I-Beam Nightclub Returns with INFERNO

This Halloween there will be tricks and treats aplenty for drag show fans as the I-Beam returns to the Fargo-Moorhead area with spectacular grand re-opening festivities including their legendary costume ball and INFERNO, a hellishly good evening of the best drag performers in the region.

The drag show INFERNO will kick off the weekend on Friday night at 9:30 pm with performances by Miss Dakota Diva 2008 Billie Simone, Sonja Neez, Déjà vu, Anastacia Rose, Nic Fitz and many more and the event will be hosted once again by yours truly, Miss Janessa Jaye Champagne. Halloween has traditionally been one of the biggest and best shows on the I-Beam’s calendar, and this year promises to be the best yet.

Saturday night will feature the I-Beam’s famous costume ball with cash and prizes for winners of the costume contest in a wide variety of categories from sexy to scary. This event is known for bringing out some of the best and most elaborate costumes seen anywhere in the state. You never know who (or what) you might run into once the lights go down, and there will be great music and dancing throughout the evening.

More than just the events themselves, this Halloween weekend will be special because it will be a welcome back for a bar that has been sorely missed since it closed its doors in the summer of 2007. More than just a dance club with great music and high quality drag shows (though it certainly was that), the I-Beam was a place that queer people could go and feel comfortable being themselves.

The I-Beam provided a welcoming place during the annual FM Pride festival with entertainment and social activities, not to mention the Pride Drag Show, another highlight on the show calendar. There were also smaller, but no less important events like the annual holiday fundraiser, an event that helped raise much needed funds for the MinnKota Health Project for people living with HIV/AIDS as well as other worthwhile organizations.

What I have missed most in the last year or so, however, is the people. Part of the fun and the frustration of being a performer who travels a lot is that you meet large numbers of people, many of whom you only get to see in certain places and in certain contexts.

Though I’ve seen some faces that I recognize from the I-Beam at other shows I’ve done in the FM area or even at our shows at Sensations in Grand Forks, there are so many great people that seem to have dropped off the radar. It will be exciting on October 31 to step back across that threshold on Center Ave and see many of those faces again…those that I can recognize beneath the makeup and masks that is. It is Halloween after all.

Mark and Kurt, the owners of the I-Beam, have been busy with other projects including extensive home renovations and Mark’s FargoHair salon. This last year has also been a busy one for me, both personally and professionally: I’ve gotten engaged, am finishing a Master’s degree, and have formalized my work on various drag show and entertainment projects around the state into my own production company, Champagne Dreams Productions.

A few of the performers from the area have moved or are planning to do so, and some new performers have emerged to grab their own place in the spotlight.

But no matter how much things may change, one thing has stayed very much the same: North Dakota has a much richer and more diverse queer community than we give ourselves credit for and we deserve a place where we can go to relax and have a good time, to meet new people and learn more about one another:

A place where we can dance with whoever we want without having to worry about being harassed.

A place where we can hang out with our straight allies and everyone can feel comfortable being themselves, where we don’t have to feel like the tagalongs who have to watch what we say and do, worried about what that guy at the other end of the bar might think of us.

A place where we can not only unwind, but where we can get to know other people in the way that helps us build community, so that when it comes time to work on events like Pride or to stage political protests when someone decides that our basic human rights are “special,” we already have a social network in place.

Am I making too big of a deal out of a bar? Maybe. But for me, and I think for many others, it is more than just that. It is also a safe space, something that is often in very short supply around here.

It won’t be perfect. There will certainly still be drama and gossip; if you can find me a place that has managed to get rid of those things completely, I’d love to see it. Old fights will be renewed, old grudges remembered.

But there will also be laughter and music. There will be familiar faces and fabulous shows. And there will be a big drag queen with even bigger hair, always running about 10 minutes behind, who can’t wait to say, “Welcome back.”

If You Go

What: INFERNO
Where: The I Beam, 1021 Center Ave, Mhd
When: Oct 31, 9:30pm
Info: 218.233.7700