20/08/2025

 

PROTEST! - Documenting Dissent - ON THE SCENE

Fairfield Social Club

 

A one-night-only immersive event that merges Queer club night, historical re-enactment,and filmmaking. Dress up, dance, and take part in the filming of a new short that explores how Queer joy and protest echo through time. Set in a gay bar, immediately following the UK’s biggest ever LGBT+ demonstration here in Manchester in 1988, ON THE SCENE is part-installation, part-party, part film shoot.

 

‘PROTEST! - Documenting Dissent’ is a two-year long NHLF-funded project by IAP:MCR, where young people have been trained to gather oral history from older queers. Ten innovative cross-form events led by IAP:MCR artist director visual artist Jez Dolan, will maximise the accessibility of these histories – so far, this has included an exhibition and ‘village fete’ event at the Royal Exchange, a PROTEST! themed pub quiz at Factory International, and a planned exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery in early 2026.

 

PROTEST! will culminate in a short-film that’s at the beginning of its development, written by IAP:MCR co-director Joshua Val Martin, with photography by associate artist Lee Baxter. The first elements of this film will be shot at this event at SCENE.

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