Antwerp Gay Travel Guide
News, Parties & Events in Antwerp
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Video: Promo trailer World Outgames Antwerpen 2013
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About Antwerp and its gay life
Antwerp – home of painter Peter Paul Rubens, the Antwerp Six fashion designers, more than 1000 diamond trading companies and half a million residents – has many facets. It can be glamourous and it can be run-down, it can be trashy and it can be sophisticated, it can be grey, gloomy, colourful, arty, ... The same applies to the gay scene in Antwerp.
In the past, the gay main street used to be Van Schoonhovenstraat. Now this area has a rather bad reputation for its old-fashioned bars and its sometimes sad, sometimes trashy atmosphere. Don't judge Antwerp and its gay scene by just that street.
The club Red & Blue, for instance, is famous among gay clubbers from all over Belgium and Netherlands and even from Western Germany and Northern France.
For gay men with a passion for SM and fetish Antwerp has been a top destination for many years, especially because of its flagship club and cruise bar, The Boots.
The gay cafes in Antwerp have a cosmopolitan atmosphere, and the annual Navigaytion party event with 20 DJs on 10 party boats had attracted 2000 party animals from all over Europe.
In 2007, Antwerp hosted the EuroGames sports event, and the city is now preparing for the 3rd World Outgames in summer 2013 – the largest gay and lesbian sports festival in the world after the Gay Games 2010 in Cologne.
