Behind the scenes of Gut Level, Sheffield’s queer-first community project

In 2022, you were evicted from your former home after landlords decided to turn it into luxury flats. Can you tell us about that experience, and why it’s important to keep DIY, grassroots spaces like Gut Level alive?

Yeah, this was a huge rug pull. We loved our space on Snow Lane and we were picking up a lot of momentum there when, without warning, we were given three months to leave. Lots of DIY spots are in meanwhile-use spaces or spaces with insecure contract agreements, so it’s a frustrating reality as this happens fairly regularly. But it particularly stings when you have a beautiful venue with countless hours of love and labour poured into it. Thankfully, we bounced back and our new spot is our first long-term lease (five years), which feels like a big relief to have a permanent home. Plus, we have the collective support of our membership and supporters to thank for making that a possibility.

You’ve since built a new non-profit space hosting music events, workshops, and community activities. What impact do you hope that space has on the local community?

If the space can contribute a little bit towards making our members’ lives more exciting in Sheffield, then it will have succeeded. People need space for loads of different reasons – to meet friends, discover new music, learn new skills, flirt with strangers, share food, find hot activists to shag, bask in electronic drones, be visibly trans without fear, be visibly horny and proud of it, play daft Italo records, start mosh pits to hyperpop, and imagine new possibilities beyond heteronormativity – our small patch in Sheffield hopes to fill these desires.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far?

Evil bloodsucking landlords and property developers!

The build for our most recent space felt like it took it all out of us, taking double the time and double the money (classic). Converting a cafe into a licensed premises on a tight budget with no prior building knowledge threw up an insane amount of challenges. Having shit architects and incredibly unhelpful building control didn’t help! We learned a lot about various legislation and were lucky to have help from builder friends, kind tradespeople in the city and a couple of lovely council workers who did what they could to get us over the finish line.

What does the future hold for Gut Level?

Growing in our beautiful new space! Our community is ever-evolving and we hope more people who are after hedonistic and wholesome times will come through the space and get involved. Gut Level is what it is because of its members and what they contribute. We have loads of events already in the pipeline for the rest of the year. Club events with the best underground DJs and promoters, live music, some weird shit that makes no sense, and some really cute stuff like workshops, film clubs, shared meals and DIY spa days. Past that, who knows? We’re just happy to be surviving and providing a good time for all the angels around us.

Find out more about Studio Monkey Shoulder here, and listen to Gut Level’s playlist below.