Sunday Happy Day: An Underground Institution
- Andrea Britton
- Sep 17
- 3 min read
The Funky Sunday Sanctuary Turns 20.
We Are More Than Happy To Bring Sunday Happy Day to LIQUID SPIRIT Gozo 2026. And Here's Why...
Studio 54 may have been across the Atlantic, but the movement was happening here, too. Back then, London’s queer scene was still underground, a constellation of safe spaces stitched together by word-of-mouth.
Trailblazer, Yvonne Taylor AKA Yveelicious, is a sharp-eyed, sharp-dressed, natural host with an instinct for creating magic. She has raved since the dawn of time and knows exactly what makes a great party. She's a vibe curator and creates a room. Alongside long-time co-hosts MarkyMark, they thread energy through their crowd, ensuring no one feels left out.
SHD’s roots are precise. “Sunday Happy Day began in June 2006,” Yveelicious says. “We had our first event in St Katherine’s Dock, a great venue with a stunning outdoor area. I created it because I wanted the people who knew me to know each other, and I thought the dancefloor was the best way to unite them all.”
From the start, it was also about family. “We wanted our allies and family to attend an LGBTQI+ run party,” she explains. “My own family have been regular attendees. It’s helped them understand my lifestyle and meet my friends. That’s been powerful.”
That ethos carried SHD into some of London’s most distinctive venues. The Century Club became its spiritual home. Established in 2001 as a members’ space for creatives and innovators, it embraced Sunday Happy Day from the outset. “The owners offered us their space, and it’s been our base ever since. The venue embodies collaboration, and it’s fabulous,” Yveelicious says.
Sunday Happy Day also spilled outward: The Roundhouse in Camden, festival slots at Purple in the Park and Summer Rites, Soho Theatre interestingly where Bobby & Steve ran their Zoo Experience, who are also on the LSG2026 line up...and numerous boat parties that stretched Sundays into dawn. You’d often spot an unbothered celebrity drifting across the dancefloor, blending into the room like everyone else, just there for the music, and the dress code? 'Bring your whole self.' Sequins, sneakers, bare feet..you name it.
All is welcome, so long as you’re coming to dance.
Sunday Happy Day Is Really Is All About The Dancefloor
The SHD dancefloor has always been where it's at. On this healing pool of humanity, phones stay away and what you’ll see instead is a melting pot of friends and strangers crossing boundaries, removing limitations and prejudices, and becoming one.
Residents Ben Jamin and Sugabear have held the room since its birth. Sets swing from funk and soul to soulful house and Afro beats. Always warm, always unpretentious, and always alive.
Dennis Ferrer’s Church Lady drops, and without a word, the whole room falls into the Electric Slide.
Those who know, know.
Two Decades On
I've been going to SHD parties for over 15 years. First introduced by besties in 2009 at The Century Club - the parties are off the scale. The parties were unlike anything else: safe, welcoming, and free of the usual nonsense you sometimes find on a night out. No sleaze, lurching, groping, side-eyes, and no negativity just solid good energy. We were clearly straight, but it didn’t matter. We were embraced from the start, and when we came back, people remembered us. They remembered conversations, what we’d shared on the dancefloor and every return deepened connections.
This was community at its finest.
“We’re a very mixed crowd,” Yveelicious notes. “Age 25 to 60+, queer and allied, newcomers and long-time regulars. It’s super friendly, and it’s done much to integrate the queer clubbing community. It’s the kind of party you can come to alone and still feel completely at home.”
I even poached Ben Jamin to play at my wedding in a cave Malta in 2010. He then proceeded to play at my brothers in Spain and various other family doos, so it's safe to say, over the years, SHD has become family. To be bringing them and all they are to LIQUID SPIRIT Gozo 2026: Legacy & Love feels incredibly special.
Some things just belong on this island, and Sunday Happy Day is one of them.
Now, as Sunday Happy Day reaches its 20th year, it remains one of London’s most enduring underground institutions.
“We’re very excited,” Yveelicious says. “It’s a milestone — 20 years of keeping it soulful, real, and united.”
Yvelicious has proven the underground doesn’t survive by hiding, it endures by keeping faith with the dancefloor and showing up as you are.
Wherever the location, SHD will forever be a space where freedom, music, and humanity meet.
YES!
Words; Andrea Britton.
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