Photo By Drew Hogg.
Book tickets
We are living through a period of deep cultural uncertainty. Nightlife is changing, venues are closing, artists are stretched thin, and the infrastructures that once sustained independent cultural work are under increasing pressure. And yet, new forms of solidarity, care and creative resistance continue to emerge.
INFERNO's 2026 Summit brings together artists, organisers and cultural workers for a one-day gathering at the ICA, reflecting on how queer nightlife and artistic practice continue to function as vital sites of connection, survival, and imagination. Through conversation, performance, and moving image, the summit asks how we keep going, how we care for one another, and how we build sustainable futures within systems not designed for us to thrive.
Rooted in over a decade of INFERNO’s work at the intersection of nightlife, performance, and activism, this year’s programme foregrounds lived experience, collective knowledge, and international collaboration, with voices spanning local and global queer cultural movements.
INFERNO's 2026 Summit brings together artists, organisers and cultural workers for a one-day gathering at the ICA, reflecting on how queer nightlife and artistic practice continue to function as vital sites of connection, survival, and imagination. Through conversation, performance, and moving image, the summit asks how we keep going, how we care for one another, and how we build sustainable futures within systems not designed for us to thrive.
Rooted in over a decade of INFERNO’s work at the intersection of nightlife, performance, and activism, this year’s programme foregrounds lived experience, collective knowledge, and international collaboration, with voices spanning local and global queer cultural movements.
Bios
INFERNO is a queer-led cultural platform founded in London, operating at the intersection of nightlife, performance, art and activism. With over a decade of history, INFERNO has become one of the UK’s longest-running queer rave and arts platforms, while continuing to build international collaborations rooted in care, political resistance and collective transformation.
Lewis G. Burton is a London-based artist, DJ and cultural producer, and the founder of INFERNO, one of the UK’s longest-running queer nightlife and arts platforms. They are also a founding member of London Trans+ Pride. Working across music, performance, writing and community-led cultural organising, their practice explores care, resistance and collective transformation through nightlife and artistic collaboration. Alongside INFERNO, Burton has developed international partnerships, produced large-scale cultural events, and created spaces for dialogue around survival, access and queer futures. Their work is rooted in lived experience, political commitment and a belief in culture as a site of both pleasure and change.
This project is supported by the British Council’s Connections Through Culture programme and co-curated with ELEPHANT.
Book tickets
02:00 pm
Sun, 22 Feb 2026
Stage
Please note this event takes place across the ICA Stage and Cinema 1.
A limited number of low-income, access tickets are available. Contact eray.yilmaz@ica.art for further details.
Ticket information
- All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
- For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.
Programme
Stage
2:15pm – Panel Discussion: How We Keep Going – Making Work When Everything Feels Hard
Panel discussion, Stage
Hosted by Chloé Dall’Olio, with Joshua Woolford, this panel brings together artists working across performance, nightlife, and visual culture to reflect on how they continue to make work, stay connected to purpose, and keep creativity alive under late-stage capitalism. Pannelists to be announced.
3:25pm – Sissy Misfit & Si present Tears of Eros
Live performance, Stage
Born from long-form improvisations, Tears of Eros is a live performance where raw vocals, screams, and breath collide with velvet saxophone and dark electronics. Sissy Misfit’s poetic vocal language moves through desire, and rupture, while Si stretches the saxophone into ambient textures, echoes, and resonant drones. Together, they build an unstable soundscape – intimate and confrontational – where emotion dissolves into noise and silence becomes part of the composition.
4pm – Nightlife Leaders Round Table
Cinema 1
This round table brings together organisers from queer nightlife collectives, including INFERNO, ELEPHANT (Philippines), BUMPAH, and Coven, to reflect on sustainability, governance, access, and collective futures.
5:30pm – Screenings
Cinema 1
A curated selection of moving image and visual works by three artists, exploring themes of ritual, embodiment, resistance, and collective memory. Featuring Arrest the Image by sweatmother, MOTHERS MILK by Lewis G. Burton and Requiem by Aun Helden.
6pm – Social Gathering
ICA Bar
Members+ and all Patrons gain free entry to all cinema screenings, exhibitions, talks, and more.
Join today as a Member+ for £25/month.
no. 236848.