After leaving Verandah Bar, organisers of Vanity have re-opened at The Watershed Hotel. Tonight is the second week of opening – It’s bloody pissing down cats and dogs and we were all pretty drenched with rain..  so let’s get inside asap please – here we go!

Floor at 12:20AM

Vanity @ The Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour, Sydney 
Assessment Time: Just before 11:00PM – 2:55AM
Opening Hours: The venue is open all day for the general public but the Vanity entry cash register is in place by approximately 9:30-10:00PM. Closing time would be ap
Lockout: Unknown but we saw people re-entering at 2:00AM
Address: 10 Darling Drive, Darling harbour, Sydney. OK Where the hell is that? It’s NOT ON THE SAME SIDE AS Pontoon or Home Bar! It’s opposite! Find it at Harbourside Shopping Centre. We had an epic discussion (note: argument) about which side the bar was on before asking google maps. My team won 🙂 When you get to the shopping centre its not hard to find, just look for the place around the middle of the centre with the loud music coming out. Entrance is outside by the water. 
Parking: Special mention goes to parking. It’s a bitch to park in Darling Harbour, but if you park at the Harbourside Shopping Centre carpark and validate your ticket at the cloak room inside the venue, then you only have to pay $10. Not bad if you hate walking.
Venue Website: http://www.thewatershedhotel.com.au
Event Website: https://www.facebook.com/vanitysyd
Promoters: Urban Agent, ESO Events
Occurrence: Every Friday since September 2012
Outside Line: No line as we entered (10:55PM), but when we got to the counter, about 10 people suddenly were lining up behind us.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Very relaxed policy here. A mix of casual, and smart casual were dressed tonight. So guys can wear normal T-shirts and even hats and any form of shoe. Girls are allowed to wear leopard prints too.

2AM crowd status.

Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Normal Entry. $15 on guestlist (before 11:30/12???). Birthday Packages available where birthday person gets free entry. 
Guestlist: Ask your preferred promoter, otherwise either of the following emails: vanity@esoevents.com.au or vanity@ua.com.au

Inside: I always envisioned that the upstairs (smaller) skybar would be used as a second dancefloor / chill out area in tandem with downstairs as the main room, if this place were ever to be a club, but promoters have decided to stick with just downstairs which still works out. Walk into the back of the dancefloor area, where the DJ is on your far right with a corner podium for 4-5 people. The dancefloor area is squareish to hold about 120 people. Bar is in front of you on the far wall stretching about half the venue length. To your left are lounges on an elevated area for birthdays (a small table per reservation), with another taped off area as well to hold 4 slightly larger reserved areas. A very cramped smoking area is right by the entrance to the right of the dancefloor.
Cloak Room: $5 for all items. Standard. $2 for a re-check fee. Ugh. Located in the far left corner of the venue behind all the reserved areas.
Bar Prices / Line: A shot of tequila was $12 without lemon. Ouch. Though, there are drink specials before 12AM, look up the facebook page for the latest specials. Tonight it was $5 Vodka shots all night. The time to wait during peak hours would be 2-3 orders in front of you.
Bathroom Facilities: Seemed clean thoughout
Eviction Count: Saw a woman evicted. More on this later. No fights or anything. RSA officer to ensure the peace. Quite a friendly crowd.
Music Style: 11PM-Midnight – Old school rnb / hip hop with modern hip hop, 12 onwards it was a mix of commercial RnB, minimal top 40, hip hop, rap. I dont recall any house songs being played. It was a very ‘urban’ mix that still got the crowd going. Around 2:00AM onwards there were some songs that nobody knew, which killed the mood. Also the entire night, THEY DID NOT PLAY GANGNAM STYLE – wow!!! I mean, they even played it when I was at Ivy last week, and tonight I did hear some repeated songs (albeit 3 hours apart) so there was definitely some room to chuck it in. Maybe the DJ was over it. 
Crowd: Early in the night it was a fifty-fifty mix of Asians and Non-Caucasians. I can only presume that the non-Asians were drinking at The Watershed earlier in the night, and hung around in the bar for the Vanity event – these guys were of mixed ages. The Asians were mostly local Aussies. The average age here would be low to mid 20’s. That said, the only type of people lining up to go inside the venue were pretty much only Asians, with the mix slowly becoming more and more Asian based.
Ratio: Two guys to one girl would be a fair estimate.
Entertainment: We have a short performance from Don Valix and Natz Blazin to promote their new single ‘Girl’.

Don Valix and Natz Blazin

Atmosphere: When we got in at 11PM it was a moderately busy place. It wasn’t packed but not dead, and you could just get your own spot with enough freedom to spin around etc. The people kept streaming in and by Midnight though the dancefloor was pretty packed and there were a few times I had to go outside for a breather. Sadly the outside area out front is also the smoking area lol. The room for dancing is dark and encourages closer circles. It’s also tiled on the floor, rather than wooden panelled, making it more prone to slipping, no doubt made worse by people coming in covered with rainwater. I did spot a friend slip on her back. Hilarious. Also the amount of people in here with minimal ventilation made it heat up quite quickly. Regular breaks were taken outside, or you would try to stand near the big fan at the front to keep cool. Anywhere else and you will definitely work up some sort of sweat. The outside breeze from Cockle Bay only cools down the back area of the dancefloor but it is a welcome addition. The breeze unfortunately also brought in cigarette smoke, and I ended up having my entire body and attire having a strong smell of cigarette arriving home. After about 2AM it started to die out. 
Video: Mini Tour and Music Timelapse

YouTube Preview Image

Timeline
Awkward circle
Hey! so a group of us girls and guys just got in and shuffled to the front to dance. For some strange reason we integrated with a circle of 3 other girls, but they were separated. It was freaking weird as nobody went into the middle to dance and eventually the three girls went away. Awkward moment over.

A special eviction
Went outside to see a woman being kicked out of the club. Definitely drunk and extremely uncooperative. She didn’t want to leave and wanted to party on! Haha. Security guy then tried to hustle her out, but she refuesd to move! So this guy ended up grabbing her to kick her out but she was a bit big to lift up. She then sat down on the stairs and security had to drag her down the stairs and drag her out onto the concourse. LOL. She was really being bitter and somehow convinced security to GIVE HER TEN DOLLARS so that she would leave without fuss, and it worked haha.

So now she wasn’t resisting, but she wasn’t willing to move her legs – It was quite a funny sight, seeing this grown woman being pulled by the hand, with her legs and bum dragging along the ground. She looked like a 12 year old fan being pulled away from a One Direction concert, silently sulking with the saddest face imaginable. Everyone who was watching was quite entertained at her silent protest .

More outside fun
Saw someone throw up in the smoking area. Gross.

Kidnap and Rescue
Dancing with friends and suddenly two guys come in and literally grab two of our girls and take them away for grinding. Like seriously we were just dancing and the girls were pulled right out in front of us. What the hell! That’s fucking a messed up way to try to get a girl. We could be crazy gangster guys with short tempers and sharp knives for all they know (security checks were very lax here – it was just an ID check). This act of kidnap definitely got my creep radar on, so I took one of the girls back (my friend) by doing what they did, just grabbed her arm, and I left the other to be sandwiched, as I really didn’t know her at all. She ended up hooking up with that guy. Thats what happens in clubs boys and girls.

Arrivederci
Place was dying and music wasn’t keeping me up anymore – we left 2:55AM

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
Overall I actually liked this place. Despite the rain tonight it still had a packed turn out. I’m not sure what the target audience was but the music can perhaps be more upbeat at the later hours. Otherwise friendly crowd, anyone is basically welcome casually or well dressed, though surprised at the price of drinks (go for the specials), but that’s Darling Harbour. If another fan or two can be shoved in the corners that would be good as well. Otherwise, I would be happy to recommend this place if you are up for dance. As always I do suggest a guestlist be sent so you can at least pay $15 rather than $25.

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One Response to Vanity @ The Watershed Hotel: Friday 28th Sep 2012

  1. James says:

    This event is no longer running

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