Editorial
Did you see those pictures of the queues outside Ikea, waiting for it to open? Did you see that? Queues of people standing neatly in line, waiting for the doors to open. What was that about? It’ s a shop. It sells generic cutlery and lamps with funny names and pine lookalike furniture and it’ s nice enough if a little dull. It’ s a shop. What are people queueing for? If you really need some cutlery, go to Berts or something.
It reminded me of when Soho House on The Beach( or whatever it’ s called) opened. We were invited to the opening( we’ re posh like that) and it was interesting how many people were there. Who were they all? It turned out they’ d bussed people down from the London branch- and put them up in hotels- so that even though it wasn’ t opened yet, it was still full of groovy happening people. Maybe that’ s what happened with Ikea. Maybe all the people in the queue had been bussed down from Croydon. There’ s a thought.
There’ s another possibility. They want to go out but they don’ t know where to go. And that, as chance would have it it, takes us to this weeks subject.
How many times has this happened. Someone says“ I went to see That Band last night. They were great. You should have come”. You love That Band. Had you known, you’ d have definitely been there. But you didn’ t know. If only there was a place to find out what’ s on and where to go. A one stop shop. If only. Well...
We here at Whistler Towers know about this stuff. A few lifetimes ago, we cut our journalistic teeth in That London on Time Out and Time Out’ s more radical brother, City Limits. When we saw The Light and hauled ourselves down the A23 to Brighton one of the first things we did was set up a guide book series, The Juicy Guide, the first guide book of its kind.
The whole ethic of Juicy wasn’ t to be comprehensive but to be a guide you could trust. Somewhere you’ d find out about good stuff. Really, who needs a guide to really pony places to eat? The clue’ s in the word. It’ s a guide, a place you you trust, a friend who knows you and knows what you like.
It’ s long been our plan to create The Whistler listings but in a bi-monthly mag, it’ s not easy. Or rather, it wasn’ t easy.
But things change. That was then. We’ ve now got- and go 21st century us- a Social Media Editor. Someone who knows how these things work, who knows that new fangled Instagram. And she’ s very good at it. She’ s been working on our new profile a while now and things are really starting to take off.
In proper Whistler style, our guide is a seagull- or, more accurately in her new incarnation, a seagirl- called Sammy who picks out the week’ s highlights for gigs and events, club nights, food & drink, and activities like film clubs, pub quizzes, chess clubs and so on.
It’ s on Instagram @ westhillwhistler and it’ s very cool. If you’ ve got an event or something coming up which you want to shout about, get in touch with Loulou via Instagram.
Now in its seventh year, The Coast is Queer, Brighton’ s festival of LGBTQ + writing returns for four days of chat, workshops, performances and films. Headline writers include Yael Van Der Wouden; Juno Dawson and Munroe Bergdorf; Ali Smith and Jackie Kay; Travis Alabanza and Damian Barr. Twill open the festival with a specially commissioned performance lecture. There’ ll also be panel sessions with publishers, writers and literary agents.
Highlights include Life Writing and Memoir with Topher Campbell and a Queer Girls Book Club collaboration with debut novelist Christina Fonthes, and An Evening with Joelle Taylor and Friends, where Joelle will be bringing two poets to the stage as well as performing from her debut collection The Night Alphabet.
“ The Coast is Queer is a defiant, joyful, energising antidote to the constant conflict and noise of our times. It is a transient moment of communitas, of shared humanity and solidarity, needed now as much as any time in our turbulent queer history. We warmly invite you to join us as we explore the infinite ways queer writers feed our imagination and open our minds” said Lesley Wood, CEO of New Writing South
l The Coast is Queer, Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, Sussex Uni, Gardner Centre Rd, BN1 9RA 9-12 Oct For details, go to www. coastisqueer. com @ coastisqueerfest