FASHIONCLASH Festival 2024 - The Afterparty

FASHIONCLASH Festival Afterparty is not just a regular festival party, it is an interdisciplinary program and platform that is part of FASHIONCLASH's Queer Activity Program to give more visibility to the queer community in the region. Queer Activity Program consists of talks, workshops, a podcast series in collaboration with Limburg Museum and dance and fashion making workshops.

Afterparty is a multidisciplinary participation project that uses queer nightlife as a starting point to organize multi-vocal curated experiences for under-represented target groups in the region. But needless to say, it is not a queer afterparty, as everyone is welcome. It is a platform for connecting networks and scenes, self-expression, community building and empowerment.

After a successful pilot in 2023, the festival Afterparty as a project has been developed further with broader program. Again in a collaboration with theater maker Samuel Valor Reyes, a program for the Afterparty has been put together with fashion performance of designers NNAEJ STUDIO, Tessa van den Eeden and Max Niereisel. Samuel invited artist and performers Mikael De Geyter, Jento Schaf, Renzo Pepers, Aurora Mesropyan and Nata Mandaria to express the concept for the night ‘Come a little closer and see me for who I am’. Various dance styles were part of the evening, including pole dancing, waacking, vogueing and also spokenword. Maastricht based artist Afroditi's Art has been invited to design a temporary tattoo especially for the party.


And of course there was plenty of time to dance along the music by the fantastic DJ Frandy Perez from House of Vineyard.

Part of the Afterparty project was a series of fashion making workshops and movement workshops preceding the festival. A number of participants in the workshops eventually also participated in the after-party performances, in the creations / styling that they designed themselves. These workshops are part of the FASHIONCLASH participation program Fashion Makes Sense.
 
The FASHIONCLASH Afterparty plays with the idea of letting the night bring us closer together, in a space that celebrates individual expression, by dancing in unity. The Afterparty seeks the limitlessness of your authentic being, as we move and transform together; a celebration of all! The night revolves around the idea of how we want to be chiseled as a statue and how we want to be remembered. Of course, this statue would be fashionable, opulent, and a limitless version of yourself! – Samuel Valor Reyes

all images are by Mitch van Schijndel