THELOVEHUB x Fringe! 2024

Wow! We are six!

The Love Hub (the love-child of The Love Tank and Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest) returns for our 2024 special edition!

Once again we're straddling Bethnal Green Road, in London's east end - one stiletto shoe in Fringe's main hub at Rich Mix, one knee-high-Doc-Martin deep in the Common Press Bookshop basement.

For 2024 we're adding the Love Hub Lounge - bean bags, shoulder rubs, quirky pop-up activities, and refreshments, all on the ground floor of Rich Mix. Come and chill between films or Love Hub activities. Grab a free Sexual Health London STI kit, and other health info. Thank you to Preventx for sponsoring this space.

At Love Hub '24, we've got four midweek online live events for folks who can't get to our weekend of in-person activity; a kick-off kinky event at Rich Mix on Friday night; two full days of sofa chats, workshops and panels at Rich Mix at Common Press; and a just-announced final night climax party!

A note on Love Hub well-being: all the venues we're using are ventilated - but that doesn't make them totally COVID, flu or common-cold safe. We'll have free masks available. Got a cough, cold, or flu-like symptoms? Please take a break until your symptoms have subsided: many of us in our communities have to do everything we can not to get sick, including those of us with disabilities or compromised immune systems.

Book your tickets!

  • Digital Connections: Intimacy and Technology

    MON 16 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 7PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, ONLINE, FREE

    How does technology enable or limit intimacy? Is there such a thing as too much swiping right? Can you fall in love over OnlyFans? We welcome neuroscientist and adult content creator Leander to talk us through sex work, intimacy, mental health, and technology.

  • Online Bondage Session

    TUE 17 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 7PM
    INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP, ONLINE, FREE

    Online for the first time, an opportunity to learn the ropes of bondage from the comfort of your own home. This interactive workshop will be a safe space to get to grips with some of the basic ties that form the basis of rope bondage.

  • Let's talk about Sex Compulsion

    WED 18 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 7PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, ONLINE, FREE

    What is Sex Compulsion? And why are we not talking about it more openly. In a thoughtfully led discussion, Adam Zmith will guide our guests through an honest exploration of Sex Compulsion and how it is effecting members of our community.

  • Queer Parenting for Beginners

    THU 19 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 7PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, ONLINE, FREE

    Thinking of becoming a parent but don’t know where to start? Is adoption the right path for you, or are you looking to co-parent with another queer? Parenting takes all shapes and forms, and in this open session we will highlight a few of the ways for those looking to take this step.

  • Don't Yuk My Yum

    FRI 20 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 7PM
    INTERACTIVE PERFORMANCE, RICH MIX (THE MIX), FREE

    Do you love licking food off someone’s skin? How does what you eat affect what sex you enjoy? In this Friday-night odyssey, a troupe of sassy performers will serve up a smorgasbord of treats all about SMELLS, TASTES, BODIES and FERMENTATION. As entertaining as it is informative, expect gagging games, gender-fluidity and belly laughs!

  • THELOVEHUB Lounge

    SAT 21 & SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, 2PM - 7PM, LOUNGE, RICH MIX, FREE

    For when you need to relax, chill, and have a chat, our Love Hub Lounge is open all afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday, where you can sit down and grab a drink, or join in on some relaxed crafting workshops. Thank you to Preventx for sponsoring this space.

  • Eleven Words For Love: On Queer Palestinian Joy

    SAT 21 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 11AM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, RICH MIX (THE MIX), FREE

    Brought to you by activists, writers, and artists from Palestine, Lebanon, and beyond, join our interactive panel discussion on what love, defiance, and joy might mean for queer people of Palestinian and Arab descent.

  • Black Yogis

    SAT 21 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 12PM
    PHYSICAL, COMMON PRESS, FREE

    We know how you love your Saturday stretching. This space is for QTIPOC and friends to come together to connect through the practice of yoga. This peer-led class will be an open-level introduction, so will cater for all levels of experience. Please bring a yoga mat, if you have one.

  • Home Essentials: DIY & Dad Skills

    SAT 21 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 1PM
    WORKSHOP, RICH MIX (THE MIX), FREE

    Are you more of a DIY SOS than a Fixer Upper Fiend? Do you lack the home essential to put up a shelf without a YouTube tutorial? Then this workshop is for you!!! Led by the Love Tank’s DIY expert Dani Dinger, we will show you there is nothing to fear when it comes to doing it yourself and making your home your castle.

  • Touch This Skin

    SAT 21 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 2PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, COMMON PRESS, FREE

    Touch this skin honey, touch allll this skin.....or just come to this exciting panel discussion on Black skincare, where we'll be covering choices and challenges when it comes to keeping your melanin glowing.

  • Rope Bondage 101

    SAT 21 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 3PM
    INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP, RICH MIX (THE MIX) FREE

    Back by popular demand, another chance to learn the foundations of bondage. Leave the workshop with the skills to express your own creativity through rope play. This guided workshop will provide the opportunity to practice, and to discover next steps in the art of rope-bondage. This event is suitable for all queer adults, regardless of experience.

  • Tools Of The Trade: Strap Ons & Pegging

    SAT 21 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 4PM
    INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP, COMMON PRESS, FREE

    Whether to have a moment of gender euphoria, dragging up for a performance, or getting all set to peg, sometimes you just need to strap something on. On this interactive panel discussion, we're giving everyone the expert insight they need to tool up with confidence.

  • Bottoms & Tops

    SAT 21 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 5PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, RICH MIX (THE MIX), FREE

    To bottom, or not to bottom… that is the question. But what do the politics and practicalities around bottoming and topping say about ourselves and our sex. In this informative panel discussion we cover the broad spectrum of what it is to top and to bottom.

    This event is suitable for all queer adults, regardless of experience.

  • How To Be Gay

    SAT 21 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 6PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, COMMON PRESS, FREE

    Are you a friend of Dorothy? An Omi-Palone? Do you know why you should walk into a friend's house and say "What a dump?". Our expert panellists are here to explore how gay culture is transferred between generations, and what it means to be a gay person today.

  • After Eights: Cruising Monologues

    SAT 21 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 8PM
    PERFORMANCE, RICH MIX (THE MIX) FREE

    Nothing finishes off a lovely meal like a delicious After Eight… or a bit of Cruising. Digging deep into the treasure trove of experience, our performers will entertain and enlighten you with tales of cruising. Full of saucy details and go-to hints on cruising with respect, consent and dignity.

  • Embodiment For Intimacy

    SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 11AM
    PHYSICAL, RICH MIX (THE MIX), FREE

    Discover the profound power of connection and self-exploration in our embodiment for intimacy workshop. This is an invitation to explore our body-ody-odies using the somatic practices of breathwork and movement combined with mindfulness to cultivate greater intimacy with ourselves and others. Together we’ll deepen our self-awareness, increase our body literacy, and play. Please bring a sense of curiosity and your body

  • Ace Of Base

    SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 12PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, COMMON PRESS, FREE

    For the Grays, the Demis, and the Aces, we're here to talk about how to navigate queer life and identity through asexuality and aromanticism, and what intimacy, sex, love, friendship, and culture mean to the "A" part of the acronym.

  • DIY Healthcare

    SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 3PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, RICH MIX (THE MIX), FREE

    Curious about hormones, injectables, and other means of managing your own healthcare? Join this discussion with our experts in DIY healthcare on safer use and self-advocacy, alongside a demonstration on safer injections.

  • A Little Death

    SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 2PM
    WORKSHOP, COMMON PRESS, FREE

    Do queer people die differently? Do we need different end of life care? What happens (to us and our loved ones) after we die? Talking about death and dying is never easy. It’s also something we don’t talk about as much as we should. In this candid and sensitive workshop will look at aspects of the queer experience in the context of our mortality.

  • Zhuzh & Trade: Travellers & Queer Culture

    SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 1PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, RICH MIX (THE MIX), FREE

    Join us on an exciting whipround through queer Traveller history, as our expert panel discuss theatre, vaudeville, jazz, and Rita Hayworth, demonstrating the indispensable role Traveller communities have played in Drag, Polari, and queer spaces.

  • Who is the New Ethical Slut?

    SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 4PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, COMMON PRESS, FREE

    The Ethical Slut brought the idea non-monogamy to the masses, but nearly thirty years after its publication, is it still relevant? Join our discussion to learn how consensual non-monogamy sits within contemporary online queer dating and community building, touching on kink, decoloniality, and excel spreadsheets.

  • Working Out Working Out

    SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 5PM
    INTERACTIVE PANEL, RICH MIX (THE MIX), FREE

    If you're queer, trans, and/or disabled, the gym can be a scary place at first. In this discussion, we'll talk through how you can get started, how you can build confidence in working out, and how you can feel right at home when lifting.

  • Pups win Prizes: Quiz Night!

    SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 6.45PM
    QUIZ NIGHT, RICH MIX (THE MIX), FREE

    Our annual queertastic quiz is back… with a Pup twist. Think you know everything about queer film, music, sport, politics, health, and art? Well, think again! Asad Zafar returns with the quizhoster’s mic and fires quick-fire questions, picture puzzles, and team-tagging with a twist. Come in pairs, groups, or on your own – and leave with new best queer friends and a box full of puppy prizes!

  • Queers Beyond Borders: LOVEHUB x FRINGE! closing drag party

    SUN 22 SEPTEMBER 2024, AT 7.45PM
    DRAG SHOW & PARTY, RICH MIX (THE STAGE), £6/£8/£10

    It's a party! Starring a cast of migrant drag artists and hosted by the fab Polka Dot, mother of the Polish drag collective SLAV 4 U. Come for the show, stick around for the music, and see out this year’s festival in a celebration of joy, community, and solidarity.

    All our amazing migrant drag queens and kings will be donating their performance fees to support humanitarian efforts in Palestine.

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THELOVEHUB x Fringe! 2023