Famed San Francisco drag club Oasis announced it will be closing for good by Jan.1, 2026.

Co-founder D'Arcy Drollinger said they've been struggling with razor-thin margins and can no longer afford to operate.

"I feel heartbroken, but I'm also overwhelmed by the outpouring of love," said Dollinger.

Dollinger was emotional as he spoke about what Oasis has meant to him over the years.

"This place is my life, and we've been around for 11 years, and it took blood, sweat, and tears to make this space and community viable," Drollinger explained.

Despite being a top destination for drag and queer entertainment, the club always struggled with finances.

"We always didn't quite make a profit. We were always a net-zero, but after the pandemic, things just got harder and harder," Drollinger said.  

Recently, he has been subsidizing the club, even cashing out the majority of his retirement to pay the bills.

"It really made me realize what we do here, as fabulous as it is, isn't sustainable anymore," he said.

But Monday night, just hours after the news of the closure, the club was full.

Drollinger says it is a happy coincidence that the announcement fell on the same day as the "Heklina Tribute Show", an event to raise money to digitize and organize tapes of her work.

Drollinger co-founded Oasis with Heklina, and people gathered at Oasis back in 2023 when she died.

"This has been a place for people all the time to show up when they needed a space to meet together," said Drollinger. "I feel like there's a lot of people here for Heklina, but there's also a lot of people here who just need to feel a sense of community tonight."

J.A. Valentine has been both a performer and patron of the club, even calling it a home away from home.

He said the community is something special.

"This audience is like nothing else," explained Valentine. "The camaraderie that happens backstage, the theatre that gets produced, and I think what I like best about the shows here is no one is ever satisfied with where they're at, and it always has to be the best laugh possible."

Valentine and Dollinger are hopeful those laughs will live on. Drollinger plans to continue programming shows through his nonprofit, Oasis Arts.

"That isn't going to go away," said Drollinger about the shows he's produced. "I'm hoping that it can continue to support artists in some shape or form. It might be at other venues or other events."

Drollinger announced the closure early so people could come out and say one last goodbye.

He hopes they'll have enough support to keep the club open for the rest of the year.

"We're only going to get there if people show up, so I'm hoping that people do show up and can get our ticket and bar sales to where they used to be," Drollinger explained about the efforts it will take to get to their proposed Jan. 1, 2026, closure date.

The club opened on New Year's Eve in 2014, and he feels it would be poetic to have their last night be New Year's Eve as well, but he does hold some hope that maybe a miracle could still happen.

"The mayor called me today, and was concerned about the news, so you never know what could happen," Drollinger said. "I'm profoundly grateful and so proud of what we've done, and I wish that it could continue, and I hope that this inspires someone else to create a space that can be this for so many people."

• San Francisco