In 1978 I was a 37 year old married man with two daughters living in Burnaby. From that situation a place like the openly gay bar/night club The Luv-a-Fair was very far from my awareness.
Since in that year I was working for a gay
publication called Bi-line I was suddenly dropped into places and circumstances
that were shocking for a Latin raised man. After a while I didn’t look twice at
women who were dressed as men and men who were dressed as women and appeared so
but weren’t. In the many years that I frequented
Vancouver gay
bars for photographic assignments (there were many gay bars) the only incident
that truly shocked me was watching male dancers at the Luv-a-Fair dancing to a
disco version of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from his Messiah. I will never
forget!
I happened on these photographs which I
took in 1977 at the Luv-a-Fair filed under that name while looking for
photographs of Peter Lusztig.
Perhaps the high moment for me at the
Luv-a-Fair was a solo piano concert (late 80s? or early 90s) that John Cale
gave there.
