Fresh from announcing their epic debut stage take-over at Tomorrowland this year, pioneering queer D&B movement Unorthodox have also launched an open decks night for all aspiring and rising LGBTQI+ artists interested in performing drum & bass.

“Since starting Unorthodox, one of our main goals has been to create new opportunities for queer artists,” explains Unorthodox founder Toby Nathan AKA Nathan X. “It can be so difficult to be heard in this scene, especially when you don’t fit into the usual D&B DJ mould. We are running lots of little projects to address this, but our open-deck night is by far our boldest and most exciting!”

Unorthodox’s innaugural open decks night will take place in Boxpark, Shoreditch, London on Wednesday March 2 and they hope to make it a regular mid-week event. “It’s free entry and runs from 7pm till 11pm,” Toby explains. “We hope to grab people afterwork for a little midweek D&B and give them a taster of what the queer movement has to offer. We are hosting the first one at Boxpark in Shoreditch, so there will be street food and drinks available too!”

Free entry, food, the chance to check out a whole new league of new-generation talent and, like all the best mid-week events, a chance to network, too.

“We are openly inviting industry folk down too,” says Toby. “We hope to also build the event into a meet-up opportunity for queer artists to network with each other as well as important industry folk. So if you’d like to come down and support the growing queer community, please do, we’d love to see you!”

Each open decks night has eight slots available. Any aspiring queer artist can apply via this short online questionnaire.

Guests, ravers and D&B lovers looking to attend, meanwhile, can cop their guestlist right here.

Don’t be shy: Unorthodox events are fully inclusive to everyone who loves D&B and supports the LGBTQI+ community. For more information and the full story on Unorthodox, check our interview with Toby from last year.

With Tomorrowland and their open decks events now announced – plus their next rave at Peckham Audio on March 11 – 2022 is already shaping up to be a groundbreaking year for Unorthodox and progress in the drum & bass scene. Word on the street is that Toby and friends have even more exciting plans to announce in the near future, too. Watch this space and support the movement…

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