Lys

Hey guys! I’m Lys (legal name Alyssa if you’re curious).

I started writing and presenting for Acid Rain before I’d ever even been to a rave. Despite my naivete, I fell fast. In love with the music, the scene, the people, all of it.

When we first pitched The Bag Factory, it felt too surreal to be real. One month later, we’d ripped the place out, built an actual bar from scratch (it’s quite literally a gate we found abandoned in a field), and now we're putting on weekly grassroots nights for the most beautiful crowd I’ve ever known.

These days, I’m behind a lot of the stuff you see online; flyers, logos, tiktoks - begging my mates to repost it all. I still pop up in front of the camera a lot (soz), but mostly I’m just trying to spread the word about what we’re building and why. Also shout out to my dad, who’s done an ungodly amount of free labour to get this place up and running.

We’re doing this because we were tired of waiting for someone else to make space for us. So we made it for ourselves. From all our research, interviews and videos with Acid Rain, we saw a gaping hole in the city: one that left grassroots underfunded and underloved. We’re building the kind of space we wish we’d found sooner. And it only works because of the people who show up.

Musically? I’m slowly morphing into a rave goblin. I used to hate DnB, now it’s quite tolerable. These days I lean toward trance, speed garage, jungle, c*nty techno… but the real ones know my niche is actually Synthwave prog house (see…I know things).

Day to day, I’m behind the bar a lot! So if you’ve got an idea, a question, or just fancy a chinwag over a £3.50 pint, come grab me! I’m friendly, I promise. xx