Winter Wanderlust
Our ultimate winter party, the hun of all Winter Wonderlands.
The late night owls of Manchester gathered around the fire that was Winter Wanderlust. They then partied into the early hours with live music, poetry, drag, burlesque, DJs and festive cheer.
Date: Saturday 9th December
Location: Area Manchester, 50 Sackville St, Manchester M1 3WF
Order Of Events: Trickle Bruvas Immersive Interactions (21:00 - end of the night), WW’s Folk Band (21:15 - 22:00), Cabaret Performances (22:00 - 00:00), Club Night (00:00 - 03:00)
Come and wander through our wonderland
Where ice queens rule and winter trees stand.
We bring cups of coco, whiskey and rum
If you bring the pa rum pum pum pum.
For the naughty and nice, the sugar and spice.
With eyes that twinkle, let us sprinkle,
So La joy and tickles of tinsel.
Calling the sugarbums, the ice spice hoes gather around our mistletoe.
We bear our gifts unto you,
even the loneliest hearts and Elvis blue.
Come and ride along the So La Sleigh
and make the yuletide gay!
Creative Directors & Producers: Eleanor Haigh & Rosa Hallam Fryer
Executive Producers/Stage Managers: Lucy Laverty & PJ Cunningham
Head Of Design: Emily Pudd
Design Assistants: Madi French, Rianna Grace & Keelan Fitton
Volunteer Manager: Amy Bojang
Photos captured by Sasha Shuttleworth - @sasha_shuttleworth
Manchester based visual artist and writer Caleb (they/them) created this sparkly piece to welcome the Winter Wanderlust folk and attendees into our festive spectacle.
Instagram - @cheapster3000
Our dancefloor was accompanied by some iconic projections by Manchester based Graphic Designer Varv Archives. The projection’s style aimed to reflect the nostalgia of watching TV around the holidays with some cheekier elements nodding to the cabaret nature of a So La Flair party.
Instagram - @varv.archives
SO LA STARS
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Performer
Ash Bestos (they/them) is the campest drag thing to ever crawl out of a canal. Get it in your diary - Ash is going to give aBRIDGEd spin on a festive rom-com classic!
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Performer
Meet Sufi Hassan (he/him), the whirling dervish. His pursuit of poetry and screenwriting has taken him from South Manchester to the Sahara plains, up through the Himalayas and back down to Manchester again.At Winter Wanderlust, we joined him on his journey fusing comedy and mysticism, as he walked us through his surreal spiritual experiences, turbulent tales of the road and his long standing beef with Father Christmas.
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Performers
Hidden in the depths of our Winter Wanderlust, just under our nose was the infamous Trickle Brothers. They were the carrier pigeons of festive cheer, and our most trusted companions at the Postal Delivery service.
However, dark times fell upon the brothers. The remainder of their savings was spent on 10,000 pickles and before Winder Wanderlust they were at risk of closing shop. They need the audience’s help before it was too late. The wanderlust crowd helped them bring back their letter posting service … through having the bruvas deliver letters from one audience member to another.
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DJ
Not Bad For A Girl resident Maracuya (she/her) always brings the energy to every set, having created her own unique signature style blending classic UK sounds and syncopated global rhythms.
With an impressive ‘23 festival season playing the likes of We Out Here, Parklife and El Dorado and recent gigs at The Warehouse Project, Dalston Superstore and even a debut in Brooklyn, New York City, she is going from strength to strength.
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Co-Director
Rosa (she/her) is one of our incredible SLF Resident Artists! To find out more about Rosa please head over to our Resident Artists page.
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Executive Producer
PJ (she/her) is our fabulous Creative Producer. To find out more about PJ head over to our Resident Artists page.
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Host
The name is Bebé Glacé (she/her) and if you’re lucky she’ll call you sugar. She’s here to guide you like a North star along this hun-tastic wonderland.This little drummer boy rum pumped up the party and lead us to our hearts desire this winter.
She’s well endowed but lonely in her mansion, this icey princess needs melting, maybe with a cheeky snog and some eggnog!?!
Bebé Glacé is also known as our wonderful Resident Artist Eleanor Haigh. To find out more about Eleanor head over to our Resident Artists page.
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Performer
Miss Rosetta Rodeo (she/her) was back on the horse again, and she truly has been good this year!
Unleashing the art of tease and tantalization, Miss R invited us to experience the allure of Christmas like never before.
Rounding off her year all guns blazing, this was a performance we most definitely didn’t need our coats for …
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Performer
Tysie Blaque, the mother of house of Blaque and daughter of ghetto fabulous MCR.
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Live Music/DJ
Terry Bliss (he/him) is a purveyor of home-brewed hyperactive UK bass music with a dash of glitch and a sprinkle of pure nonsense. For Winter Wanderlust he served a specially prepared Terry Blissmas 2k23 live set with all the trimmings (original tunes old and new, interwoven with some exclusive festive remixes)!
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Head Of Design
Emily Puddephatt (she/her) is a designer and performer, from Sheffield based in Manchester. She has marketed and created sets for two productions: ‘Gundog’ by Simon Longman, for which she was awarded ‘Best Design’ at the Manchester in Fringe Theatre Awards and ‘Bundle of Joy?’ by Imogen Chillington which went to the Edinburgh Fringe festival 2022. Emily has been the designer for two of other spectacles; Cupid’s Coven as well as Jezebel: The Grand Opening. Playing with colour, texture and natural forms, Emily’s set design strive to create immersive spaces that excite the audience's senses.
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Performers
X-Rated Grinch b2b Martha May Whovier coming to cinemas near you …Bunny Woo & Bunny Boo are also known as our incredible So La Flair Resident Artists Millie Loveday & Montana Rose Aguelo De Guero Barrera. To find out more about Millie & Montana head over to our Resident Artists page.
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Performer
Sugar Bum Fairy (she/her) straddles spoken word and the erotic
On the page and occasionally for the stage, she draws on themes of desire, power and curiosity.
Always playful, she brings her audience out of their hands and into the moment.
She performed this time with mixed media, Sugar Bum Fairy’s performance lay bare her absurd realities of total obsession while outrageously flirting with the audience.
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DJ
Meet Girlfriend (she/her), Northern Quarter based DJ and owner of ‘Yours For The Night’ Events. A lover of all electronic genres from Chicago house to 140 Dub/breaks/DnB and back round to queer techno and hard groove.
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Co-Director
Eleanor (she/her) is one of our incredible SLF Resident Artists! To find out more about Eleanor head over to our Resident Artists page.
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Executive Producer
Lucy (she/her) is one of our phenomenal Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Directors. To find out more about our wonderful Lucy head over to our Artist Residents page.