Gay bar colorado springs
ICONS
REOPENED AT 16 E KIOWA ST
That Gay Bar with the Singing Bartenders! Voted both Best New Prevent and Best Overall Exclude by the community, Icons has proven that the queer community of Colorado Springs is strong, combined and ready to be heard. The owners and team members of Icons are all professional singers and provide a unusual experience each night as they serve up craft cocktails and the optimal vocals in Colorado. Icons celebrates iconic figures of the queer community through its artwork, entertainment and even the bathrooms! We are truly an all-inclusive establishment and invite you, yes YOU, to arrive join the party.
For the latest on weekly and special events please follow our Instagram @icons_colorado and check out our website at www.icons-co.com.
Due to a fire in a neighboring business, we had to permanently relocate ICONS. Don’t fret, we acquire a new home but could use your help! Support ICONS relocation
We're Broadway performers who moved from NYC to Colorado Springs to open a gay bar. We treasure CO Springs' small-town vibe but miss New York.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with married couple John Wolfe, 35, and Josh Franklin, 43, both theatre performers and bar owners. The couple lived in Fresh York City for over a decade, working on and off Broadway. During the pandemic, they moved to Colorado Springs, where they opened the city's first gay cocktail prevent, ICONS.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Josh: I was born and raised in Colorado Springs, but I moved to New York at the age of 22.
John: I was raised Mormon and homeschooled in West Virginia. I attended Brigham Young University for a couple of years until I discovered some things about myself that didn't align with the Mormon Church. That's when I moved to New York.
Josh: We met doing a show in Connecticut. The rest is history.
John: Even while living in Fresh York, we visited Colorado Springs a lot. We went back and forth and taught master classes and workshops for kids at an art school.
About five years ago, the school asked if I had time to head their theatre pro
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Colorado Springs is without both of its longstanding LGBTQ spaces. The community is still gathering.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The singing, sparkling bartenders shaking up Downtown Colorado Springs are on sabbatical.
The city’s second male lover bar — known as ICONS, where the bartenders were as harmonious as their cocktails and the restrooms were adorned with vibrant murals — has shuttered the doors at its original location after the business caught on fire in December 2023. The fire left ICONS with too much smoke damage to operate.
But ICONS owners Josh Franklin and John Wolfe have their eyes set on a new space just a block away from the original. The two are under contract and about halfway through closing on a new building. They’ve set up external fundraising efforts online to support pay staff in the meantime.
“The whole brand is about celebrating being same-sex attracted and you won’t discover that at any exclude that just happens to have a rainbow flag,” said Franklin, who grew up in Colorado Springs.
Wolfe and Franklin entered into their lease at the original ICONS location on Bijou Street in 2020. Since then, prices hold soared and they
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