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

We're looking back at the trends that defined dance music in 2016. Next up, an inimitable club that pops up just once a year

There aren’t many places in the world I’d rather wake up than in a tent at Glastonbury festival.

What could be better than opening your eyes to a sea of tents on a Friday morning and knowing what the rest of the weekend has in store? It's a dream come true although this year, the beginning of the festival was more of a nightmare.

At around 8am, after a heavy Thursday night session at the gloriously fun Beat Hotel, I was awoken to the words "We’re fucking out, I can’t fucking believe it.” The rightfully agitated man was talking about Brexit. The unthinkable had happened – Britain had voted to leave the European Union and the dark clouds looming over Worthy Farm felt that bit more significant.

“I’m a bit shocked with the lies that you can get away as a politician in this country. As a general thing for this festival, you don’t feel all of that here. People here are looking at a future with open minds and embracing the goodness in life. We’re in utopia,” says Prosumer, one of the artists who’s playing multiple times over the weekend.

The acclaimed German selector, who lives in Edinburgh, is visibly upset by the vote, tears welling in the eyes and a shake in his voice as he speaks. As a DJ who’s known for being one of the most upbeat, passionate and generally amazing souls in the scene, it’s hard to hear.

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.

On our way in for the first time on Friday night, we use our special wristbands to beat the near hour and a half long queue but on entrance we’re told by a tall, pink-dressed man with glitter all over and big, voluptuous lips that we can either “show what we’re working with and get our cocks out or get to the back of the queue”. We oblige and with the the door guard’s seal of approval we giddily enter the most unique and captivating nightclubs on the planet.

The soundsystems are pumping, the music is life-affirming and most of all, the NYC Downlow is just really fucking fun. It’s one of the most inclusive and safe environments on site and everything that goes on there encounters as genuine and heartfelt a clubbing experience as can be.

“It’s inclusive because we let straight people in, ha ha!” says Gideon, the area’s co-founder. “For me, the NYC Downlow is a homo venue that celebrates the specific idiosyncrasies of our same sex culture. It revisits, reveres and re-interprets traditions of our people and those who came before us. We, here and now, have inherited a sound, a way of being, a way of expressing ourselves, a set of values, a political and moral compass based on liberal leftwing values from our brothers and sisters who struggled before us.”

Over the weekend we’re treated to some of the most amazing performances of the festival. There’s Roger Sanchez rolling out a 90s house set with every notable classic you could ever wish for. There’s the incredible Honey Dijon who slams out jacking house jams while a catwalk of glistening gods and goddesses strut their stuff with flair and fervour and there’s The Black Madonna, an outspoken equal rights voice, who plays house, disco and funk to a packed-out room.

Seeing Midland dancing in the crowd with his husband while she plays ‘Final Credits’ is a pretty amazing sight and the love and respect of the crowd who congratulate him while it’s happening is everything that Glastonbury and the NYC Downlow is about.

“The first time I came here I was incredibly moved by the level of passion I saw. You have the feeling that everyone comes here to contribute,” says Prosumer, who played on the Saturday night to a similar level of vibes and atmosphere.

If anything can be taken from the way NYC Downlow operates, it’s that it’s done so with a level of passion and integrity that isn’t shown in most clubs. Every detail is catered for, every fantasy fulfilled. You can be whoever you want to be at the Downlow as long as it’s from a good place, a place where you’re caring to one another.

It doesn’t matter how long you spend in that space, for that time, you are family, you are at one with the people around you and while we were all coming to terms with the Brexit decision, that’s one of the most profound sentiments you can experience.

“Above anything else, the NYC Downlow was and is a mission to create the best club in the world," says Gideon. "A gay creation to show the world just how we do it and just how we have been doing it for a long, long time.”

Mission accomplished; we'll see you on the floor for the NYC Downlow's 10th birthday in 2017.

Funster is Mixmag's Deputy Digital Editor. Find him propping up Maceo's Bar at dawn