FuBu - Beyond the Burnout: Sustaining ourselves in nightlife

This free 4-week workshop series is for QTBPOC (Queer/Trans & Black/People of Colour) working in creative nightlife and club environments — including (but not limited to) DJs, promoters, performers, photographers, technicians, and other behind-the-scenes workers. The sessions will explore wellness, balance, and burnout prevention, with a focus on navigating white-dominated industries, boundaries, harm reduction, community care, sustaining ourselves long-term and unpacking the meaning and politics behind our artistic practices.

This is a supportive, reflective space rather than a skills-training course. Participation is collaborative, and everyone is encouraged to both listen and share from lived experience. Participants are encouraged to read the Exhale Community Agreement before the first session, which will be emailed in advance. This outlines shared values around respect, confidentiality, and collective care.

Series Overview:

• Session 1: 3rd February - Care as Craft - Tools for a Sustainable Creative Career - In person, 28 King Street, Glasgow, G1 5QP (7 - 9pm)

An introductory workshop centred on grounding practices and self-maintenance whilst navigating demanding creative environments. This session focuses on recognising limits, building personal rhythms, and developing practical tools to stay resourced while working in nightlife and other creative spaces. Light refreshments will be provided.

• Session 2: 10th February - Working Without Losing Yourself - Resilience, Longevity & Creative Flourishing - In person, 28 King Street, Glasgow, G1 5QP (7 - 9pm)

Panel discussion with , , , and , bringing together decades of experience across Glasgow’s music, art, and nightlife scenes, this session centres creative labour, longevity, and how artists navigate burnout and continue making work over time without losing themselves. Dinner will be provided.

• Session 3: 17th February - Practice under Pressure - Lineage, Intentionality & World Building - Online* (7:30 - 8:30pm)

This guest conversation features , a Ghana-born producer and DJ whose work spans global club spaces while remaining rooted in Black cultural lineage and Afro-futurist practice. The session creates space to reflect on what it means to sustain a creative practice while moving through high-pressure touring and club environments, navigating visibility and expectation, and working within scenes shaped by uneven power dynamics.

• Session 4 (optional): 24th February - Closing the Circle – Reflection, Celebration & Carrying it Forward - In person, location TBC (7 - 8:30pm)

This closing session is a celebration marking the journey we’ve taken together over the past month. Rather than a formal feedback session, this gathering centres recognition, reflection, and collective appreciation, making space to acknowledge what’s been shared, learned, and carried forward.

The session will include light reflective moments, informal celebration, and time to connect socially. It’s an opportunity to close the series with care, joy, and intention, honouring both the individual and collective work that has taken place.

* For those with WI-FI / technological barriers, there will be an option to join the virtual session at Transmission Gallery instead

Practical information

If travel costs are a barrier to your attendance at this event please let us know. We can cover travel costs within Glasgow.

You can let us know about any other access needs when you are checking out your ticket for this event but if you would like to ask any questions or discuss further, get in touch at [email protected].

About For us, By us (FuBu)

For Us, By Us is a nine-month project running from September 2025 - April 2026. The project aims to strengthen our community’s resilience by developing the skills and capacity for community leadership.

As part of this, over the past few months Exhale has been working with 6 people from the community, providing them with training and support to co-create and deliver a programme of free events for the QTIPoC+ community, running from January - April 2026.

This event has been organised and will be delivered by one of the participants of this project. This will be the first event they have fully organised and delivered alone so we ask that you bring your patience, trust and openness.

Thank you to the GCVS Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for funding this project.

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