Words: Samantha Harman
Book Tickets
Gok Wan is a fashion stylist, award-winning TV presenter and author who was renowned for helping women feel more confident about their looks, as well as championing high street fashion. His well known face has graced our TV screens for many years, but it was during lockdown that Gok’s career took a surprising new direction.
Born in Leicester, to an English mother, and Chinese father, he worked in his parents’ restaurant, but stood out from his peers for the wrong reasons and endured horrific bullying due to the fact that he was mixed race, tall, overweight and gay.
Overcoming the bullies, Gok pursued a career in London where he became a successful makeup artist, before moving into the field of fashion, as a stylist. He went on to work with many A-list celebrities and also offered his opinions to high end fashion magazines, as a fashion consultant. Gok’s work has been published internationally in titles including Tatler, Glamour, Times Style, Marie Claire, The Face and Cosmopolitan. He has worked with photographers such as Rankin and also worked as an ‘on-screen’ fashion consultant on many mainstream television shows.
During lockdown Isolation Nation was born as a small project based out of his kitchen, and at that time he didn’t know what to expect, saying, ‘I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was like, everybody else is in lockdown. I had nothing to do. I thought I’m going to start DJing online and then within weeks and then months, it turned into such a massive party.’
His high-energy, fun DJ sets helped people who were feeling lonely, scared and isolated during the pandemic. Gok was able to unite people through the power of music and dancing at a time when unity and hope were needed. His sets became so popular that millions of people tuned in on FaceBook Live every night and subsequent to the pandemic, he was invited to DJ across the world.
Fast forward to 2024, and the house music aficionado had been booked for 14 UK events, including The Concorde 2 in Brighton. You can also see him spin some tunes at The Mighty Hoopla, Goodwood Racecourse, Clockstock, Woodland Disco Festival, PennFest, Camp Bestival, Lake Fest and Nottingham Pride.
Make sure you get tickets to the Concorde 2 on June 22, for an afternoon of unmissable hands-in-the-air shenanigans at one of Brighton’s most iconic music venues.
