The Ice Palace

The Ice Palace at Cherry Grove is one of the most historically significant gay nightclubs in the United States — a venue that has been at the centre of the Cherry Grove community since the 1950s and that played a foundational role in developing the party culture that would eventually become the circuit party movement. The Ice Palace disco of the 1970s was, at its peak, the best party in the New York gay world: the combination of Fire Island's isolation, the community's density, and the specific freedom of an island where social convention was suspended created an environment for dancing and social freedom that had no equivalent on the mainland. The DJs who worked the Ice Palace in the 1970s and 1980s were among the most influential in the development of gay club music; the culture they created spread from Cherry Grove to Fire Island Pines and eventually to the clubs of Manhattan, Chicago, and beyond. The Ice Palace has been rebuilt and renovated multiple times over the decades but continues to operate as Cherry Grove's primary nightlife venue, running circuit parties throughout the summer season. The physical context is unlike any other club: an outdoor island community, boardwalks rather than streets, the ocean a minute's walk away. There is no equivalent to the Ice Palace on the mainland.