Vogue Rites: Face The Music Ball - Roundhouse Three Sixty
The Roundhouse Three Sixty is a brand new festival celebrating music and culture. This was something completely different to what we usually attend but my word this has got be one of the best shows I have ever seen in my whole entire life! Being Queer myself I have always wanted to immerse myself a bit more in the community culture, learn and educate. One love of mine has been to attend a ball. A bit cliche but after watching Pose and plenty of Ru Paul’s Drag Race I wanted to experience Ballroom culture for myself. So when the opportunity presented itself to go to Vogue Rites: Face The Music I leap at the chance to attend. It did not disappoint! It was presented by the International legendary Ballroom MC Snookie West-Juicy Couture. Each category came up and you had a certain amount of time to get on onstage and present your artistry. There were a few categories I didn’t quite understand and thankfully for me someone who was a ballroom connoisseur in the seats in front heard my confusion. Started to explain to me what certain categories meant and the style. Which I really appreciated because they didn’t have to. My favourite categories were Realness With A Twist, FF European, MF Face, Commentator vs Commentator, OTA Old Way Vs New Way. But if I had to choose one favourite it would be Butch Queen Vogue Femme.
For example this was one of the categories and the explaination:
‘𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑠: 𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑙𝑦, 𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑓𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑢𝑥𝑒𝑑𝑜𝑠—𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑝𝑢𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠. 𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑟 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑙𝑎𝑧𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑝-𝑐𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑣𝑒𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑢𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑦.’
What is beautiful to see is all the encouragement and camaraderie as each performer graced the stage. Hyping their fellow friends and chanting it was wholesome and heartwarming.
At the very end they had a best dressed category you didn’t need to belong to house to enter. You could be from the audience and so I decided to get up on the stage because my outfit slayed. Two people beside me started wishing me words of encouragement before I went on the runway. It put my mind at ease but also made me excited. People were whooping and cheering as I strutted my stuff and it was exhilarating.
Music is not just something that we hear it’s something we feel. The rhythm that flows through your body can be the soundtrack to our lives.
You are able to purchase tickets for the rest of the festival here
