After multiple times coming here after 3AM, it was time to give this place a fair go. Guestlist sorted out, so here we go!

(All images / video removed by request of the promoter Phat Entertainment)

Zaia @ Space Nightclub
Assessment Time: 10:30PM – 04:00AM 
Opening Hours: No idea on when doors actually open. Possibly 09:45PM – 04:00AM 
Lockout: None 
Address: Level 3, 127 Liverpool St, Sydney 
Venue Website: http://www.spacevenue.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.phatentertainment.com.au
Occurence: Every Friday. 
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual allowed. Hats allowed. My sneakers were allowed in. Basically anything goes here. Guys were a mix of casual and collared shirts/dress shoes. Girls were mostly in dresses. 
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: (On guestlist) – Free before 10PM, $20 between 10PM – 11:15PM, $25 afterwards. If you ain’t on the guestlist, it’s a $25 flat charge. There is no separate guestlist line. 
Guestlist / Birthday Package: Sent mine through musesydney@yahoo.com.au, the 3rd party promoters for Zaia. Reserved area was sorted out for M’s birthday, but no birthday free passes were given to us as promised, despite protests at the register. Package included bottle of champagne, which was given in the form of drink passes. However no cloak room pass was given, nor VIP table service. Admittedly there were 20-30 birthdays tonight, and I did not specifically ask for free entry, cloak room pass or VIP table service, but I did ask for the birthday party package which, I was told, would include these things. A birthday boy or girl DOES NOT have to go through the motions to ask for these birthday things. 
Inside: Please note Space has been renovated since early 2010. Walk up the stairs to the Shark Hotel level, where red carpet and cash register awaits your money. No longer are the elevators used to enter the venue. Walk up another flight of stairs to enter Space Nightclub into the Trance room. The wooden dancefloor has been largened to accommodate more people. A stereoscopic light has been installed which dishes out some funky light patterns. Dancefloor holds about 40 people capacity. Bar servicing this room on the right, and an internal smoking room at the rear to hold about 20 people, like you see at some airports. Enter the bigger room via either of the two doors to be presented with a large dancefloor for about 300-400 people. Tonight, the cage podiums have been rid of! Instead, a catwalk like setup has been created, right into the middle front of the dancefloor, for the bikini contest later on. Two single podiums reside next to each of the columns holding the ceiling up.
Cloak Room: $10 Large Items, $5 small items. $3 Recheck. Ridiculous pricing as usual from this promoter. 
Bar Prices: $8.50 for a Vodka Cranberry. There are two bars tonight, and the shorter lines were always on the Trance Room side. People at the RnB side waited about 20 minutes for a drink, while in the Trance Room I waited about 5-10 minutes. 
Music Style: Primarily RnB in the large room, with some hip hop later in the night and some house mashups thrown in the mix as well. Repeats of songs were experienced – Mixing was done well though
Crowd: Primarily local Asians. A handful of white people, but I would say no more than 10 or 20 in total. 
Entertainment: Bikini Party – Competition for a $5000 first prize. More details later. Also podiums to which only girls were allowed to dance on in the earlier part of the night.
Atmosphere: RnB: It wasn’t too busy at 11, but at around 11:30 it pretty much picked up and peaked until around 2AM – 2:30AM when the bikini contest concluded. Dancefloor was pretty busy throughout – you had room to dance around, and only about half the time you had to move around to let other people through. In the Trance Room, the trance music really only came on at around 11:30PM, and you always had enough room to bounce around and spin and do stuff, but it always managed to stay busy enough to not look too dead. In general the crowd vibe was friendly. The rest of the non dancers just stood around the edges of the dancefloor or lounges. 
Trance: Dark throughout the night, smoke machines, and flashy nights with loud noise. People are more reserved here as we are all about dancing. Pretty warm and stuffy in here as well as the night wore on.

Video: Walk-through – Trance room , RnB room, smoking room, back into the trance room.
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Video: Trance Room 360 
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Video: RnB Room 720 
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Timeline
Surrounded by dudes

Hooray! We have a reserved area. Just the two of us, as friends decided to fall sick tonight, and some bailed out last minute because they didn’t want to pay entry, which was a shame. But look – ALREADY TWO RANDOM DUDES ARE SITTING ON THE COUCH. WDF??? Ok, so we just sit down on the other chairs, and we are facing them. They are facing us. No words are spoken, as we are seated right next to the DJ area, and hence the loud speakers. We turn around and MORE DUDES have seated themselves around us. We are the centre of Mecca, and our pilgrim followers are in the form of dudes dress in hip hop / b-boy gear. I wasn’t quite feeling very comfortable here. All the guys were also sitting entirely in “Sophie’s Birthday” area – obviously there was nobody there who looked like a Sophie.

Stuff is manhandled
I despise the cloak room prices here. The line was pretty long anyway – 20 people deep. So I left it on the couch where the reserved area was. M and I dance for a bit, and come back to find someone has moved my bag and jacket to the other side of the couch. FUCKING RANDOMS MANHANDLING MY BAG. I felt so violated. I cannot express how angry I was. Later in the night some dude is sitting on my jacket. Fucking asshole. Just don’t sit there. It’s not your reserved area. Took my stuff and placed it in a dark corner. But James, just put it in the cloak room! All you do is whinge, you say. No, I am a stubburn tight ass.

Really hot in the Trance room
There are less people in here, yet somehow the place became so much more hotter. Was it poor ventilation? Was it that the dancers sweated much more in here? Was it the carpeted area? Was it Shark Hotel downstairs? It was always cooler in the RnB room, but even that at times got a bit heated, especialy in the middle of the dancefloor squished with other people.

The bikini contest
So tonight if you wore a bikini and entered the contest tonight, you could win $5000. Ridicously so much money. All you do is walk around, get stickers from people who liked you. Stickers are given to you when you buy a drink at the bar. Well, here are some videos of some real models in bikinis:
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Here are the contestants:
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Pretty much in the end the top 3 or 4 girls had an equal amount of stickers, and the MC just chose whoever he thought deserved it. 5000 dollars. Freaking hell that’s a shitload of money for 90 minutes of walking around and getting stickers.

Can’t hide from the noise
It’s loud in here. Firstly, our reserved area was next to the huge speakers installed in the RnB room. Secondly, it was loud throughout the venue. Even in the back it was pretty loud. It wasn’t deafening, but there just wasn’t any quiet area to have a conversation. Well, there was the smoking room and Shark Hotel downstairs but do you really want to leave your other friends to go downstairs, or spend your time talking in a smoking room and leave all smelly?

Started to die at around 2:30AM
It was funny, after the bikini contest finished, half the club left. Promoters were smart in delaying the announcement of the winners as late as possible.

Arrivederci

Spent most of the last hour in the Trance Room until close. Nobody really was dancing in the RnB room, and I felt more free here.

Recommendation
I personally didn’t like it. It was just these little things I mentioned above that probably contributed to setting my not so good mood for the night.

Zaia @ Space Nightclub Sydney – 4.5/10

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7 Responses to Zaia @ Space Nightclub Sydney: Friday 3rd September 2010

  1. dr_stoopid says:

    I heard the girl behind me complaining after the winner of the bikini competition was announced –
    “That fucking bitch freaking cheated!”

    Priceless.

  2. Jax says:

    [Edit 16th September 2010] I can no longer recommend this event.

    lol

  3. Mr Noodle says:

    Sharkies has always been shit but that might i went it has now become worse… would prefer other venues then this place.

  4. Ms Mango says:

    Yup,totally agree… Place has become worse. Wouldn’t waste my Friday night here again!

  5. Miss-e says:

    “The views expressed below are those of the author and NOT of Phat Entertainment”

    No sh*t Sherlock!?!

  6. abz says:

    hey! i was there
    it was alright hahas
    damn, wish i could c the videos though

  7. James says:

    This event is no longer running

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