De Overkant

על המקום הזה De Overkant

De Overkant ('The Other Side') is Groningen's most established gay bar and the social anchor of the city's LGBTQ+ community. The Peperstraat location is close to the Grote Markt and within easy walking distance of both the student housing in the Korrewegwijk and the city-centre residential streets where Groningen's older gay population tends to live. The bar has a classic Dutch brown-café format: warm interior, good beer selection, a clientele that ranges from students to long-established locals, and an atmosphere that prioritises conversation over spectacle. De Overkant is at its busiest on Thursday and Saturday evenings — Thursday being the primary student social night in Groningen, as in most Dutch university cities — and serves as the pre-party venue for club nights at larger mixed venues. The bar is one of those gay institutions that seems to have always been there and to be permanently embedded in the social life of the community it serves; Groningen without De Overkant is not quite imaginable to the city's gay residents.