Tickets- $38

Join Close Friends Collective for an afternoon of queer history at Coney Island! We will start with a tour of queer historical sites along Surf Avenue and the Boardwalk, from the smoky rooms of Mae West and Mabel Hampton’s cabarets to the steamy rooms of Stauch’s Bathhouse. We’ll collectively imagine these now-demolished queer spaces, inviting the ghosts of the gay past back to the beach.

After the tour, we’ll head back to Coney Island USA to bring the historical vibe back to life. First, we’ll take in the world-famous Coney Island Circus Sideshow, grounded in a century of performance practice that has always been pretty queer, if you ask us. Then we’ll head up to the Coney Island Museum after it’s closed for the day. We’ll explore the collection, get lost in the funhouse mirrors, chat about the gay past and finish out with some beachy readings and a historically-informed drag show.

Close Friends Collective formed in the summer of 2021 and we've been leading sold out queer history walking tours ever since. We are educators, historians, and artists with a passion for public history. With partners including Henry Street Settlement, Bluestockings Cooperative and Green-Wood Cemetery, we create zines, produce historical readings, and lead walking tours on a wide range of queer histories.

*The Coney Island Museum is located on the second floor and is not wheelchair-accessible at this time