Hello Darlings! 🌈 Summer is almost over, but we’re pretending not to notice just yet. We picked a few very good end-of-summer parties to help you squeeze every last drop out of it before fall officially takes over.

The 24th Annual New York Burlesque Festival takes over NYC from Friday, 10/2 through Sunday, 10/4 with more than 50 performances across 3 Dollar Bill, Sony Hall and Le Poisson Rouge. You can score a pair of 3-day passes and spend the whole weekend swimming in burlesque, drag, circus and glitter.*

JUST ANNOUNCED

• Miley Cyrus is celebrating the release of Bass Persuades with an official merch pop-up at 12 E 14th Street this Friday and Saturday, featuring limited-edition merch. Even better, you can enter to win a guitar signed by Miley herself.

• Hercules & Love Affair are bringing their queer disco legacy to Basement on Saturday, 10/24, joined by Eli Escobar, Andi, Dustin Zahn, Kameliia and Ade Kassim.*

• Scuff is officially joining the weekly rotation at Red Eye, bringing queer country dancing, line dancing and two-stepping to Hell’s Kitchen every Tuesday. If your week could use more boots, flirting and country music, you now know exactly where to be.

• If drag wrestling sounds like exactly the kind of nonsense you want in your life, The Sidequest Tour lands at The Brooklyn Monarch on Thursday, 10/15 with A Matter of Pride Wrestling plus The Theys and the Thems.

• James Tom brings Emotionally Repressed! to Joe’s Pub on Thursday, 11/5, digging into family secrets, starting over in your 30s and generational curses from a trans, queer, Asian American perspective.

QUEER-OWNED CLOTHING SHOPS TO KNOW IN NYC 

Queer-owned fashion in New York goes well beyond rainbow T-shirts. From sharp suiting and gender-expansive knitwear to club clothes, swimwear and indie designer pieces, these are some of the local shops and labels worth knowing.

• KIRRIN FINCH - BROOKLYN NAVY YARD

• ALTER - GREENPOINT

• STYLE ON J - HELL’S KITCHEN

• R.SWIADER - SOHO

• FANG NYC - DUMBO

• CROPPED NYC - NEW YORK CITY

• ALIENS OF BROOKLYN - NEW YORK CITY

THIS WEEKEND

LOCALS ONLY

• One of the East Village’s most beloved queer-owned restaurants is getting ready for a bigger chapter, with HAGS planning a move to a larger Bowery space at 334 Bowery. More seats and a broader menu could mean a lot more room for dinner plans that still feel distinctly queer.

• Apparently gay New York history goes back far enough that even City Hall Park has receipts: newspaper accounts from the early 1840s identify it as Manhattan’s earliest known documented gay male cruising area. Read more about it and many more facts about NYC’s gay history at nyclgbtsites.org.

• Brooklyn queer bar ANIMAL has officially gone bi-coastal, opening a second location in Los Angeles after launching in Williamsburg in 2024. We love to see a gay-owned business thrive.

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