Snarøya Sports Club

Translator's Note: This is a machine-assisted translation completed on March 10, 2025. While care has been taken to maintain accuracy, this translation has not yet undergone human review or validation. Please note that specialized terms, historical references, and nuanced content may benefit from expert review. The lyrics are also machine-translated.

After the time at Ormsund, DNF-48 moved their parties to Snarøya Sports Club in Bærum. Several members from that time describe how secrecy was maintained by disembarking the bus in groups—almost no one got off at the stop closest to the meeting place. Aasmund Vik recounts in an interview with Gaysir that the bus drivers on route 31 eventually figured out where they were headed: "I particularly remember one time when the bus driver shouted, 'Now sit still, I know where you're going...'" (Gaysir.no, 04.05.13).

But while the bus drivers knew what was going on, it wasn’t easy for outsiders to find the location. When author Finn Carling was working on his book The Homosexuals – A Sketch of a Closed Existence (published in 1965), he was invited to a DNF meeting to find informants—but was transported to the venue at Snarøya blindfolded.

At Snarøya, DNF-48 held weekly gatherings. In their efforts to repeal §213 of the Penal Code, which criminalized sex between men, DNF published a debate booklet and translated foreign materials into Norwegian. These publications were partly funded through parties at Snarøya, featuring drag shows, raffles, and auctions. In an interview with Blikk (4/2002), Kim Friele shared that they even raffled off a forgotten pair of underwear: "We made a lot of money on that!"

Svein Hagesæter wrote the song "Yellow Bus to Snarøya," released on the CD Homovenner (Gay Friends, 2002):

he dances alone to an old song

he gladly dances, dances time and again

for he has memories

from back then:

 

when the bus to Snarøya on a Friday night

was the start of a wonderful gay weekend

for he met Johnny

a restless boy

 

and this boy was a loving man

he could love like a Don Juan

for Johnny "Handsome"

came from distant lands

 

yellow bus to Snarøya reminds him of

Connie Francis and his "Johnny Handsome"

yes, all are memories

all is gone