Even beneath the clouds and rain, the 8th Smoqua shined through and the main spark that proved once again that solidarity, commitment and love can surpass all the challenges is - you! 🎉 Thank you all so, so much for sharing this adventure with us and helping us empower Smoqua together.
After the reflector lights turn off, we want to stop for a bit, look back at the past days to tell everyone - THANK YOU! 💖 💖
We are incredibly grateful to all speakers, activists and partners for selflessly sharing themselves, their knowledge and experiences: your everyday work is exactly the resistance we talk about.
What about our volunteers? Ah, sometimes it's hard to put into words how grateful we are for the efforts, time and energy they put into Smoqua. Your warmth and commitment make Smoqua a space of freedom, openness and complete support. From handing out posters, leaflets, stickers, making badges, Smoqua frame, decorating the space, handing out lunches, making the coolest vegan cakes for the exhibition... there is mutual support through hugs, jumping in for each other in crucial moments, coming up with safety guidelines for us all because yes, it is important to us, and we won’t even mention those 5 kg of mandarins at the party entrance to make us feel good! Smoqua is smoquastic because of our volunteer squad: THANK YOU all for selflessly giving yourselves.
A special gratitude goes to the crew from Palacha, Ri-Hub, O.K. Gallery, Art-kino, Pogon kulture, Austrian Cultural Forum Zagreb for your support, as well as to City of Rijeka for hanging rainbow flags to fly once again along Korzo and on top of the City Hall.
Smoqua is staying true to its values, that's why we’re also thanking HŽ Passenger transport for return ticket discounts for sustainable travelling, as well as Adria Print, who have been with us since the start, for printing posters and leaflets on recycled paper. Our special gratitude goes to OPG Davor Tudor and Suza for excellent vines and liquors Smokvica and Fiumanka at the exhibition opening, while the menstrual cups from Intimina and LELO intimate accessories were instantly gone at the LORI info-point. 😊
Regardless of all the preparations, the weather is not something we can influence – yet. Hence, our first day started with photo corner on Korzo and a panel on LGBTIQ+ phobia in education accompanied by romantic sounds of rain, along with an inspiring group of school staff, AUT initiative, the Ombudswoman for Gender Equality and online lecture led by Peter Dankmeijer from GALEAfter that, Palach became a colourful Queer city with youth and/or human rights organisations and initiatives. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts: Delta, SOS Rijeka, PaRiter, KolekTIRV, SKC Rijeka, ESN Rijeka, Dugine obitelji, Centar za mirovne studije, Proces, Bučkviriš and Feministički Tamburaški Front.
It was touching to see you travel to Rijeka even for a few hours or for the day to support us.!
After exchanging perspectives at Archiving matters with Alba Hernandez, Brigita Miloš and Jan Orlić Krizmanić, the night continued with board games by Games&hangout initiative from Zagreb as well as queer karaoke by LORI Youth group. Fully packed Palach shined with queerness! 😃😍
On the second day of the festival, International Coming Out Day, wonderful Jamie Marich talked about experiences with religious trauma, as well as knowledge collected in working as a therapist over Zoom. After workshops about hate speech, solidarity and drag, O.K. Gallery was almost bursting at the seams because of the powerful performance by Iranian-Austrian artist Shahrzad Nazarpour which reminded all of us – women all over the world are not freeRight after Shahrzad, exhibition COME of the Coming out museum brought touching personal stories about the coming out process. It's open until October 25th so people had a chance to see it if they missed it at the festival. The ender of the night was a wonderful short movie Common As Red Hair in Art-kino followed by a talk on intersex experiences with the executive producer of the movie Kimberly Zieselman, Erin Vlahović and Kristian Ranđelović. We believe that their deeply touching stories still resonate in all the people that opened up their hearts to hear them.
On the third day, sun shone through and brought us lots of queer joy. Dragana Todorović talked to us about financing possibilities for LBTIQ organisations, we practiced presenting our values in the form of arguments in a humoristic way with Antonia Pindulić, and Alex walked teams all over the centre of Rijeka in the search for traces of Rijeka's queer and feminist past. That laugh, real queer joy at the quiz in front of Palach – that was something worth experiencing! 😊 😊
This year we touched on another important topic at Smoqua: rainbow parenting. The stories of all the panellists moved us, made us laugh and motivated us for further improvement in achieving equality and possibilities for starting families.
Aaaaand, then, in great style started the Queer-UP! Party in Pogon kulture. At the entrance, we handed out condoms, lubricants, and the sticker The city that flows with love multiplied with a new design – another gift by artist Jelena Milićević. Thank you Jela! 😀
DJ Aldessa warmed us up for partying with later support by DJ Mist (our very own! 😊), while the central part of the evening belonged to great drag performances: Pussy Smoke, Disco Teta and Polka Dot from Poland-London. There was a full cardio training involved at one point: turns, squats, foot greetings, hand greetings, more turns... A great laugh. 🌈
We will carry all the touching talks with us for a long time, stories shared with people (especially youth!) that had the courage to come to Smoqua for the first time and decided to stay because they felt belonging and acceptance. Thank you all for helping us crate a more connected and open Smoqua together. Thank you for making a difference – for yourself and for some new kids who are yet to come.
The 8th Smoqua is our joint resistance - resistance to injustice and everything that tries to box us, make us smaller, change us. It is also our resilience - the power of community, support and love.
Until the next Smoqua, with love, your LORI crew and Alex! 🌈💖
