After more than a decade of drag cabaret and queer stage shows, Oasis, SF’s most prominent queer nightclub, is shutting down.
San Francisco’s queer nightlife scene has found itself amid death and rebirth. Local lesbian-owned bars and eateries are experiencing a renaissance… while gay watering holes and queer-centered hotels continue falling by the wayside.
June saw the last remaining gay bar in Polk Gulch — San Francisco’s original gayborhood — saved by new ownership amid financial woes; during the same month, the Phoenix Hotel, which has hosted famous rock legends and existed as a queer-friendly, queer-forward space for decades, announced its closing (for good).
So suffice to say that when the South of Market gay nightclub Oasis announced it would shutter next year, there was a collective wailing heard around comment sections.
“More than 10 years ago, we transformed a historical but dilapidated building into a beacon and haven for queer culture, arts, and nightlife,” reads a lengthy post from the nightclub announcing its imminent closure. As of publishing, the club is set to shutter January 1st of next year — which will be over five years after the collective behind Oasis “transformed [the] same space to bring queer joy and entertainment into homes across the world.”
But through a keldescoope of reasons, coupled with “immense soul searching, analysis, discussion, and exploration of options,” the club’s planned closing came down to a prominent problem faced by many small San Francisco small businesses: It became too damn expensive to operate.
“Speaking frankly, the rising cost of operations, paired with declining attendance and sales, has put us in a financial loss for quite some time and made sustaining Oasis, in its current form, untenable,” continues the post.
Financial problems and talk of Oasis closing have circulated for years — a common position that many of San Francisco’s queer spaces have found themselves in at some point. COVID put the beloved nightclub in a sort of financial limbo; a robbery caused tens of thousands of dollars in damages and put many on edge; increasing operational costs exist as a constant weight on an already heavy fiscal burden.
Thankfully, the nightclub’s public arts initiative, Oasis Arts — a nonprofit dedicated to supporting voices of LGBTQIA+ communities by providing a platform and financial support — will continue to exist. “Oasis Arts was created to foster that creativity and envisioned a world touched by queer joy beyond the walls of Oasis itself,” continues the post. “Oasis Arts will continue, and we look forward to bringing this art to new venues and places around San Francisco, and beyond.”
The San Francisco queer drain is, alas, all too real. Let’s hope whatever replaces Oasis at least allows the facade’s iconic mural to stay put for a bit (unlike what happened to the Stud).
To read the nightclub’s entire announcement, click here.
