The Round-Up

על המקום הזה The Round-Up

The Round-Up fills the country-western gay bar slot in Tampa's scene, and it does so with the warmth and unpretentiousness that characterises the best bars in this tradition. Line dancing and two-step are on the programme; free dance lessons are available for those who arrive not knowing the difference between a two-step and a line dance (which is most people, and this is entirely fine). The Marion Street location puts the Round-Up in downtown Tampa, accessible from both the Ybor City corridor and the rest of the city's gay scene. The crowd is the country bar crowd: friendly, participatory, physically animated, and unlikely to care much what you are wearing or whether you can already dance. The bar is affordable and the atmosphere is reliably welcoming. For visitors from cities that lack a good country-western gay bar — which is most cities — the Round-Up provides an experience that is genuinely different from the standard nightclub or video bar format, and one that tends to convert the uninitiated at a high rate.