6 best gay bars and clubs in Melbourne
13 March 2023
Melbourne is the culture capital of Australia and home to a handful of some of the best gay bars and gay clubs in Australia. It’s the only time during our vanlife trip around Australia that we stayed out past 5am dancing the night away!
Most of the gay bars and clubs in Melbourne are in Fitzroy, which makes it super easy to hop from one to another. It also means that if you’re short on time that you can probably get to all of our favourite Melbourne gay bars and clubs in one big night out. Woohooo!
It’s also useful to keep in mind that Melbourne night life tends to kick off and peak a little later than other major Aussie cities. So make sure you start your evening with a nap (like us) or a pre-drink before heading out for the dancefloor.
Related: 5 best gay bars and clubs in Sydney.
1. Mollie's Bar and Diner - gay bar Melbourne
Mollie’s Bar and Diner is a great place to start the night, especially if you’re keen on eating out first.
Mollie’s host fun nights throughout the week: think Drag Bingo on Wednesdays, Baby Drag on Thursday’s (an amateur drag show, where you can test your talent for drag), certain events including RuPauls Drag Race screenings on Saturdays, and drag roulette on Sundays. Drag for everyone at Mollie’s!
2. Sircuit - gay club Melbourne
Sircuit Bar is right upstairs from Mollie’s (I told you everything was close by). It isn’t just our favourite gay bar and club in Melbourne, it’s known to be one of the most cherished gay bars in the city.
We played pool for hours, watched drag shows and danced to 90’s music and modern pop songs up until about 2am. It was when the White Lotus theme song came on, we knew we were in the best place ever!
If you kick things off early the bar is very chilled before transforming into a bustling nightclub come 11pm.
3. Yah Yah's
Yah Yah’s is known as the self-proclaimed “weekend spot for zombies”. Idk what that means or why, but this gay bar and club in Melbourne boasts live rock n’ roll music, a dedicated bandroom, and a super well preserved Public Bar that which highlights a window into Melbourne’s past.
Thursdays is home to ThursGay, their weekly queer night that’s like entering a nostalgic house party. Yah Yah’s is split between three art deco style levels and is vibing all the time.
4. Peel Hotel
Peel’s slogan is “all roads lead to the Peel”. It’s because everyone and anyone who’s not yet ready to call it a night ends up at Peel at some stage. Seriously.
It was packed when we arrived at 2am! And it was still packed when we left at sunrise (which never happens to us!). We even bumped into ton of our Instagram followers from Melbourne here and felt instafamous.
Peel is a gay male bar and have been a running favourite for 25years. Open from 10pm until late (like all-nighter late) you’re not going to want to miss spending the night dancing here.
Note: Things get really at their prime between 2-3am.
5. The Laird
This is Australia’s longest running exclusively gay-bar! The Laird was granted permission by Victoria’s very own Anti-discrimination Board to enlist its male-only entry criteria and caters to a widespread crowd, hosting themed nights on weekly rotations.
We didn’t get the chance to visit the Laird because we were honestly dancing the night away at Sircuit and The Peel, but when we asked our Instagram audience about the best gay bars and clubs in Melbourne, people told us we had to include the Laird so here it is.
6. Rainbow House International
The say that the Rainbow House is “Queer excellence five nights a week”. We only went one night but excellent it was. As soon as we walked in there was a performer that was soooo good the crowd was going cray! It’s such a colorful venue too, we loved it.
Rainbow House is home to one of Melbourne’s most diverse platform of performers, with shows that are sure to get anyone in the mood to party.
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