Gay and gay-friendly clubs and parties in New York

The Lab

The Lab is a long running hip hop club operating on Thursdays and Sundays. It attracts a mixed gay and lesbian crowd, and features exotic male and female dancers.

Langston

Club Langston in Brooklyn is New York's longest running black gay club.

Santos Party House

The new alternative downtown party space. Home to Josh Wood's monthly BOOTLEG party, and Nicky Siano's weekly residency on Sundays.

El Morocco

A new club in Harlem featuring two gay parties: Escandalo Nights (the 3rd Sunday of the month) and ExXxotic Sundays (the 4th Sunday of the month).

Rush

Club Rush is home to the long running Gay college night on Saturdays, where New York's finest twinks and sexy college boys come out to party.

Work

Peter Rauhofer carries on the legacy of the Roxy at his new weekly gay dance party Work!

Men are from Mars

Men Are From Mars is a monthly gay black dance party. The music in the main room is hip-hop and house music in the side room.

Hiro Ballroom

Hiro is the most popular gay dance club on Sundays, featuring the pumping house and electro beats of DJ Honey Dijon, and a young and sexy crowd.

Shelter

New York's long running afterhours club, featuring depp and soulful house music mixed by Timmy Regisford, Quentin Harris, Ruben Mancias.

Webster Hall

New York's oldest mega-club, Webster Hall plays host to many gay-friendly dance parties, including Danny Krivit's 718 Sessions and the world famous Alegria party.

Sol

When all parties have ended, Junior Vasquez is still carrying on at Sol

Stereo

A dance club created by Angel Moraes, home of Peter Rauhofer's residency: Work!

Pacha

The famous clubbing brand born in Ibiza branches out to New York and carries on the legacy of the former 46th street Sound Factory.

Krash

The best Friday night gay party in New York, Krash draws a hot and diverse crowd to the cavernous club Rebel, with 4 rooms of pumping house music, hip-hop, salsa and reggaeton.

Escuelita

The queerest nightspot in New York City, Escuelita is a Latin gay club, home to the fiercest transsexual performers and a haven for people of all genders and sexual orientations.

Cielo

A contemporary and intimate venue at the forefront of electronic dance music, awarded best nightclub at the 2006 Clubworld Awards.

Splash

The quintessential Chelsea gay club, Splash boasts 3 bars on two levels, a dance floor and several lounge areas.

Mr Black

Mr. Black is today's epicenter of New York's gay night world, breaking new grounds in dance music and setting new trends for today's generation of club kids.

True to its title of city that never sleeps, New York still reigns as the Nightlife capital of the world, boasting numerous mega dance clubs that draw huge crowds of revelers as well as underground venues frequented by die-hard dance music fanatic. Weekend after weekend, as the sun sets, thousands of club kids and party people take the city by storm and revel in the city’s many dance palaces and underground parties. What is so exciting about going out dancing in New York is that the nightlife is composed of many different scenes and the best way to enjoy it is to venture from one party to another and navigate among the diverse crowds and vibes the city has to offer.

The most prominent and infamous scene is the big room party scene, revolving around a few venues the size of an airport hangar. Usually located in gritty former industrial areas of West Chelsea or Hell’s Kitchen, these mega clubs such as Studio Mezmor, or Pacha are some sorts of humongous warehouses, hosting a cavernous dance floor, loaded with a completely overwhelming sound sytems and equipped with futuristic lightings. Carrying on the legacy of famous and now defunct clubs such as The Tunnel, Exit or Twilo, this type of clubs is a trademark of the New York nightlife. They host massive, marathon parties that can last well into Sunday afternoon, helmed by renowned DJs from the New York house music scene, catering to an eclectic crowd coming from all the tri-state area. The music is a true representation of the New York sound, an uncompromising blend of tribal house and soaring "big room" anthems. The brightest incarnation of this type of party is indisputably "Evolve", with Victor Calderone at Crobar. These clubs draw very mixed and diverse crowds of serious house heads, new wave club kids, Guidos and B&T people, Chelsea boys, blacks and Latinos. Typically, the early part of the night is reserved for the straighter crowd and the less musically concerned revelers, while the more serious party people and the gay crowd comes to these parties for the latter part of the night.

The counterpart to this mega club scene mostly centered on the west side is probably the Electroclash scene from the East side. This scene is a very peculiar blend of fashion, music, and style mixing punk and electronic dance music influences with a campy, gender-bending and burlesque attitude. This relatively new scene emerged in the years 2000-2002 under the artistic leadership of veteran DJ Larry Tee and his cohort of performers and transsexual figures, including the divine Sophia Lamar. These days, this wild bunch can be found at the Bank party in the East Village club Element. These parties draw another quite colorful type of crowds, mixing mainstream gay club kids, avant-garde transgender performers, nightlife creatures, and wide array of alternative revelers who all enjoy the unique atmosphere of this scene. Typically, the electroclash scene is less about the music, the dancing and the hedonism, but more about the style and the attitude made of kitch mannerism, ironic and cold distanced stance with a touch of sexual exhibitionism.

In the middle of all that, Chelsea remains at the epicenter of the all male muscle-bound party scene, embodied by clubs such as Splash and the world famous - and now defunct - Roxy. But this scene has quite evolved since it rose to prominence in the early 90's, spawning the figure of the waxed, toned, bronzed and buffed stereotypical gay man. Nowadays, Chelsea is a crossroad for men from all neighborhood and backgrounds who enjoy getting together and socializing in the hip, fast-paced and testosterone-drenched atmosphere of its clubs.

One of the most exciting scene to discover in New York nightworld is probably the queer black and latino party scene, which finds its most vibrant incarnation at the club night "Krash". Driven by the pounding beats of the fiercest tribal house music, and blending elements from the hip-hop world, the gay blatino scene brings together the most diverse, polysexual, multiethnic, gender bending crowd. These wild parties are filled with gorgeous exotic male and female dancers, feature over the top performances by drag artists and luscious divas, and draw under the same roof a wild crowd of homo-thugs, strayed Chelsea boys, tasty trannies, papi chulos and everything in between.