AOA Mix 003: HONEYPOT

DJ Baby Tee and Rhyzine, co-founders of Dublin's premier club night for gay girls and friends, serve up a “rough n' ready, hot n’ lezzy” DJ mix

Since emerging in 2022, the Dublin-based club night HONEYPOT has operated with a simple three point mission in mind: “Creating a new space for the girls, the gays, queer people and everyone in between to dance, be free and have fun. Diversifying dancefloors by supporting female, non-binary and LGBTQ+ DJs. Playing electronic music across all genres and styles depending on the party.”

It’s an ethos that founders Kerry Mahony (DJ Baby Tee) and Emma Murphy (Rhyzine) have taken to venues like Wigwam and Yamamori Tengu, with previous international guests including D.Tiffany, Maara, FAFF and Vlada. But HONEYPOT’s real sweet spot is in its championing of local talent, reliably booking Irish and Ireland-based DJs such as Lúnasa, JWY and mooncup, and providing a vital launchpad for up and comers via its Sticky Mix series.

2025 has been off to a flying start for the crew – more on that in the Q&A below – and they’ve got plenty coming up over the next few months. On Good Friday, 18th April, its founders will be joined in Tengu by resident Lúnasa – whose recent all-night set from the venue I wrote about here – for a Bank Holiday special. In June, they’ll host their annual Pride party in Wigwam, taking over two floors for a big queer celebration of local DJs. In August, they’ll make their international debut at Body Movements festival in London, co-founded by none other than Irish DJ Saoirse.

To see a party like HONEYPOT thrive is heartening, and as part of a network of collectives and event series including Club Comfort, Foxgluv, Skin&Blister, Ethereal Skies and BPM, it’s helping to invigorate Dublin’s underground club scene and uplift a new generation of artists for whom these spaces have previously been restricted. Onward and upwards!

I’m delighted to host a guest mix from DJ Baby Tee and Rhyzine for the AOA series. As they describe it: “It's giving rough n' ready, hot n' lezzy, dyke drama, FLINTAs to the front and making eyes across the club. Think black tank tops and low rise jeans, 4 AM at the rave, locking in at the front left, coming back to life after the crash out, kissing your mates, Skins first generation, the smell of poppers on the dancefloor. Pure HONEYPOT.”

This is the first AOA Mix of the year. After launching last December with sets from myself and Shampain, 2025 started with a real bang and I simply haven’t had the time or energy to keep my eye on the ball with locking these in. Things have stabilised a bit now, so I’m hoping to make these monthly from here on out. Make sure you follow Anois, Os Ard on Soundcloud and please feel free to fire suggestions my way for who you’d like to see featured in the series.

Without further ado, dive into HONEYPOT’s mix, check the tracklist, and read a Q&A with them below. Get tickets for their Good Friday party in Tengu here.

Éistigi.

How’s 2025 been for you so far? What have been some highlights?

So far 2025 has been very fun and very busy. Our annual Pride party in June is our biggest event of the year and a lot of January/February has been spent planning that, booking artists, etc. Our Valentine's party in February was a highlight, with Síofra and OneCanChan playing to a sold-out Tengu — one of our favourite parties in a while. We also threw an International Women's Day party in Pawn Shop which was so busy that it almost shut down the street. Chaotic but very fun.

It’s coming up to three years since HONEYPOT launched. How do you feel it has evolved in that time? What are some of the achievements you’re most proud of?

When we first started HONEYPOT, Emma (Rhyzine) was still a relatively new DJ and neither of us had run a party before. All we had was a years-long love for clubbing, a tiny bit of cash in our savings to put towards venue rent, and a dream of running a sick lesbian night. We had no idea what the turnout would be like or what the reception would be, but it ended up selling out two weeks in advance. We've pretty much been on an upward trajectory since then which has been incredible. The main difference between now and then is our confidence — we know who we are, we know what we stand for, we know how to deal with venues and agents and everything else that being a promoter entails.

In terms of achievements, our last Pride party with Maara was a huge highlight. We had dancers, lighting techs, visuals, a massive line-up of incredible DJs, and 600 queers under one roof raving. It felt like a full-scale production that we were so proud of. Our merch run last summer was also really gratifying. As well as loving the final pieces, which Emma designed, it felt like a fun creative project with friends, especially the shoot we did to launch it. We're super proud of the projects we've done to give opportunities to rising FLINTA DJs, such as our EMERGE competition with Tengu and our free DJ lessons in collaboration with Foxgluv.

What, if any, changes have you noticed in Dublin and Ireland’s clubbing landscape in that time? Particularly with relation to the scene’s attitude toward women and LGBTQ+ people.

There's definitely a lot more queer parties around now. The post-COVID clubbing landscape really had an explosion of new ideas, new DJs, and new nights, and Dublin is all the better for it. From our perspective, we definitely feel like people in the Irish electronic music scene have respect for HONEYPOT and what we're doing — but that is also the result of three years of hard graft. It didn't feel that way until fairly recently. FLINTA, female-run and LGBTQ+ parties absolutely have to work harder to be noticed by the wider scene and considered for bookings at things like festivals, it's just a fact. The tide is turning though — it does feel like there's a growing wider recognition for the impact and influence that queer people have in the music scene.

What changes are you still hoping to see in the Irish scene in the near future?

More unconventional spaces for DIY parties, more diverse line-ups, more consideration for clubber welfare and accessibility, smaller independent festivals, longer club opening hours, more collaborations between parties.

Who and what is exciting you in your local scene these days?

There are loads of parties right now that are doing really exciting things in Dublin — Dublin Modular, Rathaus and Stretch are a few that come to mind. It's great to see so many collectives platforming local talent over big-name headliners, something that we try to do also.

You’ve got a party coming up in Yamamori Tengu on Good Friday with Lúnasa. What’s in store?

Back in 2023 we did a residents party with Rhyzine and Lúnasa playing B2B all night long in Tengu and it was one of our highlights of the year — such a good energy in the crowd and obviously it was a total treat to play that long a set. Since then, Kerry has started DJing under the moniker DJ Baby Tee, so she's going to jump in on the lineup. We're each planning on playing an hour and then Rhyzine and Lúnasa will be jumping on for a B2B for the final hour. You can expect classic HONEYPOT energy — lots of sweating, lots of dancing, maybe even some cute dancefloor kisses.

What else have you got coming up this year?

Our Pride party will be our next big thing on 28th June. This is always our biggest party of the year, it'll be a two-floor takeover of Wigwam with a whole host of excellent local DJs. We're planning to collaborate with more collectives this year because it's so fun to throw parties with our friends. And then we'll be throwing our regular parties every 2 months in between all that.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Follow us on Instagram and RA to keep up with our parties, Soundcloud for our Sticky Mix Series, sign up to our newsletter for pre-sale tickets and monthly recs for cool stuff to do, see and listen to. We also have a TikTok x

Tracklist:

Ariel Zetina, Cae Monae - Have You Ever
The Dare - Bloodwork
Marie Davidson, Soulwax - Y.A.A.M. (Soulwax Version)
Uffie - ADD SUV (Alcala Remix)
Ariel Zetina - Vanity 7
Club Eat - 1AM
Posthuman - Pleasure Machine
Ela Minus - UPWARDS
Martyn Bootysponn - Bingo!
TAAHLIAH, Lady Neptune - Tears
deBasement - FRONT LEFT SPEAKER
Doss, Rye Rye - Look
Marie Davidson - Pleasure On My Mind
Maara, D.Tiffany - The Last Seduction
Lords Of Acid, Soulwax - I Sit on Acid
Madonna - Impressive Instant (Peter Rauhofer's Universal Radio Mixshow Mix)