A popular Edinburgh club night founded to reclaim love from hate is gearing up for its biggest event yet as it prepares to celebrate its fifth birthday.
Edinburgh Disco Lovers (EDL) was established in 2017 to salvage the acronym from the far-right group south of the border and has raised more than £13,000 for a variety of worthy causes.
The night, which has found a home at Cowgate venue Sneaky Pete’s, has quickly grown to become a favourite of the LGBTQI+ community thanks to its welcoming and vibrant atmosphere.
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And founders Fraser Gillan, Stephen Roberton and Jack Miller say they are determined to continue spreading the inclusive message of disco after securing a set from New York-based DJ Artwork next month.
Fraser, 26, said: “Disco music emerged in the 1970s to feature marginalised artists otherwise shut out of the mainstream.
“It is kind of the best genre to make it inclusive to everyone. You don’t have to be into a particular kind of music to enjoy it. And we want this to reach as many people as possible.
“We love putting on fun, inclusive parties, and raising money for great causes, but in addition we want to be a platform for upcoming artists across Scotland, particularly female, non-binary and LGBTQ DJs”
The trio began promoting the events following Fraser’s experience at university in Exeter where a similar club night was a regular fixture on the social calendar.
He said the base idea was to tie the EDL name to a more progressive mantra by linking up with local organisations to donate all profits and support their work.
Over the past five years, charities and social enterprises including Hope Not Hate, LGBT Youth Scotland, Choose Love and Cancer Research UK have all benefited from donations in the EDL name.
Recent gigs at ‘Sneaky’s’ have raised over £1,500 for The Institute For Cancer Research and StrutSafe respectively, but they are determined to ramp up their charitable efforts before celebrating five years of making the capital move in September.
Fraser added: “It was really set up at the time Tommy Robinson and the English Defence League were getting a lot of coverage in the media for a lot of negative reasons.”
“Scotland as a place is generally one the welcoming, progressive side. That’s something we pride ourselves on and I think that’s also a really appealing thing to have in the capital. People want to believe in that message.
“In the first year, we only raised about £200, maybe £250 from each event, which was still good, but wasn’t as much as we wanted to.
“Normally our guests are from the LGBT community and/or have links with charities, so we usually ask them to pick.”
The Artwork set will be the latest performance before the EDL goes on a mini-tour with stops in Aberdeen, Glasgow’s Riverside Festival and a first night in England when they pitch up in Manchester in May.
Previous guest DJs have included drag queen Amy L’Amour and Bonzai Bonner and Stephen added all newcomers are welcome to join in the close knit community built up around the event.
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“Me and Jack both have queer family members so we have an inisght into the difficulties around that and living as a queer person,” he said.
“We have taken input and engaged with the queer community to create that kind of space, whether that be through gender-neutral toilets or, pre-pandemic, glitter stations so we have a friendly face as soon as people walk through the door.
“That’s always been really important to us, even in the acts we book. We want this to be an open and inclusive night for all.”
Fraser added:“I think with everything that has gone on in the last year, you’ve had all these stories of spikings and clubs have got a really bad reputation.
"It’s important to have places that are going to, if anything does go wrong, respond pretty quickly to that and make sure it’s unacceptable in that space.”
