Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ community has a new nightlife home. Lore, located on the border of Old Fourth Ward and Sweet Auburn, is expanding the definition of the queer club beyond drag shows and dance parties.
The venture from Wussy Mag founder Jon Dean and NonsenseATL’s Kimberly Turner and Scott Lockhart joins the ranks of queer-owned nightlife Joystick Gamebar, Sister Louisa’s Church of the Living Room & Ping Pong Emporium, and Pisces on Edgewood Avenue.
While the club has only been open since late March, Lore may already feel familiar to those in the LGBTQ+ nightlife scene. The Other Show, a drag show hosted by Edie Cheezburger that temporarily moved to Out Front Theatre after the closure of Midtown Moon in 2022; Amen, a drag show hosted by Taylor ALXNDR formerly held at Lore’s next-door neighbor Church; and NonsenseATL’s queer-friendly dance parties, which were held at the now-closed Basement for more than a decade, all now call Lore home.
Along with a mammoth disco ball and two floors of party space, Lore touts friendly bar staff and an always-full calendar of “unpretentious fun.”
“The bartenders at Lore were so friendly and made excellent drinks,” Sydney Norman, an attendee of The Other Show on April 18, told Georgia Voice. “We all exchanged socials by the end of the night. They really made the experience of the show even more fun (if that’s even possible).”
Lore’s busy schedule includes all the gay club mainstays – drag, karaoke, and dance parties – while also including events you wouldn’t expect to see at the club like workshops, a biweekly Bring Your Own Craft Night, and special events like Show and Tell night and an adult Easter egg hunt, many of which are free. Dean and Turner want Lore to be a place of respite for marginalized Atlantans, even those who aren’t big clubgoers. Mingle Mocktails are available for purchase alongside traditional cocktails and their rotating schedule of events often includes daytime and early evening parties.
“We want to always have fun and unexpected events for people to come to and give people a reason to leave their house and get off the apps and have a safe third place to go to,” Dean told Georgia Voice. “…I’ve always thought of nightlife and bars and clubs as kind of a church [for queer people]. That’s where I found my community and my family. We’re hoping Lore can be a place for people to find their chosen families.”
“We want Lore to be a space where queer people and trans people, and also women, people of color, basically any marginalized group, can come and feel like they’re safe, they’re heard, they’re welcome,” Turner added. “There’s a lot of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, a lot of attacks on trans people, on women’s rights. We don’t want to ignore the world as it exists but to be able to walk into a place where no one’s judging you, you’re in a place where you’re understood and you’re loved and you can take that heaviness and put it away for a second.”
Coming up on Lore’s eclectic event lineup? A “M3GAN 2.0” dance party, an Edgewood Avenue bar crawl benefiting Atlanta Pride, a “Twin Peaks”-themed party, “Eurovision” watch parties, and “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” watch parties hosted by contestant Nicole Paige Brooks.
Lore is located at 466 Edgewood Ave SE and open Tuesday through Sunday at 5 p.m. To keep up with their event schedule, visit loreatl.com.