Queer Punk Archives in Motion. Team Dresch, Queeruption and cultures of queer DIY
Wednesday 30 September 2026, 3-6pm @ MayDay Rooms, London
Before pioneering queercore band Team Dresch return to London for the first time in decades, join us at MayDay Rooms for an afternoon exploring the archives of queer punk, DIY culture and collective organising.
Formed in the early 1990s, Team Dresch helped define a moment when queer punk was not simply a musical genre but a network of bands, zines, record labels, gigs, friendships and self-organised spaces. Their return to London offers an occasion to revisit some of those histories, and to ask what survives, what has changed, and what might still be learned from them. At the centre of the afternoon will be material from MayDay Rooms’ Queeruption collection, documenting the international DIY queer gatherings that took place from the late 1990s onwards, alongside related zines, flyers, posters and ephemera from queer and underground cultures.
This won’t be a conventional exhibition or panel discussion. We’ll spend the afternoon collectively looking through and talking around the archive: picking things up, following connections, sharing memories and thinking about the infrastructures that allowed queer punk cultures to circulate and sustain themselves. We’d especially love people who participated in queercore, queer punk, riot grrrl, Queeruption and related scenes to come along. During the afternoon there will also be an opportunity to record short informal conversations about people’s own experiences, beginning with materials encountered in the archive.
Come for the archive, bring your memories, meet other people – and then head across London for Team Dresch that evening.