Morgan Hildebrand is throwing a party – and all the sapphics are invited.
Inside a nondescript warehouse, at an undisclosed location in the heart of Cleveland, Hildebrand has created an immersive, underground experience unlike any in the last decade.
In August, the longtime event producer, designer and DJ – who also performs under the name DJ GoodBoy – partnered with Cleveland artist Taylor Martin of Cherry Bitez to debut Sweet Spot, a new “sapphic underground rave.”
With an emphasis on playful light and interactive sculpture, Hildebrand and her team developed every nook and cranny of the 6,000 square-foot industrial space – which includes two dance floors, a blacklight room, a sprawling Midnight Market and interactive art installations featuring vintage decor and architectural materials – drawing a crowd of more than 400 on its inaugural night.
Hildebrand and her team had tapped into a mainstream resurgence of the term “sapphic” itself – which derives from Sappho, the ancient Greek poet known for her sexual attraction to and romantic love for other women.
Today, the term is more fluid, and refers to a range of desires and sexualities that include women, femmes and trans and non-binary people that experience love and attraction toward other women and femmes.
Sweet Spot clearly scratched an itch for sapphics in the Rust Belt, where spaces designed exclusively for sapphics have historically been few and far between.
People wanted more – and Hildebrand is ready to deliver.
Gearing up for a second obsession-themed event on October 18, Hildebrand said there is a unique appeal to underground parties like Sweet Spot, where creativity and color reign supreme and “the only rules are consent and respect.”
California to Cleveland
In 2014, after earning a degree in toy engineering and working in the industry in California for eight years, Hildebrand needed a change.
“I had a big family death, and it really shook the family up. I left the toy industry thinking, ‘I really need to do something different. I need to be with my queers,’” she said. “I bought my first piece of little DJ equipment and from there it just took off because nobody was playing house music for the sapphic scene.”
Hildebrand founded Milk Milk Lemonade, a massive queer underground rave in Los Angeles featuring DJs playing house music instead of pop and Top 40 hits.
“It was very, very similar to what we’re doing here,” she said “It’s these big, crazy warehouse parties, very creatively fueled.”
The party put Hildebrand and her company, Hawtmessproductions, on the map in LA and beyond. But after 11 years producing underground parties across California, Hildebrand burnt out.
In May 2023, she and her then-partner – a Northeast Ohio native – shifted gears, debuting Cleveland’s Manic Pixie Dream Market while still living in LA.
Located outdoors adjacent to the LGBTQ+ entertainment complex Studio West 117th, the wildly successful daytime market quickly became a monthly staple. Across the street, the Phantasy Niteclub – part of Studio West’s groundbreaking 300,000 square-foot property on the border of Cleveland and Lakewood – sat empty, awaiting renovations.
When Hildebrand asked if she could host a monthly afterparty for the market, the owners handed her the keys.
Eight months later, Hildebrand packed everything she could fit in her car and moved to Cleveland.
“I just really wanted to jump into the Cleveland scene,” she said. “I left my double garage full of props and all my crazy stuff. In a way, it was kind of cleansing.”
Cleveland’s underground legacy
In a 2023 interview with Cleveland Voices, Cleveland native Mike Brunstedt described dancing at Ritz, an 18+ bar and two-floor dance club that opened in 1984 at 1012 Sumner Court in the city’s downtown neighborhood.
“It was all driven by the [deejays], but it started out really as a mix of college kids and streetwise kids that probably went to the Cleveland public schools and skateboarded around, and did crazy things with their hair,” Brunstedt told interviewer Riley Habyl. “All of a sudden, the kids running around are painting themselves with neon paint and everyone’s glowing, and it just kept getting crazier and crazier.”
Ritz gained a reputation for hosting extravagant, themed parties featuring circus acts, merry-go-rounds and live elephants. The same year, it became the first and only club in Northeast Ohio to offer “women-only lesbian nights.”
By the 1990s, LGBTQ+ Clevelanders had even cultivated their own version of New York City’s iconic Club Kid party scene, made famous by New York drag artists, party producers and cultural movers and shakers like James St. James, Amanda Lepore, Jennytalia and the notorious Michael Alig, who served time for manslaughter.
“I remember one kid wore a birdcage on his head. Somebody else one night wore a traffic cone with a wig coming out the top,” Burnstedt said. “Then the [deejays] were like, okay, we’ll throw raves. And then people were staying out forever – all night.”
Dozens of underground parties and raves popped up across Cleveland over the next decade, many featuring national and international touring DJs who played electronic dance music (EDM) and electronica.
Hildebrand created Sweet Spot in that same spirit, harnessing the thrill of the current cultural moment and adding a fresh sapphic twist to the city’s underground legacy.
Much like organizers of the extravagant underground parties and raves of the 1980s and 90s, Hildebrand believes in crafting an immersive, unforgettable experience for the partygoer.
“We do a lot of glow-in-the-dark, a lot of little mini sets, a lot of immersive and interactive activities. One of our big signatures is that I have a huge retro and vintage collection,” she said. “I have boomboxes, record players, TVs and we build art installations with them where we stack them and wrap toys around them.”
Sweet Spot also includes a sensory-friendly “Vibe Room” – complete with couches, games, Kandi bracelet-making stations, low music, relaxing visuals and retro video games.
In a separate wing of the warehouse, Martin (Cherry Bitez) – who designs and produces Sweet Spot alongside Hildebrand – curates Midnight Market, which heavily features sapphic BIPOC artists and creators in its vendor lineup.
Building a group of BIPOC sapphic artists and performers was a top priority as the pair designed and produced Sweet Spot.
“We’re very BIPOC forward in our lineup, our artists, our vendors,” Hildebrand said. “From the beginning, it’s just always been an important part of what we do, providing an artistic platform or a new opportunity for people to do their thing.”
Sapphic resurgence
In 2024 alone, sapphic artists and performers like Chappell Roan, Janelle Monáe, Reneé Rapp, Doechii and Boygenius changed the cultural landscape for lesbians, femmes and sapphics of all types – sparking social groups like Midwestern Lesbian, a Cincinnati-based sapphic community hub with more than 15,000 followers on Instagram.
In Cleveland, the LGBTQ+ punk bar No Class now hosts a sapphic night – along with Twist Social Club, Jukebox and women-owned spots like Little Rose Tavern and the W Sports Bar.
“When I first had this idea, I just wanted to do something new and fresh and weird,” Hildebrand said. “I thought, ‘Maybe we could get 100 sapphic people to a party.’ But as I started putting out things on social media, I could see the wave just getting bigger and bigger. It was nuts.”
“The sapphic community, even in the queer world, needs a space of their own,” Hildebrand said. “This has been built with the heart of the event being sapphic, but everybody is invited to these events as long as you’re respectful of the community.”
“Safety is a huge part of this, too,” she added. “It can be a little intimidating because we’re a target outside in the world — just being a woman, then throw the gayness on top of it. I’ve had multiple meetings with the venue owner, because people need to be safe.”
The location of the warehouse – which Hildebrand buys out completely in order to host the event to her specifications – is kept secret until the night of the party. And with fewer restrictions and a BYOB policy, Hildebrand has a team of harm-reduction volunteers in place equipped with the overdose reversal drug Narcan (naloxone).
To help limit anti-LGBTQ+ incidents, attendees must purchase tickets online prior to the start of the event.
Gearing up for Halloween
On October 18, Hildebrand and her team at GoodBoy Productions will do it all over again:
“This time, the theme is ‘Obsession.’ Everything is going to be red.”
Still holding the details close to her chest, Hildebrand said the event will feature elements slightly outside her own comfort zone as a producer and designer.
“In Cleveland, I have a clean slate. I want to challenge myself. I did not think I was going to get back into the rave world, but I think there’s something really important about doing this right now in Cleveland,” she said. “I just want people to have that moment where their eyes widen and they say ‘Oh my god did you see that?’ It’s about creating a moment. It’s just a small moment of queer joy, something you remember”
“I think this is really, really special,” Hildebrand added. “So bring a friend. Costumes are highly encouraged.” 🔥
Ignite Action
- To learn more about Sweet Spot or to purchase tickets, click here.
- To follow GoodBoy Productions on instagram, click here.
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