Getting to Know Cloak with Sparky

Getting to Know Cloak with Sparky

Posted on: 22 Mar 2024

This week, we spoke to Sparky - director of Cloak, a community venue and arts space formerly known as Cloak & Dagger - about sober events, late-night cafes and an exciting new rebrand with a whole new name!

 

Can you give us a short intro to yourself and Cloak?

 

I’m Sparky, I’m 27 and everyone describes me as “refined chaos.” I’m one of the directors running Cloak – well, currently Cloak. We are predominantly a community space. It’s really a bold adventure to allow promoters who are just starting out to run events that are small enough for people to meet each other, and create a family vibe. That’s the aim.

I want it to be a space where creatives, in particular, can flurry to and put on all these wild ideas that other venues may not allow the space for. The biggest thing, really, is that it’s a safe space where people are listened to. We’re kind of run off the community’s feedback.

 

You took over from Cloak & Dagger last year, and you’ve kept much of the décor and branding – but you mentioned you might be rebranding soon?

 

Yeah! When we took over, there was three of us. Now, there’s...well, it’s essentially me, and I have a silent business partner. They’ve unfortunately had to take a step back – life happens, you can’t control it – so it’s just me at the moment.

The branding previously was the other two directors. They wanted to keep the ‘Cloak’ element, because one of them in particular had been coming here when it was Cloak & Dagger, and they wanted to hold on to that. But yeah, I think it’s time! We’re a totally different venture, we’re a different vibe, and I think it’s important to let people know we’re here.

I can tell you the name. We’re going to be The Livingrooms. Then I’m going to keep a little bit back, but watch this space. We’re working really hard to get everything ready, and the plan is we’re going to launch early summer.

It’s much more on brand for what we are – the Livingrooms is cosy, and welcoming...it’s that idea of going round for dinner at your best friend’s, and you’re sat in their living room space, and you can talk for hours, time passes and before you know it you’ve put the world to rights and you leave a little bit wholer.

We’re so lucky in Bristol that this scene is so thriving! But for me personally, as someone who has lived in events for a long time, it’s just lacking that wee sense of connection, I think.

As we’re all aware, there’s been a bit of a ket epidemic happening in events, which strips you of that conversation. You don’t get the opportunity to see someone wearing a really cool outfit in the smoking area, compliment them, and start a conversation, start a connection.

That’s the living element of this space, because you are going to bump into every single person at the event – whether that’s on the stairs, or sat here chilling by the fire.

 

 

I’ve noticed in the past you’ve had a fair few sober events – in particular trying to introduce more sober events to the queer community, are there plans for more of those?

 

Oh yeah, definitely. I think it comes from that need for connection. Especially in the queer community, there’s a lot of drug-taking that people don’t talk about. I think there’s also a lot of pressure – in any scene, but just in my experience, particularly in the queer community – to stay out late.

Also, a lot of sober events (whether queer or not), either tend to be run by people that aren’t sober, so they have a bit of a weird layout, or they tend to be like “let’s sit down, have a tea”, and there’s not much energy to them. Just because you’re sober doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy partying – the two can exist together.

The sober events here have been really brought by the community. They were events that were just starting before we opened, events that have been spoken about, and events that I think people really need.

As long as the community wants it, I’m definitely going to keep providing it.

 

I wanted to ask you about the film club, GAY24, which seems to be simultaneously run in Bristol and Melbourne. How did that come about?

 

There’s a crew that runs it, but the person who runs the Bristol one is someone called Sam: she’s amazing. They basically want to facilitate this platform to showcase incredible queer creatives, incredible queer stories, and films, and actors – the whole shebang.

But, the rest of their crew is still in Melbourne, so they moved over here not even that long ago – I’m pretty sure it was only the beginning of the year, and they’re already doing such big things. They would be someone to watch, in the queer scene, I can only imagine what they’re going to do once they’ve really laid their feet in Bristol.

It’s such a good event, and it’s free, which is the other phenomenal thing they’re doing. They’re a good programmer, a really good programmer.

You can find GAY24 on Instagram here.

 

 

Do you have personal favourites of upcoming or recurring events?

 

Oo, you’re going to get me into trouble!

Space Jams, which is bi-weekly on a Monday, I absolutely adore – it’s such incredible music! Space Jams are this live jazz band, but they also encourage people to get up and join in. It’s everything from singers, to saxophonists, to the most incredible spoken word.

While that’s on, upstairs they have Art Rats, which is led by someone called Lisa. It’s arts and crafts, but every single week she’s here she varies what she does; they’ve done everything from lino printing to crochet. Upstairs all these people are sat meeting for the first time, doing lino prints, whilst listening to this incredible jazz music that’s happening downstairs.

It’s also really sweet because the Art Rats tends to be predominantly queer-focused, and there are some incredible jam nights in Bristol, but they do tend to be quite straight male focused. I just love the fact that it’s merging these two communities. I’ve never seen so many femmes and afabs doing jazz. It’s really really nice.

Then of course there’s things like House of Boussé, who do their open drag. You can’t go wrong, if you’re looking for a really good night to go to, you don’t want to look at the lineup, you’re going to come to that and have an incredible night.

Scary Hour is another secret favourite of mine, run by someone who goes by Mummy Peaches, and it’s life admin. She gives incredible advice on any life admin you’ve been putting off, or anything you’re scared to do. Anything from applying to universal credit, to forms you’ve got to fill out.

I’m also a sucker for anything Jungle or Drum ‘n’ Bass led – there’s someone called Dead Man’s Chest, who’s been running Sunday Sessions under the record label Western Lore. It’s so fun because they’re just trying out all the music they want to play and don’t get the opportunity to. It’s really focused on new releases, so you get a sneak peek into all the music you’re going to be hearing over summer at festivals.

Any big plans for the future? I imagine you’re quite preoccupied with the branding/name change.

 

Yeah, definitely – it’s a bit of an ongoing love, because we want to do it properly, so when everything’s together and we’re really happy with it, that’s when we’ll launch that.

But we’ve got some exciting things in the works for summer, for sure. I can’t quite reveal, but on the 18th of May we’re going to be launching something really big. We’re going to be taking over the road behind the venue; we’re going to be outdoors, in the sunshine, we’re going to be getting sound systems, everything from bands to DJs. It’s going to be really exciting, so I’d definitely put the date in your diary.

 

Can you give us an adjective to describe it?

 

Ooh, I don’t know. It’s going to be...something that will set the tone for everyone’s summer. Vibrant. Vibrant will be the word I’ll describe it with.

 

Cloak & Dagger is also a cafe – can you tell us about that?

 

This is something we’re actually working on currently. We have an incredible new manager who’s been hired, called Mica, and they run their own events, like Dirty Spread Collective. They’re incredible at cafe spaces, they really know what they’re doing. So we have a whole new coffee menu coming in, from golden coffees, to matcha, to chai...We’re going to be launching smoothies as well. We’ve also got our usual sweet treats, but we’re going to be getting subs, focaccias...

It’s going to be a space where you can come and work, meet your friends, but you can stay for as long as you want. My pet peeves about cafes is that: A, they’re only open during the day – everything we sell as a cafe is open until we shut. So if you come for Dons of Disco, and you’re letting loose downstairs, and you want a caffeine kick, come get a coffee whilst you’re boogie-ing.

My other pet peeve is that sometimes there’s a bit of a pressure to spend loads and loads of money, continuously throughout the day, when actually you just need a few hours outside of your house or around other people. So this is a space where regardless of your budget, everyone is welcome – so there’ll be an option for everyone, and pay-it-forwards boards, and things like that.

 

 

If you were mayor of Bristol for the day, what would you do?

Just a day? Well firstly I’d make myself Mayor forever! Just kidding…

I’m biased, because I’m in the events sector, but I’d really look at the support I’m offering for community spaces. It’s not enough, and I would really listen to what the spaces say they need. They’re on the front line, they’re the ones dealing with the issues, and dealing with the community themselves, so they need to be setting the rules for what’s needed.

I would look at licencing for venues as well – I totally understand why there needs to be strict rules, and we should be checked up on, and it should be made sure that we’re doing what we should be. But also, there’s events like sex workers, and the sex scene, which would be at the forefront of my mind. We need to create safe spaces, and sometimes licencing can be, in my opinion, too strict on that, and it strips (for instance) sex workers of the opportunity to earn an income in an inclusive space that they get the autonomy over.

That’s something, straight off the bat, that could help people and also educate people! There’s no loss to creating safe spaces, and loosening up on the licencing a bit. Listen to the venues, listen to the events, and the incredible work they’re doing – if you don’t let them try, how do you know it won’t work?

 

You can find Cloak on Cheltenham Road. To see what they've got coming up, head to their website, or check out their Instagram.

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Article by:

Patrick Bate

Patrick is a filmmaker with so much Bristol in his blood the white blood cells are graffiti'd. Educated at the Northern Film School in Leeds, he’s returned home to be a Videographer and Reviewer for 365Bristol and BARBI. When he’s not messing about with cameras, he enjoys playing guitar, spending far too much time on tabletop RPGs, and being an awful snob about cider. Have a look at his work here, or get in touch at patrickb@365bristol.com.