In a country overflowing with hard techno and new beat, Drum N Babes is disrupting the DJ scene in Belgium. The collective prides itself on bringing UK sounds to their Liège audience. I got to talk to Anaïs Katchynsky, also known as BBFAT, the cofounder, to learn about this hidden pocket of Belgian nightlife which is turning heads. 


“We’re a small collective with no legal status, so basically it’s just a bunch of friends behind it.”

Drum N Babes was founded this year by Anaïs and her close friend Laura Violi (L4U), who is also a DJ in Liège. The pair were bored of the, at times homogenous nature of Belgian music, where hard techno seemed to be the only thing on the bill. “I think its purpose would be to introduce UK sounds to people in Liège”, Anaïs says. She admits that her and Laura were “quite literally crapping [them]selves wondering if people would even show up” to their first edition of Drum N babes, however all that it showed them was how alive the underground music scene in Belgium is.

 
“The underground scene is thriving and super interesting. There’s also a particular camaraderie amongst people who organise breaks and garage in Belgium, we’re not that many haha.”

Since holding the first two editions of the party at Kultura, an event space in Liège, Anaïs has watched Drum N Babes begin to grow, and has “personally learned to not underestimate what a crowd might be into. Even if it is really fucking scary.” The world of DJ’ing is fairly new to Anaïs, but Laura has been mixing in Belgium for a few years now, and also hosts another party concept in Liège called Who’s That Girl?. This experience has certainly helped the organisers ensure that Drum N Babes has an energetic atmosphere needed to get people moving. 

For Anaïs, the main thing on her mind is, are the audience having fun? 

“Imagine having your one night out a week being shit, and imagine me being the cause for that. Absolutely not.”

Anaïs and Laura “love curating interesting lineups where the acts complement each other” and inject bass-fuelled tracks into the event (which can sometimes go unexpectedly, as Anais recounts a time where a sheet of metal fell off the side of the booth when she was mixing, because of the bass). At Drum N Babes, Anais wants to give the 9-5 crowd the night out they deserve, and “every time it shocks [her] that Belgians, in [her] tiny city, are dancing to deep cut grime and UKG beats”, mustering the energy to dance until 04:30. 

However, it’s not just the audience the organisers think about, “We also want the artists to feel great. In nightlife that’s something that sometimes is forgotten” Being a performer herself, Anais understands this profoundly from both sides, and as a result, ensures that artists are hosted and communicated with well. This caring attitude really does make a difference and “ultimately determines how [artists] feel coming out of their gig”. This becomes extremely clear as artists have expressed that Drum N Babes could be “the best gig of the year”; it all boils down to artist handling and real care shown. 


Whilst Anaïs is fairly new to organising this type of event, she is a key member of La Transpédégouines, “a collective that creates event spaces by and for queer people,” This has definitely helped Anais with the operation of the event:  

“It helped me to see an event from a bird’s eye view, what to expect, preparing yourself for certain things if they happen, […] We just really love doing this and we’ve done it so much that it just feels like okay I know how this is going to go down, it’s not unknown territory.”

The blood pumping around Drum N Babes’ body consists of a group of friends, several of whom are active in the TPG. Their background in organising events like their annual radical pride, providing a space free from capitalism and tokenism, unlike the city-run pride, has strengthened Drum N Babes’ audience care. 

Whilst some friends do shifts at the entrance for ticketing, they also have a “care team’ that walks discreetly in and out of the crowd, checking in on people.” They’re “specially trained to detect situations of violence and take care of the victim. This is especially to prevent sexual and sexist violences in nightlife.” Providing a safe space for partygoers is always Drum N Babes’ core priority, and this is clear when hearing Anaïs speak about it. 

Despite being seasoned in event operations, Anaïs is fairly new to the performance aspect of her career. After organising parties for a while, but not being a “good instrumentalist”, Anais was inspired to mix. She credits the turning point to Liegois DJ, Libra Romea, a close friend and working-class single mother.

“There was this mental barrier I put onto myself being working-class and not a musical prodigy – I didn’t feel legit. So yeah, representation does matter sometimes.”

Having grown up in the UK but moving away in childhood, Anais still listened to UK artists from afar, which we can now see as she sprinkles in Skepta and JME into her sets.