We get the lowdown on Ku Bar’s upcoming events for the party season
Ku Bar is one of London’s, and therefore one of the UK’s, flagship gay bars. It’s instantly recognizable, a beacon of rainbows slap bang in the middle of bustling central London.
It attracts a multicultural, multifaceted clientele, everyone from bright-eyed young students to well-heeled Sohocialites and discerning transatlantic tourists.
The KU group owns four venues; Little KU on Frith Street, cocktail bar the Light Lounge, women’s venue SHE Bar, and their biggest establishment, KU Bar on Lisle Street, just a stone’s throw from the bright lights of Leicester Square.
Its location makes it the busiest of the venues – it’s the perfect place to spill into after dumplings in nearby Chinatown, for a post-work drink and gossip with friends, or if you’re one of THOSE gays, after a film premiere at ODEON Luxe.
Lady Lloyd is storming into Sunday nights at Ku Bar with a debauched drag fash mag slag weekly party! Careening headfirst into the party season on a slick of vodka coke, Lloyd will be curating DJs and performances by drag pols including Drag Race UK’s Sum Ting Wong. She’ll even be doing a bit of a song herself – our money’s on Shania, but it could be anything. (Alexa, search slice_me_nice_limewire.mp3).
“Sundays at Ku Bar needed a bit of attention,” Lloyd told us. “I’ve been the resident DJ there since it opened – thirteen years I believe – and now that KU has bought in lots of different nights downstairs at KLUB it was the only night left without anything special going on.”
“We’re going to open earlier and put on some of London’s biggest drag performers and up and coming stars. Drag is having another moment in the sun and with the roaring success of BOMBSHELL! down at KLUB, Gary the owner asked me to help program the night. I may even get up and sing Man! I Feel Like A Woman. Every week. Ha.”
“It’s wonderful to offer more and more paid performance spaces for all types of fabulous drag.”
“Sundays seem to be super alive in Soho. It’s no longer a lazy night out, so I’m expecting just a raucous a crowd as if we were a Friday night please. The good news is after shows I’ll be DJing my usual crowd-pleasing sets (all the hits….AND NO SHIT!) and we finish at midnight so you can still catch the last train home. Then it’s just a hot espresso at work Monday morning and all is sorted.”
VROOM! On Thursday nights starting in October, Ku Bar Lisle Street will be hosting live screenings of the sure-to-be massive RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. The show’s hitting BBC Iplayer in just a few short weeks, and features celebrity judges like Graham Norton, Cheryl Cole, Maisie Williams and more, as well as a few familiar faces from the London scene. Each week there’ll be a screening of the full show on KU’s flat screen TVs, as well as a drag DJ from 9pm – 11pm. First screening on 3rd October.
KU Lisle Street is at 30 Lisle Street, WC2H 7BA. Open midday – 3am daily.
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