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

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.