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“It’s for people who just need a second home, and for those people to just come and find their people. BONEZ is for them”
ICYMI BONEZ Alternative Queer Party feat. Future Static, The Last Martyr, Drag and Burlesque performers, Lip-syncing and emo-punk DJ’s hit the Stay Gold stage in Brunswick last friday. I popped into the BONEZ event last weekend to check out what all the hype was about and chatted to Sunny Dial, the Director of BONEZ Alternative Queer Party.
As someone who has never attended a queer party event before, these were my first impressions of BONEZ:
SUPER FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT
KIND OF LIKE A MINI BANG PARTY (emo/punk tunes were supplied)
OUTFITS WITH BOLD FEARLESS STATEMENTS is probably the best description I can come up with- people were dressed in a more theatrical sense, for example costumes and bold glitter/ sequin combinations. One of the drag performers had like a maleficent horned headpiece which was quite interesting).
A few things that did catch my attention that 100% added to the environment of the event were the free ‘PRONOUN PINS’ that you could pick up when you walked in and wear it all night, the FREE PHOTO BOOTH (who doesn’t love those little photo print outs- soo aesthetic!), FREE CLOAKROOM- because it’s winter, everyone’s going to have a coat! It’s bloody freezing! And 1 last thing that really contributed to the inclusiveness were ‘ALL GENDERED BATHROOMS’.
Okay, I want to talk about the bands, because this is a music blog!
Future Static were like energizer bunnies! Their vocalist in particular had so much energy and had such an exciting stage presence, and could scream! I love a screamer.
The Last Martyr also crushed it on stage, and having Monica Strut perform in a tutu has to be another highlight haha! It was really great to hear Hindsight performed live as well, as that single has only been out for a couple weeks now. The band also played a cover of Linkin Park, so yes more screams were involved.
One thing that really surprised me was when the drag and burlesque performers took to the stage, the crowd went absolutely crazy! I had to put my gig earplugs back in to prevent going deaf from all the excited screaming and praise coming from the audience to these performers. People loved it and the floor was packed! You could feel all the love and support everyone had for one another up on stage.
On the night, I also caught up with the famous BONEZ director Sunny Dial (she/her) to find out all about these events. This is what she said:
Why do you run events like this?
I started this because it just didn’t exist and you know I’m a musician myself, I love punk rock, I’m the kind of person who would go to a queer night, but still somehow feel like I didn’t fit it. Which wasn’t a nice feeling, cause for a long time I didn’t really like dancing or disco pop music or whatever, so I was like this wasn’t really me, and I knew that a lot of queer people would feel the same, so I started BONEZ and was like there just needs to be a punk thing.
There were so many awesome alternative bands and heavy bands that have queer members and I just knew that they were looking for some more inclusive gigs, so I thought let’s just start it because it wasn’t happening.
Are you looking to expand BONEZ across Australia?
We are going to start running it every second month in Melbourne, and every other month we are going to take it interstate which is super exciting! We are going to Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. This year’s been our most successful year, and there’s no time to lose, I’m really happy with the safe and inclusive spaces that I’ve created and I’m very proud of them. It’s important to get them to as many cities as possible, to as many people as possible.
I’ll be bringing an amazing line-up of drag and burlesque performers on the whole tour, and get some amazing bands from each city, and also get one local drag performer in each city as well. I’ve been doing a lot of research into the music scene and there’s some amazing queer bands from Sydeny, Adelaide, and especially in Brisbane, they’ve got a really good scene.
What is the one message you are trying to get out from BONEZ?
I wanna get out there that it is a really safe space to just be yourself, it’s an important place for you to try new things, and just experiment with yourself, so if you’ve been scared at dressing a certain way, BONEZ is the place for you to try that. If you’re really unsure of your identity or sexual orientation, I feel like if you want to just try something a little different, BONEZ is that place for you. With things like our lip-syncing part we get people to come up on stage, and we encourage a lot of people who have just never been on stage before to get up and just fucking do it. BONEZ is for people to try something new and be themselves and kind of discover who they are as well.
Most importantly, WHO is BONEZ for?
BONEZ is for the alternative queer community and every rad person, allies are obviously welcomed, but it is for those…. Awah I could get really deep right now… It’s for those young queer people, or those young people who are finding themselves or on their queer journey, it’s for people who just need a second home, and for those people to just come and find their people. BONEZ is for them.
I know we’ve covered a lot, but is there anything else you would like to add?
I guess to just check us out on social media, every year we release a digital compilation that we raise money for Black Rainbow- which is an amazing organisation that is for Indigenous queer people. Just check us out and see our projects and come hang out at BONEZ sometime.
BONEZ ALTERNATIVE QUEER PARTY
SOCIALS
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/bonezqueerparty
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/bonezqueerparty/
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