Rob Browatzke
Queerness in Edmonton has never been confined to queer space. It has always leaked out and found new homes. This is as true now as it was back in the late 60s, in the days before gay bars, before Club 70 opened at the tail end of 1969.
In 2004, Edmonton’s Fresh Magazine talked about the phenomenon of guerilla gay bars – where queer folk invaded straight space and made it their own. This wasn’t new. In fact, this is very much what we had to do, before Club 70 gave us a space of our own. In the 60s, there were hotel bars that provided safe space for gays to drink in. Spaces like the King Edward and the Royal George, the Corona and the Mayfair, these were guerilla gay bars for their time. It was known that “this corner” or “those tables” were for the gays, long before Facebook groups like “Tuesdays at Oil City Are So Gay” were guerilla gay bar initiatives for a new generation.
But guerilla gay bars aren’t the only way queer nightlife bleeds into the greater straight world. Pop-up queer events are increasingly common and have a proud history in Edmonton.
One of the most longterm pop-up queer events was Beers 4 Queers at the Empress Ale House on Whyte. Beers 4 Queers started in 2008, in the wake of The Roost’s New Year’s Eve closure. Empress owner Sue Kiernan and her long time friend Sean Thompson (currently of Frank’s) saw the need for a new kind of event, and debuted this in Pride of that year, with the Empress participating in the 2008 parade to help launch a new monthly event in a queer-friendly space. Limited by the space’s capacity (100 in winter, 150 in patio season), B4Q was lined up early every month, only eventually ending when the Empress closed its doors in part due to pandemic restrictions.
In the years that followed, other venues tried to replace B4Q, with varied success. The Empress joins a long list of beloved not-queer-but-still-queer-IYKYK venues that Edmonton has seen come and go.
Not all pop-up queerness was monthly though. For years and years, Pure Pride was the pop-up party that helped shape Edmonton’s Pride Festival. Green with Envy was a Pride Party that ran at New City Suburbs and evolved into Pure Pride, which by 2011 was putting on some of the biggest queer events Edmonton had ever seen. They had quickly outgrown Play, which hosted some of their early incarnations, but tried out new venues, including the Edmonton Center parkade one year, proving that when it comes to pop-up queerness, if we don’t have a venue, we will make our own. Part drag show, part circuit party, Pure Pride brought huge entertainers into Edmonton: Drag Race stars, porn stars, and international DJs. Pure Pride expanded with events across Western Canada, but their last Edmonton event was pre-pandemic.
Pure Pride may have been the first to bring Drag Race to Edmonton but they certainly weren’t the last. Think EVO, Drag Fest, KDays, and brunches! And the circuit party sexiness Pure Pride delivered is a torch passed in more recent years to events like those from the TriGuys/AfterDark/Stud team.
No look at pop-up Edmonton queer events would be complete without Womonspace dances, which ran at halls throughout the city starting as far back as 1982. When existing venues didn’t cater to Edmonton’s lesbian crowd, Edmonton lesbians stepped up to deliver their own parties. This social group also delivered a monthly newsletter that has proven an invaluable historical resource. The Womonspace monthly dances lasted over thirty years, and although the organization then folded, in more recent years, the legacy of those dances has continued at halls and legions in the city as mature lesbians still seek out places to gather. Canadian Lesbians 45+ is the newest group to carry the lesbian dance torch.
Honorable mentions to the article have to include Black Dog Long Weekend Queer Dance Parties, BuckPop, and of course drag brunches and bingos all over the city. But when it comes to Edmonton queer pop-ups, the first one you think of is Fruit Loop, which has been popping up now for thirteen years. Fruit Loop started in the late spring of 2013 as an alternative night out, literally re-defining queer pop-ups as they went. Since that first event at the now-closed Yellowhead Brewery, Fruit Loop has popped-up in venues like the Starlite Room, Evolution Wonderlounge, Church of John, Pendennis Building, The Banquet The Backyard, Craft Beer Market, Athabasca Hotel, Central Social Hall, The Needle, The Station , The Denizen, Crash Hotel, Latitude 53, Citadel Theatre , Churchill Square and The Grindstone. From that first event with DJ Queerbait and Teen Jesus Barbie, Fruit Loop expanded into an organization that has showcased hundreds of queer entertainers and put tens of thousands of dollars into their ever-growing list of community partners. Watch for a follow up article soon celebrating Fruit Loop’s anniversary, where we sit down and dive deeper into their history of community-building and supporting Edmonton’s queer arts scene.
This is just scratching the surface of pop-ups in Edmonton queer nightlife. Each of these events has a rich and vibrant history of their own, and there are so many more events that have helped shape and share community over the decades. We want to hear from you. What memories do you have of queer nightlife outside traditional queer space? If they’re anything like these, they’re magical memories for sure.
Rob Browatzke
Rob Browatzke is an Edmonton club owner and author. He has been professionally involved in a Edmonton’s gay nightlife for over two decades. Most of his novels are set in a fictitious gay nightlife world so this is a topic for which he is truly passionate. You can find him on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.ca/stores/Rob-Browatzke/author/B00H3YSDGO
Blazewing Photography
Terrence Adams
