Club Fuzzy Is Back: Nottingham’s 5 Star Bear Night Returns for Halloween

6 days ago

5 min read

Club Fuzzy Is Back At Halloween, after Night One Got Sweaty

Back in June I wrote about a new LGBTQ+ night launching in Nottingham called Club Fuzzy, which still makes me laugh because despite the name, it has absolutely nothing to do with me. A friend of mine was behind it, taking a punt on creating something new for Nottingham’s queer scene, aimed loosely at bears, cubs, otters, pups, chasers and anyone else who fancied spending a night drinking, dancing and getting a little bit too close to strangers in a basement.

At the time, I said the same thing I always think about new queer nights. They only survive if people actually turn up.

Well, people fucking turned up.

I went to the first night with my boyfriend and my best friend, and I wasn’t entirely sure what sort of atmosphere we were walking into. The Prohibition Bar at The Lord Roberts is a small basement room, and when we first got downstairs it was a little chilly, although with a room that size and a growing crowd of bears, that particular problem sorted itself out pretty quickly. The room filled fast, the temperature climbed with it, and before long it felt exactly like a queer basement club should feel. Busy, warm, slightly sweaty and full of people dancing into the night.

The crowd was one of the best bits because there wasn’t one obvious type of person dominating the room. There were bears, otters, pups, chasers and plenty of people who probably wouldn’t bother putting themselves into any category at all. Some people turned up in normal streetwear, some went for fetish gear, some went for underwear, and nobody seemed remotely interested in judging what anybody else had decided to wear (or not wear!). It made the whole thing feel relaxed from the start, which matters more than people sometimes realise. You want a queer night to feel like somewhere you can walk in, look around and know pretty quickly whether you’re going to spend the evening feeling comfortable. Club Fuzzy had that.

We bumped into a few people I already knew, which was nice, but we also ended up making new friends as the night went on. It had a nice mix of familiar faces and complete strangers, and it never felt cliquey or like you had somehow wandered into somebody else’s private party. People chatted, people danced, people flirted, and there was enough going on around the room to keep it interesting without it feeling forced.

The music got it right too, which is probably why I spent most of the night drinking and dancing. Then dancing some more. Then, for balance, probably doing a bit more dancing. It was the right kind of music for the room, recognisable enough to keep people moving but without feeling like somebody had pressed play on the same gay bar playlist you’ve heard a hundred times before. The DJ understood the assignment, and the drag host absolutely did too. At one point we had a sax-playing drag queen, which was one of those gloriously ridiculous queer club moments where you stop for a second and think, yes, this is exactly the sort of nonsense I came out for.

And yes, it got a bit steamy.

Club Fuzzy isn’t a sex club, and there’s no dark room, which I completely understand and, after going to the first night, I think is probably the right call. It didn’t need one. There was already enough sexual energy in the room without turning the whole thing into something else.

There were hot bears making out, people dancing in fetishwear and underwear, plenty of flirting, plenty of skin, and my best friend became extremely well acquainted with a new bear during the course of the evening. They came up for air once or twice, which felt generous.

What I liked was that the night managed to feel sexy without becoming sleazy. There’s a difference, and Club Fuzzy sat on the right side of it. You had the looks across the room, the kissing, the flirting, the harnesses, the people dancing in considerably less clothing than they probably arrived in, and that slightly charged atmosphere queer nights get when everyone has relaxed enough to stop pretending they’re not checking each other out. There was no need to push it any further because the room already had enough heat of its own.

The only slightly awkward practical bit is that the toilets are upstairs in the main bar, so you technically leave the event every time nature calls, but it wasn’t enough to spoil anything. If anything, it’s one of those minor venue quirks you notice once and then forget about. The basement itself worked well because it’s small enough to feel full and intimate without needing hundreds of people through the door before the atmosphere starts to build.

The bit I remember most came at the end of the night. Once the music stopped and everyone started heading upstairs, this crowd of bears, pups, otters and assorted queer creatures spilled out onto the Nottingham streets and into the cool autumn air, and I had one of those simple little moments where I realised how nice it had been to have a night like this in my own city. I’ve travelled for bear nights and queer events before, and there’s nothing wrong with doing that, but there was something satisfying about having a proper club night like this at home. No trek to Manchester, Birmingham or London, no making a weekend out of it, no hotel room unless you had far more ambitious plans than I did. I got to go out in Nottingham and have the kind of night I’d normally associate with travelling somewhere else.

At the end of that first night there was no second date confirmed, although my friend had mentioned that Halloween was being considered, so I’ve been waiting to see whether it would happen. It is happening, and I am stupidly pleased about it.

Club Fuzzy returns on Saturday 31 October 2026, same venue, same basement, except this time it’s Halloween, which feels like a dangerously good fit for a night already involving bears, fetishwear, underwear, drag, sweaty dancing and people making questionable decisions in corners.

The line-up is out now, and they’ve done a bloody good job of it. Nottingham’s Bald Disco Diva Bald Joe is back behind the decks after Night One, bringing the disco hits and bangers, joined this time by Pink Noise head honcho Keeks LB with what is being described, quite correctly, as “slut house”. Miss Jazz Hot is also returning, saxophone in hand, so yes, the sax-playing drag queen I was banging on about earlier is back too. The first Club Fuzzy sold out, and Halloween is already shaping up to be a bigger, sweatier follow-up, with a prize for the best Halloween outfit thrown in for good measure. Tickets are £8 early bird, £10 general admission through OutSavvy, or £12 on the door, and the night runs from 8pm until 2am.

Get yours here: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/39317/fuzzy-presents-from-fuzz-till-dawn

If Night One was anything to go by, expect a friendly crowd, good music, plenty of dancing, drag, bears, pups, otters, chasers, fetishwear, underwear and exactly the right amount of filthy energy without it turning into something it isn’t.