The lights are bright, the music is pounding and the dance floor has the otherworldly feel of any disco… But for the revelers at the annual Beautiful Octopus Club, it’s more than just a club night. Hailed as the UK’s most inclusive nightclub since its launch in 1995, Beautiful Octopus has celebrated the talents of people with learning disabilities as DJs and designers, giving them a special space to enjoy clubbing.
“It’s not just for the disabled, it’s for everyone. It’s designed by and features performances from people with learning disabilities,” said Mark Williams, CEO and co-founder of creative arts charity Heart N Soul, which is behind the club night.
A professional musician, Mark began running workshops for people with learning disabilities in New Cross in 1986. He found students with talents to be unearthed, many of whom felt “able to discover and share” their abilities for the first time. Eager to be seen and heard, the group developed into a performance theater company that toured Europe.
It was when they stayed in Belgium in the mid-1990s that they had their first experience of direct discrimination. Returning to their hotel, they saw a club night being held in the ballroom and tried to enter. At first a warden said they were not dressed properly and so members and their carers rushed to their rooms in excitement to get dressed.
When they returned they were again refused entry and this time the answer was more direct; the club did not want to admit them or anyone else with a disability. “This was 1995,” Mark said. “In Britain, that was the year the Disability Discrimination Act came into force. Our people were so upset by the experience that they said, ‘If you don’t let us into your club, we’ll start our own.'”
With some funding, the Beautiful Octopus Club held its first night at The Albany in Deptford in 1995. Mark said: “The world was so untapped by a nightclub that caters for people with learning disabilities.
“We had to bus in about 100 people from a training center to fill the floor. But it was a revolutionary night. It really changed the perspective of how people would be seen. The fact that the DJs and performers were all people with learning disabilities surprised a lot of people of the guests.
“Culturally we’ve lost a really significant group of people who have been hidden from the world. The Beautiful Octopus Club is a really important opportunity for people to come together and not be afraid or let fear make them think otherwise people are so different .”
For many years the Beautiful Octopus held its annual club night at The Albany and a myriad of copycat club nights for people with disabilities began popping up in other parts of the country. In 2009 it was invited to move to the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Center where it stayed for another ten years.
In 2020, Heart N Soul began its partnership with the Wellcome Trust, but the first Covid lockdown meant its 2020 event had to be pulled at short notice. Mark said: “We are all so happy and excited to be back at the Wellcome Collection.”
On the ground floor of the Wellcome Collection, this year’s visitors were welcomed by the Heart n Soul choir and a silent disco before encountering ‘The Fuse’, a hub of live performances accompanied by British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation. The upper floor of the museum hosted the “Warm Wellcome” space, featuring immersive acoustic music and poetry readings by Tilley & Del the Piggie, featuring space trumpet from Robyn Rocket, new music from Pino Frumiento and poetry from Sam Castell-Ward.
The evening also marked the live debut of ‘Cheryl Moment’ – a piece of soothing music by Heart n Soul artist Cheryl Lyte, designed to create a friendly and relaxing atmosphere and a break from the outside world. The Beautiful Octopus Club also has a relaxation room for those seeking rest and relaxation, along with ‘Your Space to Create’, an art-making area facilitated by Heart n Soul artists Ben Connors and Catherine Long.
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