Bodytalk

About

Bodytalk opened on the Oudegracht in 1987 and is the oldest gay bar still running in Utrecht. It has had the same owner the whole time, which is rare enough in Dutch gay nightlife to be worth saying.

The ground floor is a cafe with a bar and room to dance. Under it sits a werfkelder, one of the vaulted cellars Utrecht's canals are lined with, reached through a hatch in the floor or from the wharf outside. That cellar runs as the Basement bar and roughly doubles the space on busy nights. In summer the terrace down on the water is the draw instead.

The bar was men-only until around 2008 and now puts it plainly: lesbian, gay, bisexual, or not fitting a box at all, you are welcome. There are dance nights, pub quizzes and the Miss Bodytalk drag contest, which has run since 1994. Bodytalk is a fixed point of Utrecht Canal Pride and of the Midzomergracht festival. On the busiest nights there is a queue at the door.