Beirut By Night

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You haven’t seen Beirut until you’ve seen Beirut at night. It’s at night that the city wakes up and everyone comes out to play. With their troubled history, no one understands about living for the moment better than Beirutis. They do it right. Whatever your predilection for nightlife – from American swing dancing to Arabic belly dancing; from shaking your hips to Latin beats to shaking your dreads to reggae rhythms – you can find it in Beirut. One night I went to a church to hear the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra and the next to a grunge bar to hear a friend DJ. From the quiet contemplation of well-coiffed residents to the lively head banging of the oddest couple I’ve ever seen, one a gangly man in hot pants (complete with prosthetic ass and Pinocchio nose), the other a midget in black lace – they’re all in Beirut. People speaking French, Arabic, English, Armenian, Spanish, Swedish, and German – they’re all here. You can find anything at night in Beirut.

Beirut is one of those wonderful places that I will never be able to stop questioning how it even exists, let alone how I ended up there. Its residents are the type of people that I’m constantly thanking my lucky stars that I know. So, thank you Beirut! And thank you to all those who made it such a special place for me. You are missed.

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Photos

Getting Ready to Swing!
Photo: Charlotte Wang