ENTERTAINER and manager of the Majestic LGBTQ dance club night Tuesdays at the Diva Lounge in Falls Church is Jose Carrillo, aka Jocelyn (center). (Photo: News-Press)Last month, the biggest dance club in Washington, D.C. catering to an LGBTQ clientele closed its doors amid a lot of hoopla. Now, guess where the biggest remaining club is located? If you guessed the City of Falls Church, you are right!
The Majestic at the Diva Lounge in the Eden Center has been thriving on Tuesday nights at different locations around Northern Virginia for the last nine years, featuring dancing, drag shows, go-go dancers and lots of late night fun and revelry, often drawing crowds in excess of 300 people.
While it is open and welcoming to everyone, its clientele is primarily young, Latino and LGBTQ oriented.
The project of the energetic and outgoing Jose (Jocelyn) Carrillo, the Majestic has been at its current location on the lower-rear level of the Eden Center, next to a Planet Fitness, for the last nine months and is going strong.
Next Tuesday, Aug. 7, the entertainment will be “Girls of Town,” featuring those who performed every weekend at the just-shuddered Town Discotheque in D.C. One of the Town’s most popular performers, Tatianna, aka Joey Santolini, grew up in Northern Virginia and has been a resident of Falls Church who was a winner on the popular “RuPaul Drag Race” show. She used to perform regularly a few years ago when Carrillo’s Majestic club was located at Seven Corners.
Now, the Diva Lounge is open all nights except Mondays and is expanding its restaurant offerings – Peruvian, Mediterranean and fusion cuisine – to include a weekend brunch.
Club operator Sami Khan said he’s been enthusiastic and happy to make his venue available for the LGBTQ dance club on Tuesday nights, where the action doesn’t get started before 10 p.m. and the main drag show doesn’t come on until 12:30 a.m.
The venue will be available for a Peruvian Independence celebration, and last week hosted a Pakistani Election Day celebration.
Sami Khan has been working with Carrillo for years and says he is delighted by the weekly Tuesday night “Majestic” event. “The clientele is friendly and fun-loving. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them,” he told the News-Press.
Alan Frank, who operates the entire Eden Center, has also said things have gone well.
When the Diva Lounge opened in January, he accommodated it by building out a staircase that goes from the upper-level Eden Center main shopping area down to the club.
But still, Khan says, most patrons enter at the lower level in the rear of the center.
Carrillo said his dream is to have the Majestic Tuesdays open seven nights a week and Khan said that an expansion to a second night or more of that LGBTQ party may come to pass as other venues close.
He and the Majestic are very active in social media. As Jocelyn, he often goes live on Facebook to update supporters and rally his fans and supporters for an upcoming show or special event.
So, for now the Majestic at Diva Lounge is every Tuesday, and if you come, come late and plan for a good time.
