2025 marks the 9th year of Buttons, a Berlin-based party that’s a home for all – where fantasy meets freedom and everyone is encouraged to write their own story.

Discussions around chemsex have focused either on its joyful potential or on its risks and harms. While the former may sometimes overlook the struggles around chemsex, the latter can ignore the ways in which sex and drugs can have life-affirming effects, especially among sex and gender dissidents. This panel brings together community activists, researchers, and clinical experts to explore the tensions between politics, risk, and care in queer sexualised drug practices.

Jamie Hakim researches queer cultures of sex, intimacy and care in both online and nightlife settings. He has published widely, including the books Work That Body and Digital Intimacies. As a member of The Care Collective, he co-authored The Care Manifesto.

João Florêncio has recently been called “Europe’s only professor of sex.” He researches the intersections of flesh, media and technology, including biochemical technologies, in modern and contemporary queer sex cultures. João has published widely on chemsex, including Bareback Porn, Porous Masculinities, Queer Futures: The Ethics of Becoming-Pig, and Crossings: Creative Ecologies of Cruising (with Liz Rosenfeld).  

Jordan Osserman wants to make Lacan sexy again. He’s written about circumcision, chemsex, and trans healthcare from psychoanalytic perspectives, alongside reflections on housing and trade union struggles. He is a lecturer at the University of Essex, and a psychoanalyst in East London.

Malte Raabe is a queer clinical psychologist and systemic integrative therapist based in Berlin. He supports individuals and groups navigating chemsex at one of the city’s oldest gay health checkpoints. His work focuses on understanding sexualised substance use in its wider social and relational context.

Juliana Gleeson is a writer from west London, living in east Berlin. Her recently published book, Hermaphrodite Logic, traces the history of the intersex movement from 1990 to 2025. Last year she co-founded WHOLE’s first ever DTF tent. 

We invite you into a deliciously honest, slightly flirty, unapologetically queer conversation (in the spirit of the Lemonade Queers Podcast) about getting down without getting drunk, featuring unfiltered takes on sober hookups, mindful desire, and forging genuine connections without the haze of substances. With giggles, gasps, and a few blushes guaranteed, we’ll dive into what it means to experience pleasure, presence, and playfulness in festival spaces while staying clear-headed—because, honestly, clarity is the new kink.

Hosted by Ruhaina

They want to take our joy—our laughter, our pleasure, our softness. They tell us we are too much, too queer, too Black, too brown, too Asian, too trans, too tender to exist fully. And yet, we are here. We love, we dance, we resist. This panel, featuring Cat, Ivy Monteiro & Sailesh, is about reclaiming joy as an act of defiance. How do we protect our queer, trans, BIPOC bodies—not just from harm, but for pleasure, love, and softness? How do we hold each other when the world demands our suffering? Joy is not a privilege. It is our birthright—our joie de vivre, our resistance, our survival!

Cat Jones
Cat Jones is a multi-media artist and independent curator whose work is rooted in self-acceptance/critique, and reflection. His work centers on the interpersonal dialogue one has with the internal & external world, while highlighting his exchange with familial ties, corporal punishment, & (self)observation.

Ivy Monteiro
Ivy Monteiro is an afro-braziliian immigrant nonbinary artist, performer, activist and community leader based in Zürich.

Nary
Nary is a queer climate justice organizer, non-disciplinary artist and ecology student from Berlin. Their practice is an embodied and poetic exploration into the margins of our many selves, the ever-evolving pain of transgression and companionship with our grief. It is a search for perception, patience and reciprocity – ways to queer our understanding of how bodies can interact with our ecosystems. In their work as a facilitator Nary follows such questions by holding spaces for immersive learning, exchange and creation to nurture transformative processes toward self-organized and sustainable world-building.

Colombia’s first queer fetish Techno collective– is a queer sanctuary of sweat, sound, and unfiltered desire—a dancefloor where bodies collide, identities dissolve, and hedonism reigns. Beyond the party, we are a platform for queer talent, reshaping a scene dominated by the heteronormative. We take up space, turn up the volume, and keep the underground unapologetically ours.

Celebrating deviancy since 2009, Cocktail d’Amore is a renowned party in Berlin known for its eclectic quality music selection and free-spirited atmosphere.

CURVS is a queer and body-positive platform created in Lisbon by Bruno Phoebe, DIDI, and Gustrava, focused on curvy bodies, sexualities, and deviant perspectives. More than celebrating the beauty of a curvy queer body, CURVS is a space for intersectional liberation, dodging normative framings, and embodying a fluid, plural, deviant perspective of identity, politics, and sexuality. Here, dancing, hugging, sweating, embracing your body, and showing it off the way you want to are acts of political resistance and collective knowledge.

De Reünie is committed to freedom, togetherness, and bringing people together while enjoying a unique sound. De Reünie is more than just a collective or a series of events. We are dedicated to redefining what it means to create a truly welcoming and inclusive community.

Eau de Cologne, in collaboration with Bassiani, presents a series of exclusive parties held every two months. Our mission is to cultivate a safe, vibrant, and inclusive space for the LGBTQ+ community and allies in Tbilisi, Georgia. These gatherings are more than mere events; they serve as a platform to inspire positive change and foster a sense of belonging and empowerment among marginalized communities.

Fiesta Dame, an event in Santiago, Chile, celebrates sexual diversities and dissidences as it approaches its seven-year anniversary, highlighting the struggle for inclusion in Latin America and beyond. As a queer space focused on electronic music, it fosters collaboration across artistic disciplines, blending music, visual art, and performance for a holistic experience. Each event serves as a platform for emerging LGBTQIA+ talents to gain representation and visibility within the community.

Fluid.vision is a queer collective of 13 international artists and activists in Berlin dedicated to sustainable community building and activism in nightlife. The Fluidity event series, which started as underground raves in 2021, has evolved into a funded initiative that reclaims spaces as queer political and artistic commons. Through these events, the collective aims to challenge the capitalist pressures in Berlin nightlife and demonstrate that a fairer system is achievable.

GEGEN BERLIN is an immersive movement that combines raw techno, radical queerness, and unapologetic fetish culture, fostering a celebration of self-expression. As one of Berlin’s longest-running queer events, it serves as a deeply political space where pleasure, resistance, and critical discourse intersect, challenging societal norms and embracing fluidity and transgression. Rejecting commodification, GEGEN maintains the raw spirit of the underground scene, offering relentless beats and an atmosphere charged with liberation and limitless possibilities.

A ritual of desire, heat, and touch — HAMAM Nights invites you into a steamy sanctuary where the dance floor becomes a stage for intimacy, cleansing and connection!

Herrensauna is a queer haven for harder-edged techno and hedonism in the German capital.

Kilowatt is a Berlin-based platform and party dedicated to amplifying Black and Queer artists in electronic music. We create spaces that center joy, community, and radical self-expression, building a culture that thrives beyond the dancefloor. Through club nights and community events—from film screenings to chess tournaments—we bring people together to move, connect, and celebrate.

Longtime WHOLE contributors, these vanguard pleasure activists for the queer commons, are one of Berlin’s veteran purveyors of sonic, somatic and social transmission. Lecken dancefloors are libidinally-charged wombs of groove, their darkrooms unspeakable, and their discourse impeccable. As a xenofeminist party, Lecken remains committed to a plurality of pleasures: hivesex_nomadic fetishisms_masculine femininity_decolonized masculinity_feminist whores_king kong_non-possessive sex_inter-species solidarity_desire without a subject_comfortable alienation.

Lunchbox Candy, founded in 2021 by DJ/producer Elninodiablo and filmmaker Adam Munnings, is a Berlin-based queer, sex-positive collective renowned for its riotous fusion of music, art, and performance. Emerging from Berlin’s rich tapestry of queer culture, Lunchbox Candy has swiftly become a force of nature for those seeking an uninhibited and inclusive nightlife experience. More than just a party, Lunchbox Candy is a pulsating ritual—an ecstatic collision of sound, sweat, and sexuality where the healing power of the dance floor binds us together. Rooted in community, it channels the spirit of nightlife with intention.

Me Siento Extraña (MSE) is a Barcelona-based collective creating safer spaces for FLINTA* identities through music, art, and community. Founded in 2021 by Maia Jenkinson (ES) and Verushka Sirit (VE), it emerged as a response to the lack of visibility and cultural spaces. With a sharp curatorial vision, MSE blends underground club nights with cultural gatherings that amplify dissident voices. Beyond its impact on Barcelona’s club scene, the collective collaborates with festivals and cultural spaces while hosting weekly gatherings—creating an irreplaceable space for the community.

MÜLL began in 2023 to further establish Techno in the queer scene of San Francisco. We function from a harm reduction mindset and activate spaces free of limitations in order to challenge the norms of West Coast nightlife culture, while showcasing queer artists and collectives from around the world. We value queer diversity, unwavering production and sound quality, anti-exclusivity, sex positivity, and reverence for dancing on the dancefloor. We are all trash, no class :]

NON NON NON is a queer and women-led underground community in Bangkok that supports Eastern Southeast Asian (ESEA) artists by fostering creativity and connection since 2018. It creates safe and inclusive spaces for artistic exchange, celebrating all genders while promoting music and art as platforms for self-expression and change. The organization has expanded its reach by participating in various music festivals, enhancing accessibility and amplifying underrepresented voices in the arts.

Papi Juice is a Brooklyn-based art collective that aims to affirm and celebrate the lives of queer and trans people of color. Papi Juice consists of resident DJs Oscar Nñ and Adam R., and art director Mohammed Iman.

Pornceptual is a Berlin-based collective and global platform redefining sexuality through art, music, and radical self-expression. Hosting events worldwide, they create immersive spaces where queerness, creativity, and desire come together without shame. More than just a party, Pornceptual is a movement celebrating the beauty of authentic sexuality and the power of artistic freedom.

Power Dance Club is a high-voltage, all-inclusive queer rave collective shaping dance floors in Berlin and Athens. Founded in 2018, it pulsed through the underground of Athens, starting in DIY spaces before making its way into the city’s clubs. In Berlin, the party has moved across various venues, with OHM and the newly built Kreuzwerk becoming its key locations. Run by Stathis, Luigi Di Venere, Maria Politi and Danilo Rosato between Berlin and Athens, Power Dance Club continues to celebrate freedom, community, and uninhibited dance.

Sexyness on the dancefloor. Perreo hasta el suelo. Good vibes only.

Signal is a music-first underground party series based out of Los Angeles

Providing a space for people who feel a sense of otherness to connect with like-minded ravers and express themselves in a free, non-judgmental and warm environment.