Pansy Club: The Club Kids of Calgary

Pansy Club. Photo by: Kirsten Aubrey.

Pansy Club is continuing the legacy of underground parties that revolutionized Calgary’s queer nightlife in the years before the pandemic. 

From its launch in October 2021, Pansy Club has evolved from its coffee shop origins into a monthly drag show and DJ night at venues across the city like Dickens, The Blox, and Truck Contemporary Art. 

For Cal Gibbens, the founder of Pansy Club and a DJ under the alias DJ GAYSNAKES, the parties that inspired his brand were like nothing he’d ever experienced before. 

“I was a huge fan of the Buns parties back in the day before covid at Tubby Dog, and the HY DRA TION parties, the Discreet parties, all of those queer parties,” he says.

These events gained a loyal following by mirroring the aesthetic of New York’s late 1980’s Club Kid era. They were a meeting place for alternative drag performers and anyone looking for an experience that Gibbens describes as smaller, more underground, and more genuine than the queer nightlife options that previously existed. 

“There was no judgment, people were just allowed to dress however they want, people would show up in crazy outfits, very Club Kid-like at times,” he says. 

They also brought new life into queer events by delving into a fresh rave-inspired musical direction with innovative emerging DJs. 

“It was really a euphoric, ‘oh wow this is what parties could be like,’” says Gibbens.  “So it kind of flipped a switch in my head, I became obsessed with them.”

When nightlife began reopening, however, these events never returned and key figures behind them had moved onward in life. 

Feeling their absence, Gibbens set out to launch his own platform in their image. He turned to his employer Kaffeeklatsch, a new coffee shop by the downtown core, to host his concept. 

“The whole idea was just like how can we create a really unapologetic queer space for people to just express themselves however they want,” he says. 

Despite its small size and thrifted PA system, Kaffeeklatsch was just right for allowing Pansy Club to flourish without the pressure for ticket sales associated with bigger venues. 

“I think smaller venues allow you to experiment a lot more and just be weirder, which I think every city needs that, and I think Calgary especially needs that,” he says.

Additionally, Kaffeeklatsch offered free DJ lessons through a Sunday workshop called Controller Club. This put Gibbens in proximity to a roster of aspiring DJs that played the exact blend of bubbly, innovative dance music that he was looking for.

“I don’t want Pansy Club to just be people making the big gay bangers in a playlist, I want us to be more of that rave vibe,” he says. 

As Pansy Club developed Gibbens began incorporating drag performances from alternative groups like drag kings, non-binary drag performers, and queer artists involved in gogo dancing and burlesque. 

“It’s an avenue for people to perform, for queer people especially to perform and play, that just don’t get that opportunity elsewhere because maybe they’re not being booked,” he says.

Just as Pansy Club’s formula was being solidified, Gibbens was left questioning its future when Kaffeeklatsch closed at the end of 2022. 

“It was tragic, I took a few months off Pansy Club just trying to figure out where are we gonna go, how is this going to work,” he says. “I was so used to having a space where I didn’t have to pay a venue fee, I didn’t have to worry about equipment, I didn’t have to worry about any of that stuff, or even having a bar, it was just always there.”

Gibbens began experimenting with different venues, relaunching at Tailgunner Brewery and finally settling on Pansy Club’s current home at Dickens. With a stable home fostering a growing community, Gibbens has now set his sights on launching a co-op with the aim of creating a permanent venue specifically tailored to the queer community. 

“The long term goal is to create a queer cafe bar venue similar to something like Kaffeeklatsch, because I think we just really need that as a community,” he says. “It’s something that’s been lacking, but it’s a long show process.” 

Despite these challenges, Gibbens is grateful for the dynamic scenery the last three years of Pansy Club has brought.

“It’s been a big learning curve, but I’ve also learned a lot which has been very helpful,” he says.

Although Gibbens acknowledges that the next stage of Pansy Club’s evolution will be the hardest one to navigate, he reaffirms his optimism for the future and hints that the next era might not be too far off. 

“We’ll definitely be announcing more in the future,” he says.