After being made redundant from her job as a journalist, Sophie Perry felt lost and depressed. But a chance encounter with a competition on social media led her to Dyketopia, a queer residential event in the Shropshire countryside, which she credits with healing her closeted inner teen.
A Chance Discovery and a Much-Needed Escape
Perry came across Dyketopia by chance, likely pushed onto her feed because of the content she engages with as an out and proud lesbian. The event bills itself as offering 'utopian queer residentials in nature for queer women, non-binary, and trans folks' around different parts of the country. She won a free ticket after seeing a competition on social media.
The timing could not have been better. A couple of weeks before seeing the competition, Perry and the rest of her team had been made redundant from her full-time job. As a Type A, high-achiever who puts much emphasis on her career, it was devastating. When the initial stress and shock subsided, her days became a monochromatic hamster wheel of scouring job boards, sending freelance pitches, and re-writing her CV. She felt completely adrift and depressed.
A Weekend of Community and Joy
The residential took place from May 1st to 4th, just outside Oswestry in Shropshire on the English-Welsh border. It was a dreamy farmhouse surrounded by glamping huts and yurts, with a host of animals including a mother-and-daughter pair of donkeys, a deaf pig, and some very fussy cats. The isolation made Dyketopia feel even more like a utopia, offering escapism and a grassroots community.
During the weekend, everyone who attended was expected to pitch in and do a chore, be it cooking, cleaning, or helping to run an activity. Activities included arts and crafts, yoga, wild swimming, a hike, a campfire singalong, and a gay prom on the Saturday night. Perry's favourite parts were the gay prom and the hike, which took a picturesque three-hour loop from the campsite in England, across the border into Wales, through the village of Llansilin and a local pub, and back across the border.
A Safe Space With No Awkward Questions
Being around so many different queer people, doing jobs together, making art, and dancing to t.A.T.u. under a disco light, Perry felt her unconscious guardrails fall away. For once, she did not feel like she needed to explain anything about herself. There were no weird or borderline offensive questions about her and her partner's relationship, and jokes about The L Word and U-hauling did not fall flat.
Perry, 29, said it is the kind of experience she wishes she had been able to have when she was a young queer, but having it at 29 was no less meaningful. She is planning to go again in the future, noting that in a world that often feels so dystopian, why would she not crave something utopian – Dyketopian, if you will.
