Gay Sydney: a gui to clubs, bars, baret and culture | Gay and lbian travel | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY SYDNEY: A GUI TO CLUBS, BARS, BARET AND CULTURE
• THE 10 BEST ATRALIA GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS ATRALIA
• THE BT GAY BARS MELBOURNE
• LUBRINT DISPENSER FILLED WH ACID AT SYDNEY GAY CLUB
• ATRALIA'S BIGGT GAY NIGHTCLUB PULLS THE PUNTERS AFTER 20 YEARS
• THE BEST MELBOURNE GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MELBOURNE
• THE BEST PERTH GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS PERTH
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

GAY SYDNEY: A GUI TO CLUBS, BARS, BARET AND CULTURE

Meanwhile, the troductn of laws that rtrict late-night socialisg central Sydney’s party preccts has severely damaged Oxford Street, the cy’s tradnal gay strip. And, while Oxford Street is fely hurtg, a handful of Sydney’s “tradnal” queer venu ntue to thrive there spe of the challengg and mixedTokyo Sg Song basement Patrick Abboud, a documentary filmmaker and televisn prenter who -hosts and produc for the Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi GrasThe biggt challenge for visors who want to explore Sydney’s LGBTQI scene is that only the old, mastream optns tend to be listed travel guis.

On Sundays plays crowd-pleasg hoe, electro and two most mastream venu for gay guys are Stonewall and Arq. Lbian-iendlyThe Heaps Gay monthly rovg queer Geia Verkuylen, strategy and partnerships manager at Archer magaze, the Atralian journal of sexual diversyLbian-foced venu n be hard to fd Sydney. It’s also where the rovg queer party Heaps Gay has been held for the past uple of months.

THE 10 BEST ATRALIA GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS ATRALIA

Heaps Gay is a massive event that draws queer folk of all ag, sexuali and genrs.

THE BT GAY BARS MELBOURNE

To fd out what is gog on across Sydney regards to arts events and queer culture, keep an ear out for the rad programm Canvas (on FBi), and Gay Panic and So Hot Right Now (both on 2SER).

Thk 1970s performance art meets homoerotic dience teractn, wh a sprklg of straight at boys who’ve stumbled downstairs om the pub above. The productn of Angels Ameri 2014 was heart-punchgly good, and I re-staged my turbo-gay one-man show, Blue Wizard, there durg Mardi Gras this year – so has fely supported this Wizard was part of the Mardi Gras Ftival, which ns the weeks leadg up to the para March. Tripadvisor performs checks on had a nice time at the gay bar here although everythg was jt a ltle sticky on the night we went.

Worst gay club Melbourne. A 62-year-old man has been arrted after he allegedly filled a lubrint dispenser wh hydrochloric acid at a gay club Atralia.

LUBRINT DISPENSER FILLED WH ACID AT SYDNEY GAY CLUB

The man is said to have entered Sydney’s Aarows, a gay and bisexual social club, on Saturday where he tampered wh the dispenser. Matthew Smh still remembers the adrenal the first time he walked through the tramark revolvg doors of ARQ, Atralia’s biggt remag gay nightclub, which opened near his home. "Two s ago, a time when the age of nsent was unequal for gay men and there was no legal regnn for same-sex upl, the new gay club rose om a r park on Flrs Street, the heart of Sydney’s LGBTQI muny off Oxford Street.

"Co Jumbo and Mnie Cooper perform at ARQ, which is celebratg s 20th Edwa PicklOwner Shadd Dani built the club bee he felt there was "room the market for a gay-iendly super club. "In other ways, Sydney’s gay muny was still hant.

Regular clubgoer Adrian Karl, 51, says: "This was mon gay venu then - so people didn't end up on newspaper ont pag the lunchroom at work. It wasn't until gay characters started appearg on TV shows like Will and Grace that ma hip to have a gay iend that we saw the broar appeal ARQ n have to the wir muny like do nowadays.

ATRALIA'S BIGGT GAY NIGHTCLUB PULLS THE PUNTERS AFTER 20 YEARS

"TV shows like Will and Grace ma hip to have a gay Dee, one of ARQ's first rint DJs and now marketg managerAs the inic club celebrat s 20th birthday, ARQ ntu to pull punters; lengthy qu are mon on Friday and Saturday nights.

THE BEST MELBOURNE GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MELBOURNE

But ’s beg somewhat of an outlier as weathers a perfect storm of factors that has seen many other gay clubs global ci close recent patrons outsi the Sydney nightclub on Flrs Edwa PicklGentrifitn, skyrocketg rents, hook-up apps like Grdr, "chemsex" parti hosted hom, stay-at-home dgs like ice overtakg dance-floor dgs like ecstasy populary and Millennials preferrg ftivals have all been named as culprs.

Melbourne’s biggt gay club The Greyhound closed 2017. Sydney has also recent years lost after-hours gay club The Phoenix at The Exchange (the gngy club was transformed to an upmarket cktail bar), quarterly gay party "I Remember Hoe" and The Gay Bar. Oxford Street, like many gay villag, is slowly beg a pk ’ll always be a need for a safe queen Charisma BelleDJ Dan Murphy has been nng regular major events on Sydney's gay scene for 11 years, cludg the Mardi Gras pool party, the regular "Camp" party and club night "I Remember Hoe", which recent years has moved om Sydney to Melbourne.

THE BEST PERTH GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS PERTH

"Gay clubs around the world are beg closed down to make way for velopers buildg apartments, " Murphy says. "The gay muny is beg phed out of tablished and inic lotns favour of mercial terts, leavg ls safe spac for to gather and nnect.

London's biggt gay club, XXL at Pulse, is due to close on September 22 - 's beg transformed to luxury flats spe London Mayor Sadiq Khan beg elected on a promise to rist any further gay club closur. But she’s a club promoter for [rival LGBTQI pub] the Royal Vxhall Tavern and spent most of her rourc savg that venue om closure, wh ltle tert savg the venue that ho the world’s biggt weekly party for bears [hirsute gay men].

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

The atmosphere si is a safe sanctuary for gay people after a week an often exhstg heteronormative world: Dee par to a fay, havg only seen "one or two punch ups 17 years - ’s hassle-ee.

"Regular punters sgle out what mak the 900 pacy club special to them: addn to somewhere they n be themselv, clubgoers like the podiums and stag where they n show off their mov on elevated platforms, the fish tank as a meetg pot and ‘trash alley’ - a double entendre: ’s where smokers go - and where the bs are put how long will those revolvg doors ntue to sp before ARQ succumbs to the global trend of gay clubs closg or beg phed out om cy centr? "For Murphy, though, the perfect analogy for ARQ is another gay in: "ARQ will be like Cher - still here after all the nuclear bombs go off.

The Laird, Melbourne, is one of Atralia’s longt nng gay-owned and operated venu. Sce s humble begngs 1980, The Laird is now well regnised throughout the gay muny, both lol and ternatnal and like s 'sister-venu’ Club 80 and The Peel, remas a staple of the lol scene. In 1998 The Laird and Club 80 were granted ‘Male-only’ stat by the Victorian Civil and Admistrative Tribunal (VCAT) ference to their history and service to the gay muny.