My London: Glyn Fussell – Author & Activist

Glyn Fussell is an author, activist, LGBTQ+ icon and king of the U.K. night scene!

As the co-founder of both Sink The Pink, and the hugely successful Mighty Hoopla pop music festival, Glyn has spent the last two decades working tirelessly to create the largest LGBTQ+ collective of performers and creatives in the city.

Fearless in his quest to inspire a new generation of people to be fearless in their pursuit of finding inner peace and happiness, Fussell continues to use his platform to actively champion and lend his voice to causes close to his heart.

With the release of his new book ‘Sink The Pink’s Manifesto For Misfits’, Glyn shares with readers all of the knowledge and information he wishes he’d known growing up as someone who always felt “different”.

Made up of a spirited, and colourful collection of think pieces, reflective exercises and living testimonies from a brave community of self-proclaimed “eccentrics, freaks, geeks, rebels and oddballs” – including Spice Girl Melanie C, Yungblud and Jade Thirlwall of Little Mix – the perspective-shifting book encourages those who have ever felt lost, forgotten or misunderstood to embrace their uniqueness, find self self-acceptance, value their self-worth and let their freak flag fly!

We caught up with Glyn Fussell for the latest edition of our ‘My London’ interview series.

Favourite neighbourhood:

I first moved to London 22 years ago, and during that time I’ve lived in many different areas all over the city, but the first place that I ever really felt like I was able to call home was Clapton!.. not Clapham, we must make that very clear (laughs). My life up to that point had been so hectic, like I was always, always on-the-go, but following that move to Clapton, I don’t know, it’s hard to explain… I just felt like I became a grown up. I got a dog, I moved away from drag queens and I just found peace. I lived there with my best friend Absolute (the DJ) and we just used to spend hours and hours drinking copious amounts of wine and listening to Madonna’s ‘Immaculate Collection’ on the balcony living our best lives – it was amazing!.. and to me, that’s what being a grown up is all about by the way!

Favourite place for brunch:

Hackney 215 – I was actually just there this morning! They have a few cafes / restaurants dotted around the city, there’s one in Stoke Newington, and a place on Hackney Road, but the one I always go to is in Woodberry Down near Manor House. The food there is phenomenal, and the way they present their meals is beautiful! The staff are so gorgeous and lovely – they love my dog and always give her a sausage which I think is so funny. It’s also an amazing place to go, if like me, you’re vegan.

Best coffee in London:

There’s a little place called Millfields, on the super glamorous Chatsworth Road in Clapton that I love! It’s always packed, and they always have a queue outside, but I promise you it is worth standing in line for a minute or two because the coffee and the cakes there are amazing.

There’s something about hitting middle age where you all of a sudden place a high value on coffee, I remember when I was younger I’d always say “oh just give me an instant”, but once I hit my 40’s I all of a sudden started to have this real appreciation for a good cup of coffee.

Favourite gallery or museum:

Easy, easy, easy – the V&A! I absolutely love everything about that place, it’s bloody gorgeous. From the beautiful architecture, to all of the wonderful exhibitions they house and events they host, it’s one of my favourite places in the city. For me, as someone who grew up in a very working class environment, galleries and museums always felt like very unwelcoming places, like they had this vibe about them that more often than not seemed a bit elitist and stuffy, but I’ve never felt that way at the V&A. Their programming feels very on point and progressive – I think they’ve moved with the times beautifully.  I thought the McQueen exhibition was phenomenal.

Tell us a secret:

My secret for LDNFASHION is, that these aren’t my real lips… just like Lisa Rina, “I get a little help”.

Favourite place to shop:

I love Goodhood in Shoreditch. Even though to some I’m considered a queer icon, I do tend to dress like a 14-year-old skateboarder, so that store meets all of my skateboarding needs – baggy shirts, over-priced sweatshirts and skater trainers (laughs). They have everything, it’s what I call a “lifestyle store”.

Favourite place to find inspiration:

There’s not so much one place I go to, to find inspiration, but I would say East London is always somewhere that makes me feel somewhat invigorated. I feel like I had lived a life before Sink The Pink and living in East London, where I didn’t really know or fully understand who I was. And so it wasn’t until I moved there, that I started to realise and believe in the possibility of who I could be. It’s like a smorgasbord of diversity, ethnicity, age and gender, and everybody there doesn’t just co-exist, they encourage each others differences and I love that. To me, East London is a great example of how the rest of the world should live.

Best London destination for a date:

Honestly, I hate dates! I’ve never liked going on them – I’m socially awkward, I talk too much and I have ADHD, so those things all combined together to do not make for a very good date (laughs). I’m in a long-term relationship now, so when we go out on a ‘date’, we like to keep it simple and low-key – I’m talking going for a walk with the dog, grabbing a portion of fish and chips with all of the trimmings and then maybe going out for a dance at The Glory on Kingsland Road. 

Favourite park:

Well, I’m going to sound slightly biased here because its where we host The Mighty Hoopla, but my favourite park is Brockwell Park. I think it’s the most magical place, and every time I visit the area in the run up to the weekend of the festival itself, I just feel really lucky that we’re able to showcase such a wonderful space to a community of people that maybe wouldn’t have visited otherwise.

This years Hoopla was incredible – I don’t know if I’ve actually come back down to earth and it’s been nearly a month! Honestly, I feel like I’ve been floating on cloud 9! We put so much love into it, and pay so much attention to all the finer details to ensure that people have the time of their lives! It’s something we work on all year round, and we’re constantly talking about, it’s one of my favourite things I do. On the flip side though, there are so many variables that go into planning a festival and so many things to do, think about and go over, so when it gets to the day itself, very rarely do I enjoy it because there’s always A LOT much going on, but this year, hand on heart, I had the most magical time!.. it was also my birthday that weekend so the hoopla became my birthday party – talk about self indulgent (laughs).

Favourite food market:

Okay, so this is going to sound like a very cliche answer, but it’s Borough Market! As I said, I’ve lived in London for 22 years now and up until two weeks ago, I had never there been before! How wild is that? I was blown away by it! It serves world class world on every stall and there’s just this real buzz about the place. There was this fish restaurant, very creatively called “Fish” which served us the best prawn cocktails ever! I left 5 stone heavier, but that’s a another story…

Your sanctuary in the city:

Woodberry Reservoir! It’s an old water supply that they’ve turned into a nature reserve – it’s slap bang in between Stamford Hill, Stoke Newington and Manor House. It’s so beautiful and so quiet, you can swim in the reservoir, go canoeing, sailing… it’s just a really, really nice area to escape to. I actually wrote all of my book there, as I found it was a place that made me feel calm and gave me such a sense of peace. You can see the city skyline in the distance, but you’re surrounded by the most insane nature – it’s beautiful.

What inspires you?

I feel most inspired by my community. I feel like the queer scene in London is so creative, colourful, fast paced, boisterous and disruptive  – it’s all of the things that I love! It’s constantly changing and evolving, so you kind of have to do the same to keep up, which I think is a great thing because you can’t ever stay the same version of yourself, you have to move and change with the times. Having said that… (laughs) I’m 42-years-old now, and so there are times when I think to myself: “oh I’m just too old for this now”, but then I’ll connect with a new person, or discover a place to go or thing to do, and I feel re-energised and raring to go again!

This season I’m loving…

This is going to sound a little weird, but this season I really am loving ugly clothing! Hear me out… I feel like when I was younger, I spent the longest time trying to conform and I would wear things that I felt should, rather than what I wanted. Then when I got into drag and started doing Sink The Pink, I kind of went into the total opposite direction and I would wear things with the intent to shock people. But now I’m a little bit older, and I’m more settled, I’m all about comfort and clothes that make me laugh – like ridiculous coats, or crocs with socks and crazy hats! Recently I bought a hat with corks dangling from the brim, you know like the ones they supposedly wear in Australia? And I love it! I wore it out the other day when I went for a walk around Finsbury Park, and I know it looked ridiculous but I think I’ve reached that age where I really want to be the local, neighbourhood weirdo… that’s the vibe I’m going for, and what I’m loving this season (laughs).

‘Sink The Pink’s Manifesto for Misfits’ by Glyn Fussell is out now at all book retailers.