Manifesto
SAFFFO Queer Fest(a) is the annual gathering for the queers, the lesbians, the trans and non-binary fairies; for those who refuse to conform and those who exist at the margins, for the freaks, the rebels and the romantics, for the dissidents and the degenerates, and for anyone who believes that pleasure is political.
SAFFFO brings together artists, performers, DJs, activists and people who create culture every day through independent and unconventional practices.
It is a space for celebration and experimentation, for dancing and dialogue, for desire and collective care.
At a time when artistic and cultural spaces are facing increasing repression and censorship, coming together and making space for ourselves is both necessary and urgent.
We believe that moments of connection, encounter and release within our communities are just as important as moments of struggle.
Choosing to be together, to dance, to desire and to experience pleasure is not an escape.
It's resistance.
Who we are
We founded SAFFFO in Rome in 2022, exhausted by a city, a society and a nightlife scene that didn’t seem to have space for people like us.
We were living through a moment when independent venues were still recovering from the pandemic, the cost of living was rising rapidly, and the Meloni government was beginning to create an openly hostile environment for our communities. The so-called “anti-rave law” had just been passed, and through new security measures and forms of control, the government began targeting bars, clubs and occupied cultural spaces across the country.
In the middle of all this, we felt more than ever the need to come together, organise and defend our right to party — and to feel safe while doing so.
Without a venue, without a budget and with very little experience, we created our first festival in June 2022. More than 400 people walked through the doors of SCUP, an occupied space that has since been evicted, with a pay-what-you-can ticket. In that moment, we realised we were not alone: there was a real need for spaces like ours.
That first festival became an annual gathering and, four years on, we have organised more than 40 events: perreo nights, multidisciplinary festivals, and eventually reaching a PEAK with the celebration of Cicciolina’s 72nd birthday...
Along the way, a community of DJs, performers, photographers, writers, designers and activists has grown around us — stretching from Rome to Berlin, Barcelona, London and Buenos Aires.
People united by the belief that we deserve spaces where we are placed at the centre: spaces to organise, dance, create, protest and live beyond the daily pressures of a system that wants us isolated, productive and constantly under control.
Since then, SAFFFO has continued to transform: expanding, shrinking, reinventing itself. We have collaborated, collided, made mistakes and figured things out along the way.
We have organised parties in established clubs as well as hidden underground spaces, making consent culture and collective care central to everything we do. We created Rome’s first FLINTA*-only darkroom. We have taken what we love from Northern European club culture and brought it into conversation with the chaotic, intense and unpredictable energy of our city.
And this is the space we continue to build.
