ARVI x xCakes at Planeta Manas17 Images
Underground music doesn’t just exist on the peripheries; it fights for them. Take last week’s ARVI x xCakes party, which was hosted in Lisbon’s renowned DIY queer venue Planeta Manas. Although its circumstances might have been tragic, arriving as one of the last events held in the space after increasing police pressure forced the venue to close its doors at the end of July, its mood was anything but.
“This was literally the last month the club was open, so there was a mixture of feelings,” says Portuguese DJ-promoter and ARVI founder Viegas, who hosted the event in collaboration with American DJ-promoter Pauli Cakes. “But it was an even bigger reason to celebrate Planeta Manas’ life and the people it brought together.” The odd blue steel aside, pictures from the event depict the club’s colourful crowd celebrating rather than lamenting the impending closure, sending off the venue with the blow of a kiss and the shake of an ass.
Courtesy of ARVI x xCakes
Still, the loss of Planeta Manas is a huge blow to Lisbon’s underground electronic circuit. “Queer events are very fragile, especially in a relatively small city like Lisbon,” explains Viegas. “The crowd is limited and often more vulnerable to shifts in the country’s economic situation. Ticket prices have to remain accessible for the event to be truly inclusive, which leaves promoters with very little money and in an unstable position. The impact of the closure of a venue that focused entirely on this kind of event is immeasurable.”
Meanwhile, Pauli Cakes recalls being invited by Viegas to play at Planeta Manas for the first time in 2022: “It felt like a queer utopia. DIY spaces such as Planeta Manas are integral to building cultural movements outside of a policed environment. These spaces emerge as a response to rejecting social norms and are naturally spaces where people who might feel othered come to have expansive experiences.”
Despite this deep-rooted significance of the venue, however, many are still struggling to understand why Planeta Manas had become such a target. In February, the venue issued a social media statement claiming that plainclothes police had forced their way into the space, brandishing firearms and physically assaulting partygoers for no apparent reason. It was the fourth raid of its kind in five months, and Planeta Manas had had enough. Soon after, they announced that their doors would be closing at the end of July.
“Many of these clubs operate as ‘cultural associations’ because it’s very difficult for underground collectives to meet the conditions required for the council to issue a nightclub license,” explains Viegas. “This also gives the authorities an excuse to raid venues, claiming they are simply checking if everything is in order. Still, it’s hard not to connect this with the rise of far-right politics in the town, and heavy gentrification.”
Courtesy of ARVI x xCakes
Viegas was referring to the recent advances made by Portugal’s Chega party, which rejects same-sex marriage and gender identity, and is already beginning to influence the country’s centre-right and marginally elected Democratic Alliance party. These threats of conservative backsliding and gentrification are painfully familiar to New Yorker Pauli Cakes, for whom connecting the dots between Lisbon and New York’s queer underground dance communities became a driving force of Planeta Manas’ farewell event.
“In my experience, both cities are facing economic crisis and waves of gentrification which ultimatly results in the erasure of culture and underground spaces,” says Pauli Cakes, who booked the likes of NY Miami bass DJ BobbyGotBack, and Lisboeta techno-baile funk DJ King Kami for the event. “It is important for cities that experience shared struggles to unify and solidify underground music networks so we can push culture forward. Sound and energy carry the memory of meaningful experiences, kind of like a butterfly effect.”
And, indeed, the fight for representation doesn’t stop with the closure of Planeta Manas. “History tends to repeat itself, and we’ve seen queer nightlife threatened by the rise of far-right politics in the past, but also how it has continuously found its way back into culture,” says Viegas. “Because these aren’t just parties, they’re spaces where people can fully explore themselves and build support systems. I feel like it’s this everlasting urgency that keeps hope alive.” Again, underground music doesn’t just live on the peripheries, it fights for them.
Check the gallery above for a peek inside the ARVI x xCakes party at Lisbon’s recently-closed Planeta Manas.
