31/10/10: It has been far too long since we trotted down to our favourite coastal retreat and enjoyed a damn good party. All that changed last week as we rocked-up at the fabulously opulent Oceana for the Wild Fruit 18th birthday ‘Halloween Vampires Ball’. Celebrating 18 years of some of the best clubbing in the UK, Wild Fruit threw a trademark freaky fruity production party spread over Oceana’s seven sumptuous rooms. There was the all-red boudoir, the retro disco room, the bears’ log cabin and, of course, the huge main room shaped like a white drum with projections on all sides creating a spooky cathedral-esque space. Drag diva undead hostesses included Dolly Rocket, Chrissy Darling and Fordy Freaktastic with corseted hot gogos on the podiums, but as always at a Wild Fruit extravaganza, the stars of the show were the punters who this month had gone all out to exploit the Halloween theme with vampires, virgins, werewolves and zombies by the bucket load. Music came from a whole host of freaks on the decks including Prok & Fitch, Nick Tcherniak and Neil Duffie in the main room, Tasty Tim in the Disco Room and Hifi Sean in the bears’ Log Cabin. There are very few club brands with the longevity to be able to celebrate their 18th birthday and still come across as fresh as the day they were conceived, so for Wild Fruit to get there and continue to offer its trademark fun and innovative party themes is a major achievement indeed – congratulations and happy birthday, oh juicy one!
Oceana, West Street, Brighton
Words and photos by Chris Jepson
