‘Something a bit magical about a gathering of powerful fat babes’
Camp Boom In The City, a two-day event celebrating ‘‘fat babes finding community, camaraderie and joy’’, is returning to Wellington after a twoyear hiatus.
Founded by plus-sized fashion label House of Boom designer Jo McLeod, the first Camp Boom was held in 2020 at Silverstream Retreat, and welcomed about 30 attendees.
‘‘Some attendees still refer to it as life-changing,’’ says McLeod. ‘‘[They told me] that they haven’t felt as calm or as welcome at other events. One attendee wrote, ‘there’s something a bit magical about a gathering of powerful fat babes’.’’
This year, the event on November 26-27, will feature talks – including one by this reporter – workshops, yoga sessions, arts and crafts, clothes swaps and wine tasting, all run and designed by and for fat folk.
‘‘It’s a mix of focusing on fat issues, like systemic discrimination and media representation, but also hearing from people doing super cool things, like running small businesses, mediaeval fighting or doing drag, who also happen to be fat,’’ says McLeod.
A second camp should have happened in Taupō in 2021. McLeod had booked and organised an event at a motel on the lake shore, but Auckland’s Covid lockdown scuppered those plans.
‘‘That was quite heartbreaking to have to first postpone and then cancel it, but there was no way I could do it without the Aucklanders,’’ says McLeod. ‘‘I was thinking about winding up House of Boom because I was just so tired, but then Cat Pausé’s death reignited the spark in me of making sure her legacy fat activism, [understanding] why fat community and fat joy is so important, continues.
‘‘And to be honest I was trying to get over a broken heart and I needed another distraction for my brain, so I thought f... it, I’ll bring back camp.’’
Cat Pausé, a Massey University academic whose research explored the impacts of ‘‘fat stigma’’, died suddenly in March, 2022.
Days before her death, her work had been mocked by right-wing US comedian Stephen Crowder, and online discourse after her death continued to mock her personally, and her findings that anti-fat bias directly impacted the health and wellbeing of fat folks.
This overt anti-fat bias is part of why McLeod sees events like camp, and the fat swim events she hosts regularly, as being crucial to the wellbeing of fat folk. She also wants to help expand the idea of what it means to be fat in an anti-fat society.
Among the speakers will be Two Lippy Ladies founder Karla on starting a small business, Wellington Drag King Willy SmacknTush on performance, co-convener for Kaimahi Whaikaha – the Council of Trade Unions disabled worker sector group Linsey Higgins on making legislation work for you, and mediaevalist Dayna Berghan-Whyman (Ngati Kahu) on mediaeval fighting.
Because statistically, fat people make less money than non-fat people, McLeod has tried to make camp accessible to everyone. She offered seven scholarships for folks who could not afford a ticket.
There’s also no accommodation this time, which McLeod hopes will make it more affordable for participants, especially those in her home town of Wellington, and the rest of the lower North Island. ‘‘It also makes it less risky and financially terrifying for me to produce.’’
Even so, McLeod says she’s only just likely to break even. But camp isn’t about making money, but about ‘‘celebrating fat joy, and yeah, fat excellence’’.
Tickets to Camp are $350. Sales close at 5pm today.