the internet's most famous lesbian bar raised $21,600 in a month. it's closing anyway. i need to lie down.

Illustration: The Watering Hole

via the Greenfield Recorder, Boston.com and the bar's own sale page

On Sept. 24, the Last Ditch fundraiser had about $9,000 in it. By Monday afternoon it had $21,600, 144% of a $15,000 goal, according to the Greenfield Recorder. Also on Monday, the bar announced it is closing.

"We need new owners AsAP, we close this winter," reads the bar's sale page, which went up alongside a social media post announcing a "soft close" effective immediately. Booked events continue through the winter; otherwise, the doors at 10 Fiske Ave. are shut. A Recorder reporter who stopped by Monday afternoon found the building dark and locked.

what is actually for sale

The bar puts the value at about $70,000 in equipment, furniture, repairs, inventory and its social media accounts, with an appraisal "available upon request." It is offering two routes: "Join, get trained, and take over the transition OR full sale (best offer)." A buyer would also take over the lease, the Recorder reported.

"It's time we pass it on," the bar wrote, per Boston.com, after saying its people had "put our lives on hold to foster networks of care, resources, and a home base for organizing."

why the money didn't save it

This is the part the "woke bar goes broke" crowd will skip. The fundraiser was earmarked for overdue rent, staff, maintenance and converting the place to a workers' co-op, the Recorder reported, and the co-op is what fell through. Two of the three founders had already left, and a few weeks ago the bar said it still did not "have a board/leadership" to run the transfer. Boston.com put it more simply: the bar says it has been "fighting since the beginning to fill out the team." The Recorder notes the fundraising page does not say what happens to leftover money if the bar is sold.

If you were online in September, you know how Last Ditch got famous: a strict, COVID-cautious bar made Saturdays mask-optional to stay afloat, a Boston Globe Magazine story about the ensuing fight went everywhere, and a small lesbian bar in a city of under 18,000 people became the main character for a week. The bar then tightened security and closed events to the public, and called out what it described as "infiltration and coercion by media," per Boston.com.

There aren't many lesbian bars left in America, and losing one is a loss whatever you thought of the masks. The Recorder says the calendar runs to a final karaoke night on Dec. 31. Someone with $70,000 and a high tolerance for discourse: it's your move.

Correction, Oct. 28, 2026: An earlier version of this story said the fundraiser had raised $216,000 of a $150,000 goal. It had raised $21,600, 144% of a $15,000 goal. The Greenfield Recorder, which we cited, corrected its own figure on Oct. 27.