“You can either be a sad sack in the corner and not join in, or you can get involved, because [trans people are] not going anywhere,” Ilã Kamalagharan, co-artist and co-founder of Trans Voices, defiantly tells Gay Times of Trans Mission. Taking place 11 March at OVO Arena Wembley, this five-hour extravaganza of music and trans solidarity responds to the increasingly hostile political climate for trans people, raising funds for the vital charities Good Law Project and Not a Phase.

Alongside Trans Voices, including Ilã’s co-founder Coda Nicolaeff, the event features Adam Lambert, Beth Ditto, Bimini, Christine and the Queens, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Sugababes, Wolf Alice, Olly Alexander, and more. The night also packs serious star power, with appearances from Ian McKellen, Jack Rooke, Juno Birch, Juno Dawson, Layton Williams, Mawaan Rizwan, Munroe Bergdorf, Nicola Coughlan, Russell Tovey, Shon Faye, Tia Kofi, Tiara Skye, Zack Polanski and others.

Olly Alexander, who teamed up with Ilã, Coda, and Mighty Hoopla to create Trans Mission, says the event was born out of a need to mobilise the queer community and its allies. “It’s about showing that cis people care about what’s happening to trans people,” he says. Yet beneath its urgency lies joy. “Partying is such a core part of queer culture,” explains Coda. “Those spaces have historically been where we’ve been allowed to be ourselves and exist freely.”

We sat down with Olly, Ilã, and Coda to talk Trans Mission — its origins, what fans can expect from the pop-packed spectacle, and whether this one-night wonder is destined to become a mainstay of trans culture.

GT: Olly, Ilã, Coda, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Trans Mission is just around the corner, how are you all feeling in the lead-up to the big night?

Ilã: Excited! I saw something about some exciting happenings with pyrotechnics, all sorts of things that made me go, 'Ooh!'

Olly: I got told about one pyrotechnic...

Coda: There was a massive email that was sent that was like, 'Please let everyone know that there will be fire. We can't stop the fire. You will be notified where the fire is on stage. Don't go in it. Stay away.'

GT: In a political moment like this, Trans Mission feels urgent. Can you take me back to those first conversations about how it all started?

Olly: It began, from my point of view, as a conversation with Coda and Ilã. I had done a few bits with Trans Voices – they came out and sung with me at Mighty Hoopla. I can't remember when it was, maybe early last year, when we started talking about putting on some kind of fundraiser. It was quite a low-key thing, initially. I wanted to do something with Trans Voices and thought it would be a small event. After the Supreme Court ruling, we were constantly having conversations about a fundraiser we can do that will have some impact here [in the UK]. I know Glyn Fussell, the creator of Mighty Hoopla, really well, and he had been having similar conversations with Dani St. James from Not a Phase like, 'Is this an opportunity for us to galvanise the community?'

It all snowballed once I started talking to Glyn, who put us in touch with Dani and The Good Law Project. We all said, 'How big can we go here? Let's aim high – an event in a legacy venue with a bold statement of love and support for the trans community.' After the ruling, I helped put together an open letter with Coda and Ilã's help. We asked loads of people from the music industry to sign an open letter of support for the trans community and we got people like Dua Lipa and Charli XCX. So we had the roster already for [concert], and that's how it grew from my side.

GT: Trans Mission has grown so much since those early conversations. How does it feel to see it become such a massive event?

Coda: Crazy. It's been interesting to be involved in the ideation of it from the start, and then seeing the way the Mighty Hoopla team and everyone on team Olly Alexander has been like, ‘Let us do the work as allies and organise this.’ We’ve felt included in the creative side of it all, and that’s been a really special relationship to have. And as Olly was saying, that open letter looks like the proto lineup of Trans Mission, doesn’t it? Seeing that enthusiasm from the start felt important. With the Supreme Court ruling, and the way it’s continued being fought in the courts — having wins on certain sides, losses on other sides — it’s been so heavy. You can really feel in the community how much it weighs on people, and it exhausts all of us. So the idea that so many allies have stepped up and said, ‘We can’t believe this is happening, it’s completely insane, let us do something and centre trans people in this conversation,’ is really special.

Ilã: Adding to that, these things are designed to shrink us and make us go away and stop fighting. Hatred can really spread like wildfire, but so can love. [The ruling has] been a galvanising thing. Speaking from my perspective, you have that feeling of, ‘Oh my god, is this a view that’s held by most people? Is this reflective of what people think? Am I going to be safe in these spaces from now on?’ Seeing that letter and realising people do care — and perhaps don’t necessarily know specifically what to do about it — and when you have such a flooding effect of so many things happening in the media all the time, terrible things happening in the world in a constant flood, you become numb and immune to it and disabled from actually taking action. This has helped provide a focus: ‘You can come and support by doing this.’ To see how that’s grown and unfolded, how many people have joined that fight and the scale of it, is crazy.

Olly: That was definitely one of the core ideas behind Trans Mission, especially in the initial phase — to show that cis people care about what's happening to trans people. We all need to get engaged in the fight because it affects all of us, rather than having just trans people do all the work for their community. A lot of cis people don't necessarily know how to show their support, so this was an easy way — buy a ticket, get on the lineup. Of course I'm really glad we have amazing trans talent as well, like Trans Voices and Bimini and Christine and the Queens, but also a lot of diverse cis talent, because it's about building a coalition.

Coda: We're becoming more aware that the fights we all face collide in such massive ways. You see it with how queer this lineup is — how many people can recognise that our fight, the trans fight at this moment, is so similar to the queer fight of yesteryear. It's so similar to the conversation that's ongoing in terms of immigrants, and the way people are coming together and building these coalitions. It has always been the way to fight authoritarianism and oppression, and I hope that Trans Mission can be another conversation starter for people — to be like, ‘This is really beautiful and inclusive and a cultural moment.’

GT: While Trans Mission has a powerful political message, it’s also a celebration of community. How central is joy to the event for you?

Ilã: The quote that comes to mind is, “Queer joy is an act of resistance.” There’s something incredibly...

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