Memories From The Dancefloor from Acast Amplifier launches today to celebrate LGBT History Month.
Acast Amplifier was a competition to find, develop, fund and nurture three new podcast ideas. Last year Acast launched Stacked; this year, begins with Memories From The Dancefloor and will follow up in a few months with Call Me Disabled.
Hosted by Damian Kerlin, a Derry-born journalist and publicist, Memories From The Dancefloor is a brand-new podcast covering queer communities and club culture delving into the queer chaos, joy, and community.
Each episode goes inside one iconic LGBTQ venue, exploring its enclaves and stories with the performers, staff, and patrons who strongly connect to it.
Topics covered include the AIDs epidemic, trans inclusion, the political elements, the fashion moments and more. Through first-hand accounts and on-the-ground reporting, Damian will meet with the party boys, dykes, and drag queens who lived and loved in these spaces – spaces that, today, remain under threat.
In the past decade alone, 60 per cent of London’s LGBTQ+ spaces have closed down. The stories, secrets, and snippets of gossip that live within their walls are in peril of being lost forever.
“Being from Northern Ireland, where it was hard to grow up gay and where many LGBTQ people leave and never come back, I had such little access to queer spaces,” Damian says. “It’s in you to feel like an outsider, doubly so. My writing has always been about LGBTQ+ social affairs and celebrating queer life and culture. This idea has just bubbled in me for some time.”
Damian’s first experience of queer joy and protest was at Belfast Pride at age 13. “I remember visiting my aunt in the city and walking onto Castle Street, to be engulfed in gay culture and colour,” he says. “Then there was Pepes in Derry, one of the singular LGBTQ+ venues in Derry, that’s now shut.
“So I’d try my luck there at 16 – I’d slip past the bouncers and see this huge celebration of people, different generations of the LGBTQ+ community like I’d never imagined. It made me – like so many others – who I am.”
With the support of Acast, Memories From The Dancefloor will be available across all podcast platforms and have access to Acast’s monetisation products, including advertising, sponsorship, brand collaborations and live show partnerships.
Nick Harnett, Marketing Manager at Acast, said: “It’s been a joy to work with Damian on developing Memories From The Dancefloor.
“When the podcast idea was first submitted to Acast Amplifier, we were struck by the ambition to blend live audio, storytelling and sound design. These stories are important for all podcast fans, and we hope listeners will enjoy celebrating these soundbites of LGBT History.”
Memories From The Dancefloor is available to listen to now, wherever you get your podcasts including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.