It’s This Big Gay Piano Bar’s First Birthday. You’re Invited.

Big Gay Piano Bar, Sydney’s iconic LGBTQ+ musical night out, is turning one. The independently produced event which has taken Sydney by storm will celebrate its triumphant first year at Ginger’s, Oxford Hotel on Friday, the 31st of July.

It’ll be big. It’ll be gay. And yes, it’ll (shocker) be a piano bar. That means custom recital requests, boisterous sing-alongs, and a room full of loud, proud, music-loving queers. The celebration, for which tickets can be purchased here, is set to cap off a year of key-clanking, theatrical performances, and cabaret events for the bar.

With over 2,500 tickets sold since its inception, the community has spoken: Big Gay Piano Bar is a nightlife staple that is here to stay. 

Big Gay Piano Bar Isn’t Like Other Commercial LGBTQ+ Event Spaces

Over the past year, attendees have lauded the personal touch of the evenings, each entirely shaped by the requests of the audience, be they pop, Disney, or cabaret.

“I wanted to create a night that felt welcoming, joyful and genuinely communal,” said founder, singer, and pianist John Milligan. “Piano bars work because the audience helps create the show. People request the songs they love, sing together, and become part of the performance rather than simply sitting and watching.”

Since its humble inception as a live, request-based piano bar, the bar has expanded (even interstate!). Now, it regularly hosts live queer performers and community showcases, and has even partnered with organisations like Qtopia Sydney to deliver community fundraisers.

Despite its soaring commercial success, Milligan always returns to the bar’s roots. For him, it is and always will be a heartfelt wish for the queer community between friends. More precisely, its fruition came when the late drag star Maxi Shield encouraging Milligan to start the piano bar in June last year. Two months later, Big Gay Piano Bar would launch its first event at Ginger’s, where it has been thrilling melophiles ever since. 

While Big Gay Piano Bar now delivers to a wider audience and necessarily must finance venues, bar staff, technicians, security, and performers, Milligan has not forgotten what made the venture so loved in the first place.

“It is essentially still me, a piano and a lot of social media posts,” he said. And as long as Milligan is still the man behind the keys, Big Gay Piano Bar will no doubt keep Oxford Street singing.