Image may contain: Furniture, Chair, Speech, Crowd, Audience, Stage, Person, People, Human

We had a chat with Ollie Locke about his new app and UK Tour

He’s coming to Brighton on Friday

Ollie Locke

Ollie Locke, Made in Chelsea icon and entrepreneur, will be visiting Brighton this Friday (17th November) in support of his current tour of the UK. He has been hosting discussions on LGBTQ+ issues at dates around the UK. The discussions aim to highlight issues affecting young gay men, whilst also promoting new gay dating app, Chappy, with Ollie being one of the creators.

I was able to have a chat with Ollie about Chappy, the tour and his special guest speakers. Ollie has had different guest speakers joining him at each date of his tour and has confirmed to me that rapper MNEK and drag queen Jodie Harsh will be joining him at his talk in Brighton on Friday.

So far Ollie has completed three dates on his UK tour in Cardiff, Bristol and Exeter. "It's been the most amazing adventure so far", he says, "we have managed to, hopefully, inspire people. It was very hard for me at university to come out, I applaud anyone who can come out at 18, 19 or 20".

The tour itself is in the form of a free-to-attend panel discussion focusing on LGBTQ+ issues. Ollie feels as though the event has been a huge success, telling me "when we came home after the last date, we were emotionally heightened because the number of people talking to us was remarkable. Some people had been really struggling but for that evening they could be themselves and meet other members of the community that they would not otherwise have a chance to meet. I think that is the most important thing".

The tour itself is in support of the new gay dating app, Chappy, which was co-founded by Ollie. Chappy is working to provide gay men with a responsible, welcoming and high-quality platform for connecting and dating online. In Ollie's words, "I want to give a platform that reflects what gay men are actually like. To create an area where people can say 'i'm proud to be on this'. I'm not going to put up with anyone who is going to be discriminative towards age, gender, race, religion, physical ability or anything else. It's not acceptable in this day and age and I cannot believe that other dating apps allow such behaviour."

The app itself is a 'swipe' style dating app, but with more features such as being able to change your 'mood' to find someone looking for the same sort of relationship as you. The reason for this, Ollie tells me, is "we call ourselves the first gay dating app because the others are all about sex. This is about finding someone who wants to spend time with you, rather than just one night stands”

When talking about his visit to Brighton this Friday, Ollie tells me that "It's the most exciting date for me on this tour, along with Liverpool. It's been the hub of the British gay world for so long, if anyone knows the gay world – it's Brighton."

The open event will be on Friday 17th November at 4.30pm at the University of Brighton in LT1, Cockcroft Building, University of Brighton, Moulsecoomb, Brighton. The open-panel discussion will last for 1.5 hours, and will feature guests. The event is free to enter.