This article is part of a series originally published in French during and just after Whole 2025. Since they're so good, we decided the world should enjoy them too, so we translated them.
Last summer, Leslie discovered the Whole Festival and gave you an account of her three days at the world’s biggest queer festival. This year, she has again decided to share her impressions and all the details of her endless nights with you. After recounting those three incredible days, she felt it was necessary to address a major topic at queer festivals…
(because partying is also what happens below the belly button)
The Whole Festival is all about sharp looks, bodies in trance, sweaty hugs, polyamory and techno until dawn. But what we don’t talk about as much are the real struggles, the moments when your body reminds you that it’s human, fragile, and sometimes… a little clogged up.
Yes, we’re going to talk about poop.
It’s the subject that no one wants to talk about but everyone experiences, silently, on their knees in front of a chemical toilet or curled up in a tent with slow digestion.
There they are, the famous blue cubicles, lined up like sad soldiers, ready to welcome our emergencies. You open the door? Suspense. It could be the big splash, or it could be carnage. There are those who lock themselves in for ten minutes with their bum bag, those who come out looking dazed, those who fall in love, those who leave a little piece of their soul (or their eyeliner). At 4 a.m., you’re there, glittery and dignified, but ready to sell your three-day pass for a working toilet and a sink with soap.
Now, we need to talk about this seriously. The mental load of douching. A logistical, emotional and almost spiritual reality for bottoming gays, especially at a festival where sex is as fluid as the sweat on your thighs. While some people are swallowing their ecstasy, others are checking what time their last meal was, filling a bottle of water to stick up their arse while kneeling in a shower cubicle or at the douching station, then crossing their fingers that they won’t have to do it again in two hours.
Me? Well… I’m a cis girl. I’ve done anal a few times, yes, but I’ve never prepared like this before. It literally never crossed my mind. But here, at Whole, I realise what it takes to be ready. And honestly? Hats off. Medals. Applause. Paid time off.
And then there’s the combo effect: drugs + random food + heat + no sleep. It’s the perfect cocktail for wrecking your digestive system. You spend your Saturday snacking on a soggy cereal bar, three sips of lukewarm Red Bull and a bite of dry falafel, all between two lines and a X pill. The result: your stomach is upset, your intestines are making noises like a 56K modem, and you start to regret the good old days of fibre. And as if that weren’t enough, stimulants (hello molly, cocaine, amphetamines) mess up your entire digestive system: you don’t know whether to throw up, shit or just dance until you pass out.
But sometimes, despite all your preparations… nothing. The poo won’t come. Too much stress, not enough privacy, the blockage effect of ecstasy, the anxiety of making noise two metres away from a cute guy. The result: bloating, treacherous gas, a stomach that sounds like a Japanese drum during the sets. You look like a Greek goddess in your vinyl harness, but you’ve got four days of constipation behind those smouldering eyes.
Whole is queer, radical, liberating. It celebrates bodies, genders and desires. So why not… digestive systems too? Because behind every twerking booty, there’s a colon just trying to keep up.
In fact, it’s such a serious subject that the festival even offered a workshop called Shits & Giggles, led by Talya Yavuz, which combines science, movement and humour around digestion. You’ll learn how to read your poo, pamper your intestines, and talk about douching without shame or taboo. It’s fun, safe, and you’ll come out with more inner peace.
Constipated kisses,
See you next year for more digestive adventures.
WHOLE 2025
DAY 1 Like A Disco Ball
DAY 2 Let's Talk About Sex, Baby
DAY 3 Sex, Drugs & A Whole New World
BONUS Shit And Giggles
