Photography by Marco Siciliano
Patrick the Star walked by on black heels, smoke bubbles disappeared in the wind, and butterflies flew on hairy skins. A rotten school bus was heading to unspoken trips while claustrophobic red darkrooms were full of naked bodies hiding from the rain. Cucumbers disappeared for the best blowjob contest while iridescent aubergines lit up the dance floor; watermelons, on the other side, are still eaten without consent. While everyone was spinning in this hedonist queer utopia/dystopia edition of the WHOLE festival 2024, a friend couldn’t stop checking the forum on the festival app for some juicy drama.
The -not so hidden- drama that characterizes the dichotomy of the queer community in Berlin unfolded. Requests for bottom-friendly food, sexual experiences with some slut shaming, best outfits, and declaration of revenge of a group named ‘FLINTA mafia’ on the ‘G circuit gays’ are just some of the topics expressed on the forum that accompanied the three days festival. While we are all waiting for our disposable camera roll to be developed, we can find an unexpected yet precise portrait of the festival in there.
The forum section somehow transformed the experience into a queer meta-video game with live comments. Turned into characters with special useless powers, we all had three days to fulfill the quests required for the game. Between Pokemon Go and Guild Wars, all the biform figures spread in the universe formed by three main galaxies and many planets gravitating and sometimes clashing together. And in a zen moment, seated in the middle of a used darkroom named DTF (down to fuck), waiting for a kettle to warm up the water and cook some instant noodles, I couldn’t help but wonder: Will the feud between FLINTA+ and ‘G circuit gays’ ever end?!
The digital form of a video game or a forum allows us to interpret the character we feel more comfortable with or who we always wanted to be. But while we choose the features for our WHOLE avatar, we should remember that we are still walking in a physical space and must come to terms with other bodies. The real quest of this three-day queer meta-video game is probably to understand our privilege in this circus of joy, music, and sex positivity that WHOLE festival is trying to provide every edition so far.
My unexpected ‘instant noodles/tea ceremony’ is over. The G zombies are pushing the door to enter the DTF darkroom again – a realm created for all and invaded by a few. The feud will continue in the next edition with new solutions and criticisms, and I really hope Patric the Star will finally find Spongebob.
Photography by Marco Siciliano