DTM (nightclub)

Coordinates: 60°10′02″N 24°56′30″E / 60.1671°N 24.9417°E / 60.1671; 24.9417
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DTM
Photograph of DTM's logo
Drag queen in pink dress under red stage lighting
Finnish drag queen Miss B on stage at DTM's Mannerheimintie location in 2019
Map
AddressMannerheimintie 6 B
LocationHelsinki, Finland
Coordinates60°10′02″N 24°56′30″E / 60.1671°N 24.9417°E / 60.1671; 24.9417
Public transit
OwnerRavintola Oy Afrodite[1] (1992–2012)
Äkä Oy[2] (2012–present)
OperatorTomi Häkkinen
Type
Opened1992 (1992)
Website
dtm.fi

DTM (originally Don't Tell Mama)[3] is an LGBT nightclub in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 1992, it was once the largest gay club in Northern Europe. The venue was initially situated in Helsinki's Kamppi neighborhood, having since relocated twice: first, to Iso Roobertinkatu in Punavuori in 2003, and second, to Mannerheimintie in Kluuvi in 2012. Popular with gay men, DTM also caters to a straight and lesbian customer base. The club's playlists contain primarily pop songs, dance music, techno and Finnish hits, with live entertainment often taking the form of drag shows. Through an agreement with UK-based promoter Klub Kids, DTM hosted visiting performers from RuPaul's Drag Race from January 2019 to early 2020, when the Mannerheimintie venue closed.

The club temporarily ceased operation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but following a protracted conflict over noise complaints from a neighboring hotel—which ended in June 2020—the Mannerheimintie location's rental agreement was dissolved. DTM is scheduled to reopen in summer 2023 in a new space on the outskirts of Helsinki's Kalasatama neighborhood.

Description

Man wearing a black T-shirt and white sash smiling and giving a thumbs-up
The first Mr. Gay Finland was crowned at DTM in 2010.

Owned by Äkä Oy,[2] DTM was once the largest gay club in Northern Europe.[1][4] It has relocated several times since its inception, though it has always been in the vicinity of Helsinki's downtown area.[1][5] The most recent location, on Mannerheimintie, closed in June 2020. General manager Tomi Häkkinen has stated that the establishment will reopen at a new address in 2021.[2][5]

The club's music selection consists mostly of "multilingual

Pride Week, the venue hosts the finale of the Mr. Gay Finland competition, which began in 2010.[9] International businesses, such as Nordea and Nokia, sometimes hold events and product launches there.[1]

Since January 2019, DTM has had a partnership with Klub Kids, a European promoter that organizes continent-wide drag tours. The company produces a series of live shows called Klub Kids Helsinki, which brings RuPaul's Drag Race stars to DTM several times per year.[10] To date, performers including Kameron Michaels,[10] Bob the Drag Queen[11] and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo[12] have made appearances.

History

Background and early years

In the early 1980s, Helsinki did not have any gay restaurants or nightlife venues. Consequently,

LGBT rights organization in Finland, invested in a company called Ravintola Oy Afrodite. With Seta's funding, the firm opened Gay Gambrin, Helsinki's first LGBT restaurant, in 1984. Because this venture was successful, Ravintola Oy Afrodite then took over an existing nightclub, Don't Tell Mama, in 1992.[1][7] Later renamed DTM, Don't Tell Mama was located at the corner of Annankatu and Kansakoulukatu in Helsinki's Kamppi neighborhood.[1][7][13] It was the only gay club in Helsinki until 1996, when a venue called Lost & Found opened and began to compete with it for customers. DTM nevertheless maintained its reputation as Finland's flagship LGBT nightlife establishment.[1] In 1997, the club began to host the Miss Drag Queen competition, a regularly recurring drag show that ran until 2013.[14]

Iso Roobertinkatu location

Dark nightclub with illuminated television screen and disco balls
Eurovision Song Contest viewers at DTM's Punavuori location in 2006

In late 2002[15] or early 2003,[14][16] DTM moved to Iso Roobertinkatu in Punavuori. There, it occupied a bilevel space that included bars on both floors, a cafe, and a 54-seat terrace for outdoor dining. During this period, DTM was noted for targeting a wider customer base than Hercules, another popular local gay club.[1] Unlike the latter, DTM actively welcomed lesbians and straight clientele in addition to gay men.[1][17] Its second floor was open to women only on Saturday evenings.[1] According to Riitta Suominen, who managed DTM from 1996 to 2006, all profits the venue made under Ravintola Oy Afrodite's ownership were donated to LGBT charities and initiatives.[1][14]

In December 2011, American singer Adam Lambert and his then-boyfriend Sauli Koskinen were arrested outside the club, which had ejected them for fighting.[18][19]

Mannerheimintie and conflict with St. George

After Ravintola Oy Afrodite went bankrupt in early 2012,[13][15] Äkä Oy bought DTM and moved the business to Mannerheimintie.[5][20] The new address, in Kluuvi, was near the Helsinki central railway station.[5][13] For part of the 2010s, the establishment was managed by Markku Valtanen.[17] In June 2018, a woman was raped in one of the club's toilet stalls. This prompted DTM's management to make structural changes to its bathrooms and to increase signage encouraging patrons to report suspicious activity. According to Häkkinen, the frequency of harassment and other inappropriate behavior in the venue subsequently decreased.[20]

Around the same time, in May 2018,

stream live music shows online.[25][26]

After consulting with acoustics experts, the club's management learned that the only way to soundproof the Puma Bar enough to shield hotel patrons from the noise would be to reconstruct the area as a room within a room, which would have been prohibitively expensive.[5][7][22] Because of this, they decided that the only viable solution was to move.[5][22] They dissolved the Mannerheimintie rental agreement in late June,[13] announcing together with the establishment's closure that it would reopen pending the procurement of a new space.[2][5][22]

Move to Kalasatama

In January 2023, Helsingin Sanomat reported that DTM is scheduled to reopen in the Teurastamo area of Helsinki's Kalasatama neighborhood in summer 2023.[27]

Reception

In an interview with Gay Star News, Terry Miller of the Tom of Finland Store described DTM as "a great place to go party and feel comfortable with your community", further classifying it as "the closest to a traditional gay club as you're going to get" in Finland.[8] He stated to NewNowNext that the venue is "Helsinki's premier LGBTQ disco/bar".[28] Helsingin Uutiset, a local Helsinki newspaper, called DTM "legendary".[2]

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 1458-8013. Archived from the original
    on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  2. ^
    ISSN 0356-2352. Archived
    from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "Discovering The Wonders Of LGBTQ Helsinki". Passport Magazine. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  4. ^ Tabberer, Jamie (11 April 2017). "9 places to take a date in Helsinki". Gay Star News. Archived from the original on 20 April 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  5. ^
    ISSN 0355-2047. Archived
    from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  6. ISSN 1353-1875. Archived
    from the original on 8 December 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  7. ^
    ISSN 0355-2047. Archived
    from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  8. ^ a b Capon, Tom (21 August 2018). "Tom of Finland's Terry Miller strips down and uncovers Helsinki's sexy secrets". Gay Star News. Archived from the original on 31 July 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  9. ^ "Mr. Gay Finland on valittu jo kymmenen kertaa - kurkataan kisan historiaan" [Mr. Gay Finland has already been chosen 10 times – let's take a look at the competition's history] (in Finnish). Mr. Gay Finland. Archived from the original on 8 December 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  10. ^ a b "Kameron Michaels". My Helsinki (in Finnish). Helsinki Marketing. January 2019. Archived from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  11. ^ Hoyle, Andrew (2019). "Klub Kids Helsinki presents Bob the Drag Queen (ages 18+)". Eventbrite. Archived from the original on 10 September 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  12. ^ Hoyle, Andrew (2019). "Klub Kids Helsinki presents 'An Evening with Vanessa Vanjie' – (ages 18+)". Eventbrite. Archived from the original on 10 September 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  13. ^
    ISSN 1401-1794. Archived
    from the original on 30 September 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  14. ^
    ISSN 1798-4734. Archived
    from the original on 12 October 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  15. ^
    ry. Archived
    from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  16. ^ Mollgren, Sami (4 July 2014). "Kolme vuosikymmentä homobaareja Suomessa" [Three decades of gay bars in Finland]. Ranneliike.net (in Finnish). Sateenkaariyhteisöt ry. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  17. ^
    ISSN 1401-1794. Archived
    from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  18. ISSN 0018-3660. Archived
    from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  19. OCLC 9541172. Archived
    from the original on 21 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  20. ^
    ISSN 0355-2047. Archived
    from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  21. ^ "Welcome to Hotel St. George". stgeorgehelsinki.com. Hotel St. George. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  22. ^
    ISSN 0355-2047. Archived
    from the original on 18 August 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  23. ^
    ISSN 0355-2047. Archived
    from the original on 29 December 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  24. ^
    ISSN 0356-2352. Archived
    from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  25. ISSN 1401-1794. Archived
    from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  26. ISSN 1401-1794. Archived
    from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  27. ISSN 0355-2047. Archived
    from the original on 20 January 2023. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  28. ^ van Gorder, Bryan (14 August 2018). "Helsinki, Tom of Finland Style". NewNowNext. Logo TV. Archived from the original on 12 September 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2020.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to DTM.
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