One of those new enterprises debuted on September 19, 2008, billed as a “high-end lounge and dance club under the Boardwalk Market.” Play Nightclub was co-owned by Mike Sainchuk, of the Bank Ultra Lounge and Oil City Roadhouse, and Bob Long, an Edmonton lawyer and board member of Team Edmonton, the city’s LGBTQ2 sports organization. Long referred to Play as “an evolution of the queer nightclub,” saying he wanted a space where his friends could go after work, “gay and straight-but-queer friendly.” Play’s new General Manager Corey Wyness described the venue as for “the queer and not so queer.”

There was some controversy right off the bat surrounding the use of the word “queer.” Some in the community found it triggering and hostile, but Wyness defended it, stating Play bar was a safe space for everyone, not just LGBTQ2 people. “Gay, trans, lesbian, bi or questioning,” Wyness said, “queer is a word that encompasses everything.” Wyness also promised a strong working relationship with the Edmonton Police Service to help avoid some of the violent problems that had recently plagued other downtown venues owned by the same investment group.

Another unique feature of Play Nightclub was its partnership with local community groups. HIV Edmonton and the Pride Centre were both on-site during the opening weekend. With space dedicated for community groups to have board meetings, a notice board where groups could freely advertise, and with multiple community fundraisers already planned, Wyness looked forward to Play’s entry into Edmonton’s bar scene.

Play soon became a central part of Edmonton’s LGBTQ2 nightlife, continuing the trend that had long existed, where the weekend was unofficially divided between Edmonton’s LGBTQ2 dance clubs. The Roost had long captured Saturdays as “their” night, whereas Friday was the night to go to Buddys. This stayed true with Play, which soon became the home of the Pure parties, now an annual Pride event rather than a monthly pop-up.

In the spring of 2010, a new dance club called Flash opened, located just south of the infamous Chez Pierre on 105th Street. Not long after Flash’s arrival, Play owners opted to rebrand their venue as “Buffalo,” and it was no longer an LGBTQ2 club. Soon “Buffalo” rebranded again as “Warehouse,” which also didn’t last very long. Ultimately, after a short run, Flash closed in February of 2013 and was quickly replaced by UpStares UltraLounge, which for a time was the Saturday night place to go.

At the same time when UpStares opened, a new ownership group was looking for a venue in Edmonton to open an LGBTQ2-focused club. This group included Rob Browatzke, who had more than twenty years of experience working in Edmonton’s LGBTQ2 nightlife scene, and a partnership team that recently ran Helios, a pair of gay hotels in Palm Springs. This team included Murray Browatzke, Scott Jarron, Drew Gromnicki, and Gord Cormie, along with Rob Browatzke, who was Murray’s nephew. The group originally began searching for a venue space for a new LGBTQ2 club in Calgary without much success. When they came across the vacant Boardwalk space in Edmonton, where Play used to be located, they jumped at the opportunity to make that space queer again.

Aware there would be immediate comparisons with the former Play Nightclub, the ownership group did their best to break the “dark and dingy gay bar stereotype.” Part of this refresh included white floors, white furniture, and a star-studded celebrity opening night line-up. The Helios team had extensive connections in the world of adult gay films, and infamous drag queen and porn director Chi Chi La Rue served as the DJ for the big Grand Opening, which also featured a bevy of adult entertainment stars, including Matthew Rush, Christopher Daniels, and Tyler Saint. Chi Chi and “her boys” remained a semi-regular fixture at Evolution from that night onwards for years to come.

In the fall, Evolution partnered with UpStares Ultralounge on a two-gay club pub crawl for Halloween. UpStares announced they were rebranding themselves that same night, leaving Evolution and Buddys as Edmonton’s last remaining LGBTQ2 dance clubs. Again, Edmonton’s LGBTQ2 community fell into the Friday/Saturday split that had dominated the scene for years.

Evolution began to build on Browatzke’s extensive contacts in the local LGBTQ2 non-profit scene. Early “Community Tuesdays” included fundraisers for the Pride Centre, Womonspace, Curling with Pride, and the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose. As with Play before, and many other gay spaces, fundraising was a central component of Evolution’s programming and a way to directly support the local LGBTQ2 community.

Initially, Evolution was open seven days a week, starting in the mid-afternoon. This attempt to capture the downtown after-work crowd was short-lived. Located in a basement and without kitchen facilities, a happy hour market was impossible to generate sustained interest. Afternoons and early evenings were quickly scrapped.

Sunday nights had long been a “drag show” staple in many LGBTQ2 bars, but since the closure of The Roost, this tradition had been sporadic. In early 2014, Evolution started its “Sunday Revue” night. The growing popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race, combined with Evolution’s open stage policy, helped build the night and, in turn, Edmonton’s drag community. Previously, many shows had insisted queens “pay their dues” before getting show opportunities, but Evolution was open to new performers. This included the “Haus of HOMOcidal,” which helped launch the careers of Edmonton queens such as Gogo Fetch, Chelsea Horrendous, and Lilith Fair. The Sunday shows also debuted a 2015 event called “The Stiletto Awards,” which celebrated the best of Edmonton’s drag community. The Stiletto Awards quickly became a celebrated annual event.

In the spring of 2014, Evolution partnered with Pure Pride to host the inaugural provincial drag show competition called “The Search for Alberta’s Next Drag Superstar,” which featured the first of many “Ru Girls” to appear at Evolution. Courtney Act, a finalist from season six of RuPaul’s Drag Race, was on hand to judge and crowned Tiara Manila the inaugural winner, who went on to become the founding member of a troupe of Filipino drag queens known as “Queens of the Orient.” The following year, Evolution took over sole management of the competition, working with different Calgary venues.

Evolution sought to celebrate not only drag culture but all kinds of theatre and performance. This included participating in the Edmonton International Fringe Festival as a Bring-Your-Own-Venue (BYOV), a tradition previously established by The Roost. During the 2015 Fringe Festival, Evolution hosted the five-star debut of Man Up!. The troupe of four dancers put on a male burlesque show described in the media as “hilarious, heartbreaking, and damn funny.” Man Up! would go on to host multiple shows at a variety of venues over the years that followed.

Evolution continued to host various fundraisers for several important community causes, ranging from a Red Cross fundraiser after the Fort McMurray wildfire to an event for the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers following the US presidential election of Donald Trump. Other fundraisers included an event for Making Waves to support their successful bid to host the 2016 International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics Championships. Evolution and its patrons and business partners continued to help champion and support many important causes of significance to Edmonton’s community. Other examples included ongoing fundraising for Amigos des Animales, a no-kill animal rescue in Mexico, and an annual May long weekend fundraiser to support mental health awareness.

On June 11, 2016, Evolution hosted a pride party featuring queer rapper Cazwell. It was a busy Saturday night, and everyone was having fun. Shortly after midnight, social media reports quickly circulated about a terrorist attack unfolding at an LGBTQ2 nightclub in Orlando. In the early hours of the morning, forty-nine people were killed and dozens more were injured at Pulse Nightclub in what is considered one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.

The effect on Evolution staff and partygoers in Edmonton was immediate and chilling. Indeed, the entire LGBTQ2 community was deeply affected around the world. Rob Browatzke stated, “This is a worst nightmare come true. That our safe places are being taken away from us.” Sadly, this was not the first, nor would it be the last attack on an LGBTQ2 community venue.

By early 2017, Evolution Wonderlounge was Edmonton’s only remaining LGBTQ2 bar. With a shortage of LGBTQ2 entertainment spaces, the Evolution team branched out to start a street festival during Edmonton’s pride celebrations. Evolution partnered with the City of Edmonton and closed down 103rd St for a pride-themed dance party, drag show, and community festival as a downtown alternative to the main Pride Festival beer gardens and entertainment stage, which had been relocated near Whyte Avenue on 104 Street. Proceeds from the Evolution street party were split among participating LGBTQ2 community groups.

In 2019, the unexpected cancellation of the Edmonton Pride Festival placed mounting pressure and new expectations on Evolution Wonderlounge and other community groups, such as Fruit Loop, to continue with the spirit of Pride. Browatzke said we are “trying to fill the void as best [we] can,” by expanding the street festival to include more community partners as well as an all-ages area.

In March of 2020, Evolution, along with other nightclubs, were among the first local businesses to face restrictions as the coronavirus pandemic began to explode across Canada. For the safety of the LGBTQ2 community, Evolution opted to cancel upcoming events and close its doors just a few days before Alberta’s provincial government instituted the first of their back-and-forth waves of lockdowns and community restrictions. Although Evolution was able to open briefly in the fall for a few small, socially distant shows, they soon closed again and did not officially reopen until late 2022.

Although pandemic restrictions have been necessary to help limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, they have had a disproportionate impact on the LGBTQ2 community. Without access to community venues and supports, many LGBTQ2 youth and young adults were forced to isolate at home with non-supportive or hostile family members. Other LGBTQ2 community members lost their jobs and were more likely to experience financial and housing insecurity and were less likely to have financial savings to help manage unforeseen circumstances such as employment disruptions. Perhaps one of the most significant impacts has been the loss of community, which reminds us just how essential spaces such as Evolution are and have been throughout the history of the LGBTQ2 community. We have survived one community pandemic, and hopefully, we will arise stronger and more united out of this one.