EDGE: New Visions of Queer Expression
RAID brings Cambridge a new club night, EDGE, with the hopes of cementing queer clubbing in the nightlife calendar.
Photos by @Callanphotos_
Last year, a group of students unsatisfied with queer nightlife in Cambridge, formed RAID; a collective dedicated to developing new spaces for queer people that is edgy, extravagant and exciting. RAID is founded on an ethos of diversity and representation. The committee is composed of all queer members, with a majority also being POC. The main aim of the group, therefore, is to embody inclusivity, and especially centering queer and trans POC individuals in their events. This year as part of the group’s continued expansion, a new club night named EDGE is being unveiled as an offshoot of RAID.
@Callanphotos_
EDGE aims to be a more regular staple in the queer nightlife calendar. While RAID will continue to hold club nights, with extravagant themes and decoration, EDGE will ensure that queer people have a consistent place to gather. Both nights will make for a fantastic and thoroughly queer night out.
Queer nightlife in Cambridge has been rightly criticised for its instances of racism in recent times. RAID does not tolerate this in any capacity and has set out to provide a safe nightlife experience for all queer people. The committee looks to events such as Darwin’s ‘Gaydar’, Gender Agenda’s ‘Reclaim the Club’, as well as Club Urania and dot cotton, as examples of the diversity of options available to queer people in Cambridge. Queer safe spaces can only exist when they are safe and inclusive for all.
Further, RAID and EDGE hope to break the ‘student bubble’ in nightlife. With many clubnights dividing spaces between students at Cambridge University, Anglia Ruskin, or the Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts, RAID/ EDGE hopes to open its doors to all students in the city, as well as non-student queer individuals. RAID’s recent collaboration with Cambridge Pride 2024 is an example of this attempt to bridge the ‘town and gown’ gap.
RAID’s commitment to fair pay is also central to its ethos. All helpers at RAID/EDGE events are paid above the Cambridge standard living wage and receive added concessions. This has been crucial to developing a community of loyal helpers that return to help at each event, contributing to fostering a welcoming atmosphere.
EDGE hopes to bring a range of musical genres to the Cambridge dance floor; Platforming talented DJs to play elevated club hits remixes as well as new and old queer classics. In their efforts to create a truly diverse and equitable club night, the music hopes to reflect as such. EDGE is always looking to hire DJs to bring new and interesting music to their events.
@Callanphotos_
Balancing the demanding workload of university life with events organising is hard. We can see this in the fluctuating frequency of queer club nights in recent years. However, RAID received a lot of positive feedback last year and showcased just how high in demand events such as these are within the student body. It is exciting to see RAID develop a new culture of queer nightlife in Cambridge, with high anticipation for the first EDGE event.
To stay in the loop on RAID and EDGE events, updates can be found on their instagram pages: raid_cambridge and Edge_cambridge
EDGE will debut on Monday 7th October at MASH nightclub.