gay prejudice, discrimination, and violence,” says choreographer Lottie Croucher. “It was chosen to represent all those that have walked before us and paved the way for us to be there. It asks the fundamental question of ‘why’ do we face of such hatred. It also stands as defiant anthem for our community… to stand for who we are, and for those that have fallen before us.”

There’s a reason this place has earned global pull. It’s a space where celebration merges with liberation.

Backstage, Harry Styles, Matt Smith, Joseph Quinn, Tilda Swinton hang out with Yasmin
Finney, Lily Allen, Idris Elba and… oh, there’s Charli xcx! Hi, girl! Others, like Ncuti
Gatwa and Andrew Scott, decide to get involved and shake it out with the gays on the dancefloor.

I meet boys from Spain, Australia and Canada who have travelled to the festival, not for the acts, but for a taste of the NYC Downlow. Others have patiently waited three hours –
with a thousand other eager festival goers waiting in the queue behind them – to get
sweaty to the pulsating beats of DJs like Deep Dish and Seth Troxler, who serves an
intimate set in the adjoining room, the Meat Rack.

The smell of smoke machine, body odour and poppers fill in the dark main room as
lasers pierce the darkness, transporting me to what I imagine New York in 1982 tasted
like. Those lucky bitches who have found their way into this hedonistic haven of no-
judgement don’t hold back. I didn’t come here to stand around, I came here to let go.

As 6am rolls around, the lights come, and I step through the cups and cans that litter
the floor of the aftermath of a good time. Stepping into the daylight, the NYC Downlow
unlocks a smile across my face that evokes the inner joy in me that the outside world
and its worries can too often wear away at. This is more than just a night club, it’s an
annual pilgrimage into the heart of what it means to be queer.