© Photography - Chanel Moye
Teddy Edwardes tells INJECTION all about being the founder of the UK’s womxn only club event.
LICK, the UK’s first and only nightclub event ‘for womxn, by womxn,’ has grown massively since the first event in 2016. The touring club night prides itself on being inclusive of womxn, non-binary people, queer people, and people of colour, the one rule being no men allowed.
INJECTION spoke to Teddy Edwardes, the founder of LICK, who has taken the event to major venues across the UK and has even opened LICK’s very own nightclub in just a few years.
What originally inspired you to begin LICK events?
It all started because my final straw was snapped after continuously going to straight clubs and being grabbed by men. I knew that if I didn’t want to be in a club full of men, other people wouldn’t either. It took a few years to get popular, and now it’s one of the biggest nightclub events in the country!
I’m also a raging lesbian, and being around many gay women was a bonus!
Talk me through a typical night at a LICK event. Who's there, and what is the atmosphere like?
LICK’s atmosphere is unbeatable. The second people enter the club, they’re dancing, and you can tell people feel really comfortable being themselves. We also bring in a lot of artists, have surprise performers, and the best female DJs in London!
As an event for just womxn and non-binary people, do you receive a lot of backlash from men?
Yes, a lot, and a lot of transphobic people, too, as we are inclusive of trans women. We’ve been threatened to be sued countless times and received hundreds of vile messages proving exactly why we need this night!
© Photography - Chanel Moye
There has been a significant issue with spiking across the UK recently, do you find that this epidemic increased LICK's popularity?
LICK has been running for six years now and has been selling out 2000 tickets a night for the last three years, so I don’t think it made us more popular, but I’m sure more people are now more inclined to come!
What feedback have you had from those who attend LICK? Do they find it safer or more enjoyable than a regular club?
Nowhere can be completely a safe space as you never know what may happen, but I think the precautions we take with entry, exit and the clear policies we post online definitely make it a comfortable place to be!
LICK has come so far in the past few years! How do you feel about your progress, do you feel you've created a space for women that wasn't previously available?
100%! Every club in London is full of men, and there was nothing exclusively for women before us; even the only lesbian bar let men in as guests. Also, our crowd is extremely diverse, probably 75% women of color. When we first started in Soho, I was banned everywhere because they said I was “bringing the wrong crowd to Soho,” but now everyone wants us at their venues, so we’ve definitely created something new.
What are your plans for the future of LICK?
We are launching in 10 cities in the UK and Ireland over the next few months, and then we plan to take it global!