Duckie, the long-running LGBTQI+ club and arts organisation, has always smashed convention – and its new event series, Duckie 7/11, is no exception. After 27 years of parties that blend DJs and boundary-pushing queer performance art at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Duckie is crossing the river and hosting its live art-inflected parties at St Paul’s Church in Hackney. Not only that, but it’ll be kicking off at 7pm with a buffet, swapping to a soundtrack that reflects the local area, and finishing at 11pm.
“We’re not into cocaine anymore, we’re into vegan sausage rolls,” says Duckie co-founder Simon Casson, laughing. “Everybody loves a buffet, and you don’t really get buffets in queer clubs. So let’s set the pace.”
Casson – who grew up in an estate eight minutes’ walk from St Paul’s Church – is relishing the process of shaping Duckie’s next chapter. Back in 2022, Duckie held its final event at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, keeping things characteristically tongue-in-cheek with a “straight pride”-themed party, which it called “a celebration of heterosexuality and wealth” with “strictly no cross-dressing”. It moved for a short while to nearby LGBTQI+ venue Eagle London, then took a hiatus. The news, announced recently on Duckie’s Instagram, of a new series promising “Bops, Bites and Bentertainment”, was received by devotees with rapturous excitement, and intrigue.
A queer event in a church? Casson is thrilled by the “radical” prospect. “You’ve gotta get on the zeitgeist – church halls are what it’s all about,” he says. “Pubs and clubs are struggling, especially queer ones. In London, it’s really hard to get space – it’s so expensive. [Churches] have really shown up for us.”
Casson already had a relationship with St Paul’s Church, an “extremely welcoming” space run by Father Brandon Fletcher James, who identifies as queer and runs community projects for vulnerable members of the community. Duckie runs The Posh Club in the church, a showbiz-themed social for senior citizens – and Casson hopes some of them will come to Duckie 7/11.
“There should be some hyper-cool eighty-somethings schlepping to funk on the dance floor,” he says. “They know how to do a dutty wine.”
Attracting an intergenerational crowd is one of the reasons for Duckie 7/11’s earlier running time. Casson hopes to welcome everyone from Posh Club attendees to “gen Zs with their funny haircuts … I think people want to mix.” And by offering a buffet of foods like mini pizzas, sausage rolls and salads (organised by Casson’s sister), and creating ticket-pricing tiers to suit people of varying incomes, he hopes to make the night more affordable.
Another big shift is the music. Duckie’s longstanding DJs the Readers Wifes will step aside and make way for DJs Little Cloud, Joe Egg and Stav B, who will move from Duckie’s previous staple of “jangly, white people guitars” to ska, rocksteady and dancehall to reflect Hackney’s heritage.
Drag and live art is still very much a focus. In its three-decade history, Duckie – as well as its trans-led cabaret series, Bar Wotever – has been a platform for alternative queer performance, with the likes of Ursula Martinez and Travis Alabanza among its alumni. The first Duckie 7/11 event will see Pink Suits, Midgitte Bardot, Chiyo, Symoné and host Azara take to the stage.
“I like challenging, fragile, temporal performance that happens once and never again,” Casson says. “I like vulnerability, I like no easy answers. We will have some of that, but also big dance banger shows.”
Five Saturday night shows have already been plotted out across the year, with plans to take over more of the space on Halloween and for “gay shame” – Duckie’s longstanding party on the night of Pride in London. “There’s a really big garden and a graveyard, so we’ll take over those and the car park, and spill out onto that.”
Duckie 7/11 will run for five Saturday nights in 2026, with the first on Saturday March 7 at St Paul’s Church, 182 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7UE.
