Crowd at The Ivory, Wollongong NSW

Crowd at The Ivory, Wollongong NSW

Four of us are here to check out the Wollongong nightlife for one night – We just left The Harp Hotel, and we are off to the next club down the street – it’s Ivory Bar, so here we go!

Saturdays @ Ivory Bar
Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 12:30AM
Opening Hours: 8:00PM – 3:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: No website could be found.
Address: 77 Crown Street, Wollongong NSW
Dress Code / Door Policy: Probably safe to dress smart casual here. Most people were dressed smart, though casual was allowed you would be probably looked down upon. No hats allowed. No photography allowed.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 flat charge all night
Guestlist: None
Inside: Imagine The Establishment in Sydney, but without the back room, and half the size of the main room / bar area. This is exactly what you get at the Ivory – You walk into a lengthy room with one bar to the left adoring the wall. There is a section behind this wall for smokers. DJ booth (I cant even remember if there was a DJ booth) should be at the front. There is a big LCD screen displaying random messages set by the people here partying tonight. Lounges near the entrance and to the right hand side. Main dancing area is at the back.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: I did not drink here tonight. The bar specializes in cocktails, so you can imagine the prices at this bar to be of the upper end range.
Music: House / Funky House
Crowd: Older crowd, but dressed up nicely, so as to keep up with appearances. Mostly late 20s, 30s, and some 40s and 50s were spotted here. A lot of good lookers. Entirely Caucasian.
Entertainment: No extra things to keep the vibe going. It held up on its own for a bar.
Atmosphere: Music is loud, the venue seems new and the vibe amongst the dancing patrons is pretty good. People are dancing and drinking away. In terms of dance space, it is a little cramped, but not sardine packed. It’s enough to survive an hour here, but I would not imagine an entire night here.
Video: Walkthrough Video

YouTube Preview Image

Timeline:
Told off by a fat chick.
The moment I walked into the dance area, my eyes perve on all the girls, just a quick perve. I walk by a fat chick and she looks at me and says:
Woman: You know, blah blah blah. (the rest of her words were indecipherable over the loud noise)
James: What?
Woman: Blah blah blah (I still can’t hear her, stern look on her face)
James: OK
It was obvious he was trying to insult me off, but what was she exactly trying to say?… Was it “don’t perve on my friend”? … Was it “no asians in here”? … Maybe it was “sleep with me and i can smile again”? I will never know.

Taking over the dancefloor
We are happily in our own cramped space, just dancing, and mingling. Then, 3 or 4 people suddenly leave the dance area. For a good 10 seconds, nobody filled up the area, so I went up and waltzed right in to the otherside of the empty space. Between M and I is a good 2 metres of dance room in a narrow path. So we danced our socks off!! Quite soon a circle forms and everyone is cheering us on again, just like at the Harp. Girls imitate us, guys stare at us.

No cameras allowed – this place is ridiculous
This was the highlight of being at Ivory. I was taking photos of friends and other people we met on the dancefloor. M takes a photo of me. The security guy comes up and tells M that use of the camera was not allowed. So he gave it to me. I used the camera again, and the security guard went up and told me if I used the camera one more time, I would be kicked out. Seriously, what the fuck??? Why can’t I use a camera in here?!

There is only one other club I have ever been to that didn’t even allow cameras past security inside, and that was The Capitol in New Delhi, India. When I was there it was regarded probably the most elite and difficult nightclub to get into in India – Fair enough I played by their rules, BUT TONIGHT WE ARE IN BLOODY WOLLONGONG, NOT THE MOST ELITE NIGHTCLUB IN INDIA!

What are they so scared of? Did the 50 year old patrons complain that the flash photography affects their vision? This is not a nursing home. Does the flash expedite the degradation of the walls around me? This ain’t The Louvre. Am I infringing copyright? This is not a cinema! IT’S A NIGHTCLUB WITH LOUD MUSIC AND PEOPLE DANCING AND DRINKING!!! Why oh why?? I really really wonder sometimes.

Drunken Cronulla Man keeps us for a few more minutes
Drunken Man from Cronulla comes up and tells us how good we were before at dancing. He is as red as a tomato with a beer in his hand. Then orders us to dance! Fine, we accept the order and dance for a bit, he is a top bloke, but we are still upset at the stupid management camera rule, and we leave Drunken Cronulla Man alone. He was sad when we left.

Arrivederci
Very unhappy that I am unable to take happy snaps and the lack of young people to talk to, we leave The Ivory anyway for our next venue, The Glasshouse, across the road. (They allowed photography)

Recommendation

Ivory Bar: 4/10. No camera policy turns me off real bad. Crowd is somewhat hostile at times too. Music is good though. Crowd too old for me, even though I’m 25. However this is a good place for just cocktails.

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2 Responses to Saturdays @ Ivory Bar, Wollongong NSW: 17th April 2010

  1. […] have just left The Ivory, I am fuming and swearing to god about their bullshit no camera policy. Across the road is The […]

  2. […] on our way to Hostage X or Illawara Hotel for the final club of the night, after visiting The Harp, Ivory and Glasshouse. It’s already 2am and locals have told us Hostage X was dead, and that […]

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