2016: A gay bar at Glastonbury festival became the UK’s best club

Glastonbury is usually joyous but it didn’t feel like that on June 24. For the first time in 5 visits, I felt really shitty at my favourite place in the world. But if there was anywhere you could put the country’s impending doom on hold for a few days, it was at Glasto and Block9, one of the festival's late night entertainment areas, was where we relinquished all of our inhibitions and for the most part of the weekend.

In 2007, Block9 popped up at Glastonbury as a labour of love from a collective of people who wanted to bring something special to the already hallowed site. As the brainchild of Stephen Gallagher and Gideon Berger, the area is described by the festival as “a 24-hour wonderland of heavyweight soundsystems, underground night clubs, huge artworks and extremely alternative performance” and it all started with the NYC Downlow, a gay club inspired by the debauchery of 70s and 80s New York.

A gay club tucked away in the south east corner of the festival site, which houses the best DJs in the world, has become the most talked-about, prestigious and damn right fabulous areas of Glastonbury. The 2000-capacity venue is a homo-erotic paradise, with the majority of people in there either half-naked or dressed head-to-toe in some of the most glamorous dresses and overwhelmingly good drag-attire. And it's become the best club in the UK full stop.