Young People’s QUAD Workshops

Young People’s QUAD workshops

Young people aged 16-24 have, for the past year, taken part in music production and DJ skills workshops with Melissa Kains: DJ, producer and founder of female and non-binary DJ collective Sisu Crew.

Over summer 2024 Melissa led a series of workshops looking at different sides of DIY club culture including graphic design, interviewing skills and DJing. Young people learned to beat match, use vinyl and digital mixers, as well as using some of the original Quadrant Park flyers to design their own material using the Risograph machine.

At the start of 2025, we partnered with Scrapyard Studios CIC for a 6 week course where another group of 16-24 year olds learned digital music production skills at Scrapyard. Melissa taught everyone how to use a midi keyboard, use different digital software for creating tracks and how to use vocal samples.

Work with Hugh Baird Students

Risograph workshop at Crosby Library led by designer Mark Simmonds. Work by Nina Karetska.

As part of a live project module, Hugh Baird college partnered with Sefton Libraries and At The Library to deliver a creative brief responding to the legacy of Quadrant Park. Whilst some students were interested in the design, fashion and photography styles of the era, others were keen to explore the changing nature of rave culture and even the environments in which they have taken place.

We also hosted an open Riso session for graphics and photography students to experiment with the print process, supported by artist Mark Simmonds, a technique which closely mimics the style of the original Quadrant Park flyers.

The students have taken a wide-range of creative approaches to this project, as a means to engage with the local heritage of Quadrant Park and examine the changing nature of DIY and youth-led culture in the city today.

Cyanotype using archival materials by Jodie McIntosh

All the work created as part of this project is now also included in our archive. You can see it all and find out more about the artists here.

Queue Up And Dance celebrates legendary Bootle nightclub Quadrant Park, the UK’s first legal all-night rave. Although the club was short-lived, growing popular in early 1990 and closing at the end of 1991, it played a pivotal role in the evolution of club culture in the North West and beyond.⁠

Queue Up And Dance is being funded by the Historic England Everyday Heritage grant programme, celebrating working class histories. Made possible with National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.⁠