Since making Neck of the Woods their home in February, LICK has continued to create a growing safe space for girls who like girls. This Saturday night Natalie Zibung and her LICK crew are set to throw their 90's BLOCK PARTY and they are bringing special guest Danielle Cormack (actress, Wentworth). We caught up with Natalie briefly this week to chat about the growth in the LICK community and the importance of guest appearences.
We interviewed you back in January, how has LICK evolved and grown since then?
Lick has evolved from being just in Auckland to now Wellington and Christchurch. We are also planning a girls weekend type of getaway in Queenstown next year which we are really excited about. Moving Lick to Neck of the Woods on K Road also makes it more accessible for our guests especially over the Auckland Pride Parade weekend being in the heart of it all. We’ve remained consistent and true to what Lick is all about, and that’s a safe space where women in our rainbow community can come to and enjoy good music in good company in an awesome venue and meet other like-minded women! And of course, every now and then we have special guest artists like recently Jess B and Arcee, and someone very special this weekend!
We are very excited for this Saturday's LICK at NOTW. You have Danielle Cormack coming in as a special guest. Tell us a bit about your relationship with Danielle.
My full time job and career is in the Australian Film & Television industry for the last 14 years, and I have close friends that work on Wentworth and have been offered to work on it myself. I didn’t have a relationship with Danielle prior to meeting her last weekend for my Australian parties, but we have a lot of mutual friends in the industry from the show and other shows. Danielle was always someone I hoped to reach out to one day and have her do a Meet&Greet at Lick in New Zealand, because it means so much to me to do in Auckland what I never had here when I was growing up and coming out. I never had a place like Lick. I had been in touch with Danielle’s management last year with regards to some event dates but schedules did not match unfortunately, and so when Danielle’s management came back to me a few months ago with a yes to three of my parties, I lost my shit. So happy that I could finally do this for my community.
Special guest appearances aren't a regular thing at gigs in New Zealand (they totally should be!). Has this been something you have done from the beginning?
They definitely totally should be! It all comes down to schedule really. I’ve always had special guests because I know how much certain people mean to the women in my community. I’ve had Whitney Mixter, Sara Bettencourt, Lauren Bedford Russell, Kiyomi McCloskey, Romi Klinger and Rose Garcia from Showtime’s reality television show ‘The Real L Word’ come and party with me, Whitney and Sara toured with me two years in a row and Lauren and Kiyomi and I did a ‘rockstar tour’ and toured 6 cities including Auckland over two weekends for Lick, I’ve had Tigerlily play at a handful of my parties all around Australia, even Michelle Rodriguez (Fast & Furious, Avatar) has done a Meet&Greet and even DJ’ed at Lick in Melbourne, I’ve had Ruby Rose four times at my parties in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and most recently I had Katrina Milosevic who plays ‘Boomer’ on Wentworth do a Meet&Greet last month at my new Saturday night party in Melbourne called The Girlfriend Society, which is also the same party that Danielle Cormack was and she even brought Kate Jenkinson (Allie from Wentworth) and people seriously lost their minds when they walked in the venue hand in hand, then kissed each other in front of thousands of girls watching live from all over the world.
Who would be the ultimate LICK special guest?
Oh boy. I would love to have Cara Delevingne! When Michelle Rodriguez came down to Melbourne in March 2014 she was dating Cara at the time and there was talk that she might be travelling over with her. She didn’t end up coming with Michelle to Lick, but she would definitely be my ultimate Lick guest. Her and Nicole Da Silva from Wentworth.
You are constantly travelling around with LICK, hosting parties across Australasia. What has been your favourite LICK so far and why?
Every Lick has been fun! They’re all different, they have different themes but my favourite to date would have to be the first time I had Whitney Mixter & Sara Bettencourt from The Real L Word appear. They both came in to the venue riding a Chopper motorcycle, straight through the crowd. It was so loud but when the girls realised it was them on the motorcycles everyone started screaming! That night was also Sara’s birthday and we found out the following year that Whitney had actually planned on proposing to Sara in front of thousands of Lick girls there and then on stage, but the producers from The Real L Word show wanted Whitney to hold off and do it when they got back to the US and in front of the cameras. There’s a video of their entrance on YouTube, it’s pretty crazy :)
Come check out the LICK 90's Block Party, this Saturday night at NOTW.