The first full day of Web Summit is done. My plan is to drop stuff at my hotel and grab a jacket because, even in Lisbon, this is still a November evening. Maybe I’ll eat something too.

Then I’ll be off to the first evening of Night Summit.

My experience of Night Summit last year wasn’t fantastic. I only went to one evening but a bunch of different very sketchy guys tried to sell me coke on the way there and then I stood in a queue for an hour or so to then stand in an even longer queue.

Maybe the second queue would have been worth the wait but I’ll never know because I left.

The format seems better this time. I’m planning to go to a specifically LGBTQIA+ meetup at Copa in Cais do Sodré.

That should be less busy and queer nights out are, to put it bluntly, a better vibe.

Plus I have a ticket to ins3kt Ræve at Planeta Manas on Friday. Maybe others at Copa will also be going, or can give me some idea of what to expect from the event.

I don’t actually know if I should be wearing my Web Summit lanyard to Night Summit events.

Copa is a tapas place which means lots of sitting down so I change out of my jumpsuit and into a dress.

I see plenty of Web Summit wristbands but no lanyards on the platform at Alameda metro station. We live and learn.

I’m not sure if I have expectations for Night Summit, or any particular goal.

It’d be nice to connect with another solo traveler who’s also planning on staying to explore for the weekend. Someone to explore with. I doubt that’s realistic but I think it’s worth keeping in mind.

I pass a darkened construction site walking from the Cais do Sodré metro station and have the paranoid thought that maybe the LGBTQIA+ meetup is a scheme to get all the queers murdered.

This city isn’t my city and here my mind will play tricks on me.

Copa might be a tapas place during the day but right now it’s a loud bar. The staff make a non-alcoholic cocktail for me and it goes on Web Summit’s tab. Cheers, Paddy.

The bar is overwhelmingly full of straight-passing cis gay men. This isn’t the smoking area at a club and I have no idea how to start conversations here.

Apparently this bar isn’t full of straight-passing cis gay men. There are just multiple mixers happening in the same bar. I just talked to someone here for a nordic mixer. That explains a lot.

Except there aren’t multiple mixers in the same bar! The queer meet is at a different Copa which should be open but is closed!

I tag along with a group of Berlin-based queer app developers while they figure out what’s going on. They add me to a “LGBTQ+ @ Web Summit” WhatsApp group. I leave them to get pizza and instead walk 20 minutes to a bar called Friends which is apparently where the meet has moved.

Friends ends up being a good time. I talk to a few Londoners and an investor who’s specifically here to invest in queer startups. I’m handed sachets of CBD-infused lube (both water-based and silicone-based!)

I have no idea if CBD actually reduces discomfort during sex but it’s genuinely nice to see this side of Web Summit.

I pop outside with another girl to get some air. We chat about Team Fortress 2 and breakcore. She’s a pyro main.

When we get back, we’re in a gay bar. As in: a bar full of cruising cis gay men. Time to split. It’s past 11 anyway and I need to be up early. Tags: Websummit