To be honest I am no great lover of discos (sign of advancing years I suppose) and so I am a thousand miles from being an expert but after visiting Angels (Viamonte 2168) last Saturday night I may be tempted to indulge more often.
Tell any Argentine that you plan to go there (or have been there) and the reaction may be a grimace, a curled lip, or a wrinkled nose. Its not really that Argentines are phobes, snobs and racists because mostly they are not but Angels attracts a crowd that is one rung lower down the social ladder than the regular gay discos and includes a proportion of immigrants like Peruvians, Bolivians and Paraguayans. Add to that several transvestites, some aging queens, and a lot of very cute young boys and you will realise that Angels isn't like any other popular gay disco in Buenos Aires. Additionally there is a not-very-dark area on the first floor which gets busy later in the night. For my money this disco has character that all the others lack.
I hadn't been there for quite a long time and the new smoking laws have made a big improvement. The ground level dance area (latin music) and the first floor bar are now smoke-free and only the second floor dance area (dance music) is for smokers. Also, unlike other discos I have been to here, the sound level isn't so loud it causes your skull to reverberate. I have heard complaints about the newly re-opened Amerika that it is too straight which you can't say about Angels which has to be 99% gay.
The one big problem with going to Angels is getting in. The club nominally opens at 1 a.m. but it doesn't start to get busy until around 2:30 a.m. This is because entry is pathetically slow with only one pay box open. If you arrive before 1 a.m. you will get in reasonably quickly but then have to sit around inside waiting for more people to enter. However if you arrive from 1:30 a.m. onward you need to join a long queue in the street which advances about 5m every ten minutes and you could be queuing for an hour or more.
The disco web site (in Spanish) is at
http://www.discoangels.com.ar/ and the entrance charge on Saturday without a promotion ticket is $18 (includes three drinks - beer or soda).
For up-to-date information on gay places in Buenos Aires, Argentina see
Guide to Gay Buenos AiresLabels: Angels, disco, gay
In the meantime there is a petition against homophobia in football being organised by Gay.com in the UK. Please go to Kick Homophobia Out of Football and add your name.
