Hello, Darlings! 🏳️‍🌈 Pride season is officially crawling out of hibernation and back onto the dance floor. This week’s edition has everything from queer hockey musicals and scandal at Brooklyn’s oldest lesbian bar to warehouse raves, burlesque chaos, disco parties, and enough Memorial Day nightlife to destroy your sleep schedule before June even starts. Consider this your lovingly curated roadmap to queer New York.

First off, we’re giving away $100 to Café Mars, the Italian spot currently in full Itameshi takeover mode. Think pepperonigiri, pan-fried tortellini gyoza, parmesan-cured fluke crudo, and more inventive dishes in Brooklyn. Enter to win now on IG.*

JUST ANNOUNCED

• The annual Broadway Cares fundraiser Broadway Bares returns Sunday, 6/21 with another round of extremely fit Broadway dancers raising money for HIV/AIDS and other critical services. One of the city’s longest-running queer performance traditions somehow continues to get more unhinged every year.

• All Things Go returns to Forest Hills Stadium from Friday, 9/25 through Sunday, 9/27 with a heavily queer lineup featuring MUNA, Brandi Carlile, Rebecca Black, CMAT, The Beaches, and Cara Delevingne.

• Club Cumming’s long-running Oh Yes Burlesque show returns Memorial Day weekend for a special last-minute edition on Sunday, 5/24. The series famously became one of the first indoor nightlife events to return after lockdown and has continued showcasing some of NYC’s most inventive LGBTQ burlesque and drag performers ever since.

• Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, a campy off-Broadway send-up of the cult-favorite gay hockey romance series, has extended its NYC run through Sunday, 9/7 after quickly building a fanbase online.

WHERE TO PREGAME PRIDE

Whether you want historic queer New York, drag chaos, lesbian bar energy, disco dancing, or just somewhere that feels deeply safe and celebratory, these are the spots where Pride season starts before the parade ever does.

• CLUB CUMMING @ EAST VILLAGE

• THE STONEWALL INN @ GREENWICH VILLAGE

• JULIUS’ BAR @ GREENWICH VILLAGE

• MOOD RING @ BUSHWICK

THIS WEEKEND

LOCALS ONLY

• Planning to march, table, perform, or promote something during Pride? Registration is now officially open for the 2026 NYC Pride March and PrideFest which will happen on Sunday, 6/28.

• A new Brooklyn nonprofit called the Queer Nightlife Community Center (or QNCC pronounced “kink”) is dedicated to supporting queer nightlife workers, performers, DJs, and artists. The project combines rave energy with practical resources like mental health support and free community programming, all housed within a warehouse space.

• A Pride Month controversy is brewing in Park Slope after Ginger’s Bar (NYC’s oldest lesbian bar) announced cuts to its DJ schedule following noise complaints. The response online has been swift, with many New Yorkers seeing it as yet another pressure point on historic queer nightlife spaces.

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