The sun blazed over Margate, England, last weekend on one of the hottest days in May in Britain in over 80 years. Unsurprisingly, thousands of people had arrived in this seaside town about 70 miles from London to enjoy the beach.
Others had come to party. Tucked away behind an unsuspecting Art Deco building on the seafront is Dreamland, one of Britain’s oldest-surviving amusement parks, and last weekend the site hosted a two-day festival called Recessland.
The festival was the brainchild of the brothers Jojo and David Sonubi, who have been putting on parties in London for a decade under the name Recess. Their events attract a predominantly Black crowd — and that is largely by design.
The brothers said in an interview that they were inspired by photographs of Black nightlife in 1990s Britain. Even though, at 31 and 33, they are too young to have experienced the era themselves, they have a nostalgic appreciation for the carefree vibe of party snaps from those times.
David said their approach to putting on parties was “very much independent.” He and his brother pull in favors from friends in the music industry and bypass agents wherever possible, he explained, adding that this D.I.Y. spirit forces them to be creative. “When you have unlimited budget to do things,” he said, “sometimes you just do the obvious.”
At Dreamland last weekend, there were all the classic rides: bumper cars, teacups, a Tilt-a-Whirl. Inside were a roller disco, arcade games and a dance floor. There was also an outdoor stage area with capacity for 7,500 people where the Miami rapper JT and the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Destin Conrad headlined the festival.
“This just feels like a big school trip,” said Chloe Carterr, 27, who had just arrived at Recessland.
Kevon Johnson, who has attended Recessland several times since it was first held in 2023, said that each edition had been better than the last. “They pull it out the bag,” he said.
In addition to the festival, Jojo and David organized a supplementary program in Margate featuring panel discussions, podcasts and run clubs to bring Black culture to a region of England that is over 90 percent white, according to the most recent British census.
Recess has come a long way from its early days of throwing house parties and college raves. “The first version in London was my 21st birthday party,” Jojo said. After he lost his job in retail in 2016, he and his brother started putting on parties and used Twitter’s Black community to build a loyal following.
“People would call it a Twitter party and be like, ‘You guys are weird for linking up with people you don’t know,’” Jojo said, adding that word of mouth soon became “the foundation of their growth.”
Before long, Recess was holding events at established London venues including XOYO and Drumsheds.
When the coronavirus pandemic arrived in 2020 and the nightlife industry went dark, the brothers took their love of music online and established No Signal, a radio station for Black music. Its live “10v10” sound clash show, in which 10 songs by two musicians went head-to-head, attracted many listeners and critical acclaim.
New genres of Black music had also started becoming popular in Britain during the pandemic lockdowns, including amapiano, a South African subgenre of house. When restrictions lifted, there was a huge appetite to hear the music live. “There was so much energy that people were ready to spend,” Jojo said.
Yet research from the Night Time Industries Association, a British trade group, suggests that young people are going out less frequently than they used to. And data from the National Health Service indicates that they are drinking less alcohol, too.
David said he believed that the pandemic was partly to blame for these changed behaviors because many college students, who were once a prime clientele for clubs, “never went through the phase where they had their first proper night out with a drink.”
When it came to documenting their events, David and Jojo decided against recording them using high-production, hyper-staged club photography. Instead, they opted for film and gave disposable cameras to partygoers in the early days. Although they used professional photographers at Recessland, they kept in line with the ’90s vibe that inspired the Recess aesthetic. David and Jojo also chose to share online only a curated selection of the pictures that captured and preserved the vibe. “One day, they will have some value where people can see them and really cherish them,” Jojo said of the photos.
David said that, with Recessland, he just wants everybody to have fun — the festival’s tagline is “Enjoy your life.”
“You always have this stereotype that when certain demographics of people come together, there’s always trouble,” David said. “That’s just the headlines. When you look at the nitty-gritty, that’s not really the reality.”
“Nightlife is such a sick export of Black London culture,” Jojo said, especially considering the way Recess’s marketing and creative direction has turned the event into a brand. “For me, it’s 10 years of an idea, 10 years of movement,” he said, adding that it felt good to be part of a new wave of Black British nightlife.
Recess’s body of work has not only given his community something to enjoy, but it has also set a high standard for how to throw a party. “If it raises the bar around you,” Jojo said, “it’s good for everyone.”
