Hear From Our Campers

 

Photo: JulieMc McNamara.
‘Being in a room full of queer people made me feel powerful.
Feral Queer Camp was good in that it provided space for conversations about art and queerness, but it was great in that it provided people with whom to move through the festival and experience everything with. I knew no one in Belfast and suddenly had a group of people to go to shows with. […]
It was very valuable to hear other people’s thoughts on the works I’d seen – they were often things I hadn’t thought of.
I don’t think I would have gotten much out of Outburst if it hadn’t been for Feral Queer Camp. I probably would have just gone to shows and then gone home. I’m really glad I got to be part of FQC. I didn’t always have anything to say and didn’t always feel comfortable speaking in a group, but the environment was comfortable and understanding and open, and it always made me feel like my voice was important.’

Lee, Feral Camper

FQC Belfast

My favourite parts of camp were the workshops where we could come together to dream into queer futures and discuss queer performance in a group of likeminded makers. I think the main strength of the program for me was the truly intergenerational feel that it had – in both the members of the program but also in the breadth of discussions. Being able to attend talks and workshops looking into the archives and histories of queer performance whilst simultaneously seeing contemporary queer performance happening now. The ability to speak to the past, present and imagine the future, to situate our own positionality within queer performance and to share and co-learn with other artists has been my highlight of the program.

 

Emma, Feral Camper

FQC Melbourne

Photo: Sarah Vickery
‘Queer spaces can be a little cliquey, so especially in terms of bringing more people into the queer art space, having a group of people that you can sit with is great for those who may not be part of queer spaces yet. It was really validating and really nice to know that my interpretation of [the] art was also something that [the artist] was trying to convey.’

Feral Camper

FQC Belfast

‘It’s nice just to have people to go see stuff with […] having a space to have conversations about the work that we’ve seen is really really good […] in the past, I’ve seen stuff and just been frustrated: I have opinions now, and I want people to hear my opinions, and it was just really nice to share those opinions and hear what other people are thinking.’

Feral Camper

FQC Belfast

‘Sometimes when you’re working in the arts and when you’re a producer as well, you actually don’t have time to have real conversations […] Particularly for me, thinking about being a programmer, if I’m putting a festival together, thinking about all these different aspects is really useful, so thank you for allowing me to be part of it. It’s nice to know when you go somewhere there’s going to be other people you can just have a chat to […]
I really benefit from […] being able to express a critical eye on something […] I don’t really have the language, so I can really tell you how I felt […] but being able to critically analyse something and thinking about it that way – learning from you guys is really good’

Feral Camper

FQC Belfast

‘It was great to have a focused conversation on what we were watching and learning from each other about other projects, happenings and literature to explore in the future.’

Aodhfionn, Feral Camper

FQC Belfast

For me, FQC is a series of dynamic AND AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE spaces to meet, to share and to debate the pressing arts + culture issues of our time outside of our own rehearsal spaces and the academy, while bringing our own queer rehearsal spaces and queer academics and academic knowledges with us. We make history when we create queer spaces for art and rage and love and conflicts and solidarities and asking the interesting questions, for opening ourselves up to new experiences and new people while sharing and eating on queer common ground. I could say LOTS MORE, I may come back to here to throw more in. I LOVED IT. I WANT MORE.

Kath, Feral Camper

FQC Melbourne

FQC is above all else, a point of connection, a sense of community and a provocative experience for its feral campers as we wade through the multitude of offerings within the Midsumma Festival.

Feral Camper

FQC Melbourne

next Feral Queer camp:

Midsumma Festival 26th Jan - 4th Feb 2024

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