Party out of this world

Cape Town. 041213. The Mother City Queer Project, the highlight of the gay calendar, kickstarts the summer season in Cape Town. The fancy-dress bash, held every December in Cape Town, South Africa's "gay capital", is the city's most outlandish celebration of all things queer. Neil Hosken prepares his costume for this year's function. Picture Leon Lestrade

Cape Town. 041213. The Mother City Queer Project, the highlight of the gay calendar, kickstarts the summer season in Cape Town. The fancy-dress bash, held every December in Cape Town, South Africa's "gay capital", is the city's most outlandish celebration of all things queer. Neil Hosken prepares his costume for this year's function. Picture Leon Lestrade

Published Dec 7, 2013

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Cape Town - Characters dressed as Spock, Princess Leia, ET and Buzz Lightyear are expected to be among the 10 000 partygoers at the 20th Mother City Queer Project (MCQP) party at Cape Town Stadium next Saturday.

Organisers and revellers are gearing up for South Africa’s biggest dress-to-theme costume party, which has Space Cowboys as its theme.

 

MCQP spokesman Stefan Joubert said 18 decor staff have been working since June to make items such as aliens and planets to fill a 20 000m2 area, which will include seven dancefloors, bars and food stalls.

Some costumes, he said, would be inspired by movies such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Avatar, Aeon Flux and Toy Story.

One of the decor managers, Willem Myburgh, said the event would allow partygoers to escape from reality “and get transported to strange and wonderful places far, far away”.

“The Space Cowboy theme immediately inspired us to rediscover classic sci-fi movies such as Barbarella, but also other strange cowboy sci-fi movies such as Westworld.

“We hope partygoers will be transported to distant galaxies, and have some weird and wacky adventures,” he said.

 

Neil Hosken, who has been working on his and his partner’s outfits for more than a month, will go as Mercury, the messenger of the Roman gods. His partner, Marc-Anthony Hewson-de Swardt, will go as Mars, the Roman god of war.

Hosken came up with their idea of being Roman gods with the same names as planets after thinking that if cowboys were the heroes of the Wild West, who would be the heroes of space?

Hosken built himself wings for head-and-ankle gear, consisting of golden-sprayed feathers.

And Hewson-de Swardt will dress as a gladiator, with a belt of brown leather straps, decorated with diamond-shaped studs.

Both will wear capes and skirts – Hosken’s made from Champagne-coloured fabric, while Hewson-de Swardt will be in red, along with body glitter in pearl for Hosken, and in gold for his partner.

 

Hosken, who has attended three previous MCQPs, said it was a party for people from all walks of life.

 

“Just about everyone who goes makes an effort. There’s a sense of community and camaraderie,” he said.

 

Peter Claassens, who will be attending his fourth MCQP, said he still didn’t yet have an outfit – “and it scares me because it’s only a week away”.

“Gays just wait for a theme to see what we’ll wear with our Speedos,” he quipped.

According to Claassens, the best thing about the MCQP was the chance to meet new people.

 

“Wearing a mask makes me more keen to meet people. You can be whoever you want to be,” he said.

Lawrence Killian, 21, who will work as a barman for the second time at the event next weekend, said he loved it. “People are having the time of their lives, everyone’s really friendly, and it’s very colourful and inspirational”.

 

Among the 21 DJs will be Grimehouse, Das Kapital, Tune Raider, Sway, Broken Toy, Psyguy and Deliriant.

Live music acts include indie bands Red Tape Riot and Al Bairre, electro swing duo Goodluck, and afro-electro performers TheCITY. Tickets are R320 and R480 for VIP.

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Weekend Argus

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