SA’s nightlife is getting a colourful makeover with Vogue Nights Jozi, founded by Lelo Meslani and featuring queer balls where LGBTQIA+ members have created a sense of community. 

Joburg queer nightlife

I am a child of the internet and grew up on it — that was how I came across ballroom culture, through YouTube videos. I was fascinated by what was going on. At that time I had watched [the documentary] Paris is Burning and I felt that it was important for queer people to experience this across the globe.

What Vogue Nights Jozi has done is shift the paradigm and how people see events evolving nowadays. There were people who thought about how to make spaces inclusive but different from everywhere else. Vogue Nights Jozi has taken 10 steps forward and ensures that queer Black people are always put first.

You can be different and still feel free to come to a space that celebrates you. I think that it’s something no one else has seen before. I’ve had a chat with people who actually do events and they were like, “You’ve blown everything out of the water,” because everyone is so used to doing the same thing without going the extra mile to create a sense of community. Vogue Nights Jozi has become a space where people come together to create a safe world for themselves and take up space.

Cultural disruptor

I’m always thinking 10 steps ahead of any trend, am in tune with what’s happening on the ground in any space, and being original. Which is kind of hard to do these days, but adding your own individuality to anything separates you from the rest and makes you stand out. If you have it in you to be brave and change a norm, you’re doing something right.

One of my missions, especially when I started Vogue Nights Jozi, was to always put on queer and female DJs. They don’t get booked a lot elsewhere, because promoters are either straight Black or white men, or some kind of misogyny, homophobia, or transphobia happens. Now, a lot of the straight male DJs are begging to be at Vogue Nights Jozi. I will give them a chance, but I will always prioritise the queer and fem DJs.

Highlights & lowlights

2020 was a big struggle and I had a hard time keeping this thing going. I’ve seen a lot of queer-centred events that started out pretty well and just fizzled out in the end. But luckily enough, we managed to use Zoom so we had some online parties during isolation so that people didn’t feel they’d lost their community. We also did a virtual ball streamed via the URL with the National Arts Festival.

I think there were two pinnacles and they happened last year. I was doing everything out of my own pocket and we were in some dodgy places in the beginning. When we finally found a venue that could actually fit people, that’s when I realised that this is incredible, especially because we had it during our local pride month in October last year.

That ball blew me away with the level of production. Everything that I envisioned came to life and that to me was fantastic, especially seeing it through so many people who were experiencing it for the first time.

The future of Vogue Nights Jozi

I want to do more balls in Cape Town. I am also trying to do more balls in Durban, I think that the honeys there are ready. I just really want to have these spaces all around the country, because I don’t think our people have something that is for them and by them.

I would love to see Vogue Nights Jozi collaborating with other balls, performers, and legends from international events, especially the kids from New York who paved the way years ago.

I’m excited to be releasing my own music soon. It’s something I’ve been teasing for quite some time and it’s something I wanted to do when the time was right.