A Garlands festival is happening to celebrate the legendary club's 30th anniversary

A festival is happening this month to celebrate 30 years of Liverpool’s Garlands club, bringing back lots of the original team, the tunes and the look of the legendary Eberle Street venue.

The event will be at Camp & Furnace on Saturday July 29, supporting LCR Pride and recreating the amazing ‘Garlands Made Me Do It’ atmosphere that made the club so special.

Garlands became one of the city’s best-loved clubs and the centre of the city’s LGBT+ scene after it opened in the early 90s and its influence is still seen everywhere today.

Becky Rascal from Camp & Furnace says it was such an important part of Liverpool for generations of clubbers, it will never be forgotten.

“It was a safe space in the city for the LGBT+ community 30 years ago, and it also provided a community and a genuine support network. It was such a fun and unique experience, so immersive and theatrical with so much happening,

“The founders, John Lynch and his team, really looked after everyone involved with Garlands, they were like a family at a time when it was often difficult for gay people to find work in Liverpool.

“Thirty years on those performers are still very much part of the Garlands family and they’re all really close and obviously flying the flag for the city.

“Garlands was a big inspiration for so many things we have now – Sink the Pink, Mighty Hoopla, Glitterbox – and it was so well known people used to travel from other cities to come, they used to put coaches on to get here.

“Garlands wasn’t just for the gay community, on a Friday and a Sunday lads who were straight would be holding hands with their mates to make sure they got in because everybody wanted to be there and be part of it. And the girls loved it too because they could dance on the podiums, dress up and just have and ball.”

Becky says they connected with the Garlands team after the success of this year’s Eurovision EuroClub events.

“Camp and Furnace is a really safe space and we have events for all ages, right from 18 to 70s. In the run-up to Eurovision, we did the LCR Pride You’re Safe Here training to remind all our team just how important representation is and for everyone to feel welcome in the venue however they identify or whatever experience they’re looking to have.

“Garlands approached us to do this festival because during Eurovision we had such a large LGBT+ attendance at those events and there were no incidents during that period. We had 4,000 people a day here sometimes and it was just a super-safe, happy, fun environment.

“Garlands came and said they were looking for a new home in Liverpool and it was the perfect fit for us.”

There’ll never be anything quite like the original Garlands, but the two teams have been working together to make sure the festival is as authentic as it possibly can be.

“Leanne and John Lynch have always been behind everything to do with the club, and Leanne was in charge of the production element and the creatives. She’ll be orchestrating the décor, how the night’s going to look, the themes and room dressing, so everything’s being looked after in-house.

“A lot of original performers, hosts and resident DJs are going to be there to give it that authentic feel and play all the big anthems everyone associates with Garlands over the 30 years, and we’re setting up some surprises. There’ll be plenty of special moments everywhere and some familiar faces, so it should be a really magical event.

“We’ve already had such a good response, everyone’s made up it’s coming back, and it’s been from all ages. There’s the younger audience who want to see what it was all about because their mums and dads have told them about it, they love the classic house tunes, and it’ll also be really nice nostalgia for everyone who actually went to get a little taste of what it used to be.”