About Cruz

All about the club

Open six nights a week, Cruz 101 is Manchester's favourite gay venue and has been so for over seventeen years, recently celebrating with a huge party and giving a brand new car away! We showcase a varied selection of nights and our music policy ranges from disco to funky house, pop to trance, r'n'b to hard house....leaving no-one uncatered for. Stunning decor, reasonable door & bar prices that certainly won’t break the bank, the best state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems (if you're interested, see footnote for more details) and great clientele, it’s easy to see why Cruz 101 is still the busiest gay night out in Manchester.

The Club

Occupying the lower ground floor and the basement floor of a Grade 2 listed building, Cruz is really two clubs in one. The large main floor operates six nights a week playing a broad range of pop, chart, r’n’b, and commercial dance music, and the smaller lower level, with a more underground feel to it, operates as part of the main club on Thursday, Friday and Saturday playng cutting edge dance & house music. Occasionally the lower floor, known as SUB, operates independently with a separate entrance in association with successful promoters to host special events.

If you're interested in accessibility information for the club, please read the accessibility page.

Our History

CRUZ 101 opened it’s doors to the public on 22nd May 1992. After a year long renovation, an old bonded shipping warehouse was transformed into Manchester’s first purpose-built gay nightclub - one that would be instrumental in changing Manchester’s gay scene from ”ghetto” to ”village” and has set the standards for others to follow ever since.

The club’s licence did not come easily and at first people would have to wait 48 hours to obtain membership to this exclusive club, but due to demands from customers and a lengthy High Court battle, this changed to instant membership being available at the door. The ’membership’ rule was to prove both an inconvenience and benefit to the club. Whilst being restricted by many license conditions other clubs need not meet, the membership rule was also one of the largest factors in keeping the club the only true safe gay space in Manchester. This remains the case today as Cruz is still the safest gay space in Manchester, remaining true to it’s original ideals.

'’Entertainment’ has always been one of the club’s priorities and over the years many famous people have visited the club including pop acts Sonia, The Weather Girls, Phil Oakey, Heaven 17, Hazel Dean, Margarita Pracatan, Sybil, The Candy Girls and Take That, 70's acts The Nolans, Odyssey and Rose Royce, Five Star, Kelly Llorenna, Angie Brown, A1, Scooch, Steps, Graham Norton, Lily Savage, and more recently Booty Luv, The Dolly Rockers, Michelle Gayle, Lonnie Gordon and Sinitta.

In 1993 Cruz was the pioneer of the original 70's & 80's night, Disco Inferno, which is still running strong every Monday after seventeen years. As time has gone on the ’disco music’ policy of 70’s & 80’s has been expanded to include 90’s and with the recent resurgence of the eighties Monday’s are as popular as ever.

Seventeen years on, and open six nights a week, Cruz is still the most popular club in Manchester's Gay Village. However, the club has constantly evolved; reinvented itself in response to a changing gay climate and demands, whilst staying true to its original ethos: good music; a great atmosphere; horny men; flattering lighting; and all at prices that won't break the bank for the thousands who visit us each and every week.

The techy stuff

Cruz uses only state-of-the-art sound equipment using OHM BRS series cabinets driven by a combination of Crest 9001 Series & Crown MA Series amplification. Source equipment is Pioneer CDJ1000mk3’s and Technics SL1210’s through Cloud CXM and Formula Sound mixers. Processing is handled by Rane & BSS Omnidrives. Radio technologies -mics/personal monitors - are Sennheiser.

Lighting is a combination of some 30 Robe ColourSpot 250AT’s, LED technologies including Par64’s and pinspots, and legacy equipment including neon, pinspots par36’s, par56’s & par64’s, arcline, and some Coemar and TAS lighting products. Control is provided by Zero88’s Frog2 and Martin’s Lightjockey2, all touchscreen driven. Visuals include a mixture of 32” & 42” plasma screens and a 16 screen video wall.