QLife Media

When Piranha Nightclub opened its doors in 2006, the corner of Paradise Road and Naples Drive was already legendary — but it was a legend mostly whispered among locals. The Fruit Loop, as the cluster of LGBTQ businesses had been informally called for decades, had been a refuge since the 1950s, when Club Black Magic first opened its doors and quietly became a gathering place for a community that had nowhere else to go. By the time Piranha cut the ribbon twenty years ago this month, generations of queer Las Vegans had already laid the foundation with legends like Kenny Kerr. What Piranha brought to the block was scale, swagger, and a sound system that could be felt three rooms away — and a promise to honor what came before by going harder, louder, and prouder.