Calling all angels! Halo Arts Festival is back for 12 straight hours of moving, grooving, living and loving at the end of this month. Naming its attendees ‘angels’, with its tagline being #angelsonly, Halo is a felicitous, biannual mini festival celebrating the joy of the arts with an egalitarian ethos. “We want the angels to come together, party in the spirit of freedom and bring heaven to earth,” the collective writes in a press release.
For this edition, Halo is heading to beloved London nightclub The Cause, just a stone’s throw from Tottenham Hale tube station. The iconic events venue will be transformed into a savoury safe space with electric set design that riffs on classic party paraphernalia like bouncy castles, balloons and birthday cake, whimsi-fing them with hardcore club visuals like neon graffiti and strobing lasers. From 6pm to 6am on Friday August 25, falling over the bank holiday weekend, there will be multiple rooms for you to explore, each morphing into their own, unique wonderland.
The festival fuses sublime performances and art displays, shapeshifting into an intoxicating pleasure party for a single, sonic evening. As the event blurb says: “Halo is a mini festival with the aim to raise money and celebrate art and all inclusivity for a good cause. With a selection of London’s most iconic collectives coming together for one night, Halo have made heaven on earth and we encourage our angels to party from the evening to the early morning. Let’s have fun again!”
This year’s lineup will cross genres, geographies and mediums so expect explosive sets from LGBTQIA+ and POC disc jockeys and multi-hyphenate musicians, most notably, Aiden Curtis – British-American model, DJ and 10 Magazine cover star – who will be headlining the bash. The R Label Group repped artist is renowned for her ability to blur the lines between past, present and future by blending industrial, hardcore and eclectic rave sounds. AllyXpress and Lexii Tomas are leads too, and we can’t wait to immerse ourselves in the London based DJs’ soul-stirring electric dance mixes.
Calling on collectives from across the globe to lend their talents to the entertainment, help is also on hand from Jungle Kitty Collective – a safe space that puts music from the African, West Indian and Latino communities and culture at the forefront, bringing you everything from Afrobeats and Afroswing, to Dancehall, Reggaeton, Kuduro, Baille Funk, UK Funky and Garage, as well as Hip Hop and RnB with a little dash of House – and 2CPerrea Collective – where fashion and freedom go together for queer, latino individuals – is also involved, bringing the Latino influence to London, as well as Halo itself, which is assembling its own set. Other contributors will include GGI Club and Hungama, with Zoe Matilda’s ZMM Agency lending a helping hand to Halo in organising sponsors and an assortment of services for the event.
If you’re out of town for the event, there’s no need to get your panties in a twist. FOMO should become a far off fear because Halo’s experimental DJ sets will be posted online post party allowing those who miss out (and those who made it) to relive the festival in the Metaverse.
This isn’t just a fabulously fluid party; curated by Christopher McCrory and Tom Burkitt, Halo is also set to delve into a bit of visual bliss with its integral ‘artist space’, an ephemeral art gallery made up of mixed-media submissions from like-minded artists and collectives. Spanning painting, photography, printmaking, video art, installation, films, sculpting, mixed media, poems, illustration and more, it’ll be a visually stimulating smorgasbord of creative outputs.
Brand spotlights are part and parcel too, with vendor stall set-ups from designers like Pierre-Louis Auvray and 1XBlue, each of which share in Halo’s inclusive ethos. Beauty and lifestyle pop-ups will also bring body art, hair primping and more to the North London mecca for you to beautify your booty before hitting the dancefloor.
Between fruity mixed drinks with a feminine flair and some good ol’ grooves, shop Halo’s merch, a collection of tees and accessories garnished with cheeky neon graphics and slogans surrounding manifestation and positive guidance.
A cut above it all, though, this year Halo will be donating a percentage of proceeds from tickets and sales to selected trans support systems including Mermaids, Trans Legal Clinic, Gendered Intelligence, Galop and The Outside Project. There’s also a GoFundMe currently open for donations which you can access here.
Photography courtesy of Halo Festival. Buy your tickets here.
