‘It is emotional’: Closing time for Edmonton LGBTQ2S+ bar 

Evolution Wonderlounge closed its doors on 103 Street this weekend. CTV Edmonton's Connor Hogg has that story.

An Edmonton bar that was, for years, one of the city’s only LGBTQ2S+ nightclubs is having its last dance on Saturday night – but it’s not gone for good.

Evolution Wonderlounge’s 103 Street location has been open since 2013. Although the beloved bar is closing, its owners are simply focusing their attention on their newer Jasper Avenue location, Evo, which opened in April.

“It is emotional. It’s the end of an era,” said co-owner Rob Browatzke. “But every era, when it ends, it’s just the beginning of a new one.”

Still, he says he knows there will come a time when he’ll start to miss the old location’s “little, dark basement bar.”

• Get the latest Edmonton updates right to your inbox

“For a lot of people, this is their first gay bar. This is the first space where they came and they felt accepted and not a minority,” he added. The owners are expecting a large crowd Saturday night into Sunday morning to commemorate the bar’s final moments.

“My goal is to just let myself believe it when people come up to me and tell me what the space and staff have meant to them over the last 12 years,” he said.

The newer location at 11580 Jasper Ave. is open seven days a week at 4 p.m. The street-level space has become a sunlit spot for food and beverage during the evenings.

Evo also features a full kitchen and a TouchTunes jukebox for weeknight customers to curate their own music. The weekends will usher in the dancing and nightclub elements customers have come to love from Evolution Wonderlounge.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg