Teddy Edwardes, is the founder of a queer women’s club LICK, in London. Driven by personal harassment experiences on nights out, she founded LICK. Starting in an abandoned Camden church, LICK now sells out 2000 tickets nightly, we speak to Teddy on what drives her, her coming out story and how far LICK has come since it began.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what made you want to set up a women-only club and event nights?
For years I stopped going to straight clubs because I was so exhausted with constantly being harassed by men on nights out, I then moved to London to work at SHE bar, which was a very exciting prospect for me after spending most of my life not having many queer women around.
I worked there for around 6 months and unfortunately/fortunately got fired! I was very upset about as that was my only space to go to, so I walked straight across the road to the bar opposite and asked them if I could start a night on a Tuesday to rival their event called Ruby Tuesdays, they said yes and the following week my event called C U Next Tuesday started and there were queues around the block! I eventually changed the name to LICK and over the next 8 years, it just kept getting bigger and bigger!
Where did the name “Lick” come from?
I don’t really remember it just came to me randomly one day! Was obviously just meant to be!
Running events for the queer community looks like it takes a lot of hard work, explain what it takes to create an epic event and brand, and any highs and lows of running “Lick” as the founder.
I think running any business with Autism and ADHD has its moments, but definitely the social side of running events is what I struggle with the most, but the highs way outweigh any struggles. The shelf life for events is usually 3 years so it’s amazing that we are on year 8 and I think that’s really just down to it being something I desperately wanted to do rather than thinking of it as any grand business plan.
When you really care and want something you can make anything work because it’s coming from an authentic place so the “success” isn’t the same success others might be looking for.
Alongside running “Lick”, you’re also a presenter and have graced our screens on the likes of BBC Three’s Big Proud Party Agency – what was the funniest part of working on that show?
Presenting The Big Proud Party Agency was an extremely weird time in my life, the first week of filming I was on top of the world and it was so much fun working with Ryan and Christopher the other party planners! Unfortunately, a week into filming sadly my dad passed away so the rest of the show was a real slog to get through, hopefully I’ll get another opportunity like that again!
For any of our readers who would like to set up an event for the LGBTQ+ community, what advice would you give to them?
Do something you genuinely believe is needed and different instead of recreating what’s already around, that way you will find your own crowd so much more easily!
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If you like this article you might like our other articles on inspiring queer women, including our interviews with the I Kissed A Girl gals.
What are your coming-out stories? Sorry, but everyone loves a coming-out story.. ?
I don’t have a coming out story to be honest! I was just there! I never told anyone, I just brought a girl home that I met on MySpace and thought it was normal behaviour. I asked my mum recently how she knew I was gay and she said “having naked pictures of girls all over your walls kind of gave it away”
If you could use a magic telephone to call yourself at 15 years old what would you say?
I’d let myself know I’m autistic and have ADHD, would’ve saved me a lot of stress if I’d known then!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Whoever has the most fun wins is my favourite saying to go by. And it’s very me. I really don’t care about anything as long as I’m having fun!
What’s next for “Lick” and you personally?
We are just about to launch The LICK Weekender which is Europe’s first WLW pool party holiday! Tickets and details drop on May 31st at 7pm.
Thanks Teddy for talking to us! If you are interested in keeping up to date with all things Teddy, follow her on her Instagram account @teddyedwardes or on TikTok @teddyedwardes. If you want to keep up to date with LICK events follow @lickevents on insta or @lickevents on TikTok.
Team Nonchalant xx
This article was written by one of our creative team writers here at Nonchalant Magazine.
