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Rainbow street

 

Already since 1980, Reguliersdwarsstraat is the most famous and trendy gay street in the Netherlands. Here you can read how in those 40 years the street has developed into a true rainbow street!





Openness

The open and international character of Reguliersdwarsstraat started with lunchroom Downtown which opened already back in 1970. Other gay places at that time still had shuttered windows and a doorman at the door.

Such a closed place was the Mac Donald, which opened in 1963 as the very first gay café in Reguliersdwarsstraat, and also De Viking (1976-1987), the first gay disco in the street.




The glory years

The big break through came in 1980, when Frans Monsma and Guus Silverentand started to organize high-profile parties out of Downtown, which made Reguliersdwarsstraat the hippest place to be. They then opened April (1981-2010), which became Amsterdam's most famous gay café.

The most popular place of the nineties was gay café/dancing Havana (1989-2002), which attracted countless gay and straight people, natives and immigrants, Amsterdammers and tourists for many of whom it still has a special place in their heart.




The Kooistra businesses

Eventually, April and Havana were taken over by bar tycoon Sjoerd Kooistra, who in 1988 added gay disco Exit and the Exit Café, and in 1999 opened café-pub Soho. Finally, he also bought cocktailbar ARC, which had been opened in 2002.

Under Kooistra the highly popular Happy Hour was introduced and ever larger street parties were organized, culminating in the performance of Kylie Minogue during the Gay Pride in the year 2000:




Street parties

The Amsterdam Pride, with its famous boat parade, was set up in 1996 by a group of people from Havana, not as a protest or demonstration like in other cities, but to celebrate freedom and diversity.

The street party to celebrate Pride in Reguliersdwarsstraat is still one of the absolute highlights of the year. This also applies to the street party during King's Day - which is the successor to Queen's Day, that was celebrated in the street already since the eighties:




Current places

In 2010, Reguliersdwarsstraat received a major blow when the business empire of Sjoerd Kooistra collapsed and all his well-known gay places had to close. Meanwhile the street has fully recovered and now there are even more gay venues than before that time.

In addition to the classic café-club Soho, there's the late night Exit Café, the hip openminded club NYX, and the popular Taboo Bar with neighboring Taboo Kantine.

The bustling Bar BLEND expandend in 2021 with BLEND XL. The newest place in the street is the lesbian café B'Femme, which opened in April 2023.

Finally, in the eastern part of Reguliersdwarsstraat, near Rembrandtplein, the Caribbean gay bar Reality made way for the cozy Amsterdam café Montmartre.




Gay Village

Besides the nightlife venues there are also a few gay-friendly coffeeshops, a number of gay lifestyle shops and hairdressers as well as a series of restaurants where gays traditionally like to go for dinner.

With this concentration of gay-oriented businesses, Reguliersdwarsstraat can rightly be called the Gay Village of Amsterdam, comparable to the gay neighborhoods of major cities elsewhere in the world, like San Francisco, Montréal, Manchester and Berlin.

The village character also speaks from the seclusion by the surrounding buildings and the pedestrian area and is further enhanced by the planting that was introduced in 2016.




Rainbow street

First, only the gay venues had rainbow flags flying, but in June 2020 all bars, restaurants and shops in the western part of the street got two rainbow flags to show the openness and diversity of the entire street.

One month later, Reguliersdwarsstraat also got its own rainbow sidewalk to brighten up the previously rather dark arcade under the Carlton Hotel. It's not a pedestrian crossing, but has a more artistic shape with wavy stripes in rainbow colors:




Flag display

Early 2023, all the businesses got the latest rainbow flags which include the symbol of the intersex movement as well. In August, twelve large glossy hearts were hung in the street, which emphasize that Reguliersdwarsstraat wants to be a safe environment for all members of the rainbow family.

Maximum flag display was achieved with a temporary pride flag measuring 45 by 10 meters, which was unveiled by mayor Halsema on July 19, 2024. This giant flag was a statement against anti-LGBT violence and marked the start of measures to make going out in Reguliersdwarsstraat safer.




Links

- In Portuguese: Reguliersdwarsstraat, a histórica rua gay de Amsterdam
- LGBT nightlife: Gay Village Amsterdam