FIrst impressions of the bowl

Stereosonic Festival Sydney @ Olympic Park Showgrounds
Assessment Time: 3:45PM – 11:00PM
Opening Hours: 12:00PM- 11:00PM
Lockout: None
Passouts: No pass-outs are allowed
Address: Olympic Park Showgrounds, Homebush Bay, Sydney.
Venue Website: www.sydneyolympicpark.com.au
Promoter Website: www.stereosonic.com.au
Occurrence: Once a year since 2007, held early December / Late November, held in different capital cities.
Outside Line: Transport via train was no hassle, while lining up to get inside the stadium was pretty fast as well – I walked all the way to the right of the multiple gated entry where there was no lines.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty much you can wear anything that is in good taste, but you can’t bring in alcohol, weapons, drugs etc. I was wearing a toothpaste costume.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $150 at the gate, while early bird ticket prices ranged from $110 to $135. The Sydney festival sold out a few weeks beforehand. A friend bought an e-ticket via a “promoter” and subsequently had his ticket invalidated at the gates – he was basically, conned and ripped off. he had to pay $150 at the gate for a brand new ticket. What luck. Always be careful when buying tickets not from Ticketek or Moshtix.
Inside: Think of the Easter show, and replace everything with music. Here is a map of the layout. In the stadium and some of the other smaller grassed stages, there are floorboards placed, so that you don’t stomp on the grass and get all muddy feet, in the event that it rained.
Cloak Room: There was one available but I didn’t use it today. Last year it was $3 per item.
Bar Prices / Line: I bought stuff but don’t remember prices – a can of Smirnoff red would be at least $10. These are typical for festivals.
Bathroom Facilities: At the stadium there were long lines for women, and not so long lines for the men. Outside there were plenty of port a loos for everyone (so as far as I am aware)
DJs / Artists: Armin van Buuren, Carl Cox, LMFAO, Empire of the Sun, Afrojack, The Bloody Beetroots, Avicii, Benny Benassi, Ferry Corsten, Dirty South, Kaskade, Dash Berlin, and more.
Music Style: Artists primarily reflected on electronic dance / dance culture music.
Crowd: People of all ages are here from all backgrounds to see their favourite act or to enjoy the show.

Atmosphere: I was at the stadium most of the time and it was pretty much packed the whole time I was there. On arrival there at around 5pm the moshpit was full, and no longer people were allowed inside. The floor of the stadium was also full and people were only being allowed to trickle in as people left. I had friends who came here earlier at 2PM and were able to just get places within the moshpit area. The crowd steadily built up through Afrojack and Benny Benassi sets so that we could watch LMFAO. The LMFAO set was arguably the peak of the numbers in the stadium, as well as my personal favourite set – simply because people were singing along and the guys were really into it. Highlights include actually popping champagne (“Champagne Showers”) onto the crowd, and the cameraman zooming into all the crotches during “Sexy and I know it” – Total gross out but hilarious at the same time. It was pretty bad that they came late 30 minutes late on stage, at the expense of shorter sets from AvB and The Bloody Beetroots. We stood around for 30 minutes just thinking.. when *are* they going to come on? Thank god that they weren’t cancelled. After the LMFAO set, quite a few people left the stadium (probably to Dash Berlin, whose set I heard was bloody amazing) – the rest of the people here were sticking around for The last two acts, or just had no idea who they were, and wanted to experience. I missed the entire Bloody Beetroots set, but got to experience the Armin van Buuren set. It was pretty good, but it would have been better if I was in the moshpit.
Video: Music Sample / Timeline

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
Phone reception is simply atrocious
Pretty much from about 3PM onwards, I was unable to make ANY calls to ANY of my friends, just due to the amount of people here today. It totally sucked ass as I couldn’t meet up with my friends. So I just hung out with the friends I had already met earlier today. It was worse than new years eve, as new years eve call dropouts only last three to four hours – I was here for a good 5 or 6 hours! IT SUCKED HAIRY BALLSACKS.

Sydney is the biggest city, and so is this festival
Later in the evening, Stereosonic was declared Australia’s largest event in terms of attendance. I would say also probably the best overall line up in years for the general populace as well. I even had friends come out of festival “retirement” to come out for today. Never say never. You would be seriously missing out if you didn’t come out to see this line up. Like seriously. For the days upcoming beforehand, it was raining heaps, and lots of people sold their tickets, to the astonishment that today was a bright sunny day. A shame for them.

Packed to the rafters
All the main acts were at the main stadium, which was situated a few hundred metres away from the rest of the action. As mentioned earlier, this resulted in a lockout of the mosh pit area, the floor, and even a lockout of the stadium itself. I unfortunately got locked out of the stadium alongside some other folk. It was about a 30 minute wait of protesting and watching other people climb over the fence then we were finally allowed to be let in, under police supervision.

Video: The shitty side of Stereosonic (and other festivals): Lining up for ANYTHING. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

On someone's shoulders

Now I’m sitting raised on this dude’s shoulders, on the phone, looking out back at the crowd – the crowd are are all staring, cheering at me or however people react to seeing a toothpaste bottle arising into the air. My friend spots me (I couldn’t spot her) and finds me a few minutes later. That was awesome.

Condoms and other bad things
Here is a photo of one of the many condom balloons thrown around the place. Somewhere behind I could smell someone puffing on some sticky icky. A friend also got asked if he had pills. All in a typical day in a festival. LOL

Condom Balloon!

Life being a bottle of toothpaste
While a friend was being asked for drugs, people only were asking me if I had toothpaste. Then this was followed by people squeezing whatever part of my costume in order to excrete the wonderful, white, magic substance that is known as toothpaste. And the most common question I got was “where was the toothbrush?” – In my pants of course.

I didn’t get really hot until about after 3 hours, when I started to sweat profusely. It was quite disgusting, and I was glad that sunset finally arrived to cool me down.

Mixing it up with the crowd

Sticky, icky floor
Half of the time people are kicking cans away from themselves, to other people. So many people have spilled drinks in this heat, that the floor has become quite sticky. So sticky that beer cans are sticking to the bottom of the soles of my shoes. Yes, fucking BEER CANS ARE STUCK ON MY SHOE as I dance. It’s ridiculous.

Spotted by a fan?
Out of the thousands of people who came here today, surely one of them read this website. Well, someone did, and that someone found me. Haha! I was pretty amazed that I was spotted, but now that I think about it, I *was* in a Giant Toothpsate Costume

Arrivederci
Finished at 11PM. Transport out involved a long walk around the station, but we got on the first train right away, no waiting around. I was pretty exhausted and ready to go home. However, I got a call from a friend in the city….

Final Thoughts & Recommendation
A great lineup and as I said before one of the best I’ve seen that a festival pull. No idea how these guys will top it for next year, but I’m a shoe in for next year. Definitely a festival to go to.

Though I wish prices were cheaper as well as less of a requirement for people to have to be locked out of stadiums or be held up waiting for acts. I spent at least an hour of my time doing these things, when I could have listened to other acts.

Crowd at 1:30AM

Prelude – a massive conflict
A Korean event, named “Steam Partie” is on tonight! Whether the word “partie” was spelt like that on purpose, I do not know, but I had to get my dancing feet to this place. Marty was keen to try it out too.

However we realised it was being held at the same place as the “Babyface” event promoted by Infinity Productionz on Fridays. Both were promoting the hell out of their events, so either of these companies was going to have to pack up and leave, OR they could decide to run the event together and share profits… This was going to be interesting.  Obviously based on the review title , “Steam Partie” had won – promoters from Infinity Productionz were nowhere to be seen.

I wonder how communication between the promoters at Infinity or between Infinity and the venue owners at Tao Ultra Lounge broke down so much as to result in such a disaster for the Infinity crew?? Can you imagine spending so much on promoting for an event, rocking up on the night and realising you’re not meant to be here? It’s sad, but hope they take this lesson learnt with measure to prevent something like this happening again.

So back to it –  let’s check out the new event, here we go!

Steam Partie @ Tao Ultra Lounge
Assessment Time: 12:05AM – 2:05AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (Typical club opening times for this venue would be 10:30PM- 4:00AM)
Venue Address and Website: The promoters can’t decide on a venue. The first event was held at V Bar. Tonight is being held at Tao Lounge, while the June incarnation is being held at Civic Hotel Underground Level. 
Venue Website: http://www.mrbshotel.com.au
Promoter Website: The guys at S-Team only have a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/steam2010
Occurrence: Occurs every month or two months. It has started since late 2010. 
Outside Line: Not much of a line outside at all.
Dress Code / Door Policy: It appears that there was no dress code for tonight. People are about 50/50 dressed smart casual or just casual with a t-shirt and jeans.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I think it was $20. It included a voucher for a free drink before Midnight.
Guestlist: We didn’t submit one, but contact details should be on the Facebook page.
Inside: Walk downstairs underneath Mr B’s hotel to enter Tao Ultra Lounge. Situated beneath Mr B’s Hotel, Tao Ultra Lounge is setup as one room segregated by sofas and lounges,and fold away columnar wall-like arch things. As you walk downstairs into the club, you are on the right end of the club, where it is a standing and drinking area. Tonight the entry area has the huge banner for a professional photo with the promotional girls. The middle section is mostly the dancefloor area to hold 50-80 people . The latter third is again, standing room and lounge area, while the bar stretches along the farther two-thirds of the room.
Cloak Room: Didn’t utilise the cloak room tonight
Bar Prices / Line: You could usually get service right away.
DJs: DJ Snoop
Music Style: Primarily Trance and House. Considering the Korean audience I was expecting RNB but it never really surfaced, except in tiny sampling form. It was a pretty wierd type of Trance music that i really couldn’t get into. I think some of the other girls here looked pretty bewildered to why such music was being played here tonight. Was hoping later in the night more danceable or recognizable music would be played, but it was pretty much the same thumping beats throughout the night. I definitely did not picture this kind of music being played at a Korean oriented clubbing night. To be fair though, the style of Music to be played was not advertised on their banners and flyers. 
Crowd & Ratio: Mostly if not, all Korean . Definitely all Asian tonight. The ratio was quite even at one point but for most of the night there were heaps of guys. I would say 70:30 Men to women.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment for tonight.
Atmosphere: The whole place is pretty dark, with just the laser lights and minimal lighting going. Population wise it was pretty dead in the beginning, but only started to pick up at 12:30, with the dancefloor being filled but the other areas were pretty dead. Smoke machines helped give the illusion of having the place not being so dead. 
Video: Music Montage

Click here to view the embedded video.

I went back upstairs to get another friend in. They offered her a free drink card when she paid, but I told them that the card was expired, and that they didn’t have to give them out anymore tonight. The guy at the register insisted that we take the card!! I explained again that it was way past midnight and these vouchers were useless, but he insisted it was still valid, despite on the card itself, it said it expired at midnight. You can only wonder if someone is even listening to you at all .

Arrivederci
Friends want to leave so off we went. The place was beginning to die.

Recommendation
I wouldn’t go to this. I’m not a fan of the particular Trance music playing, and the crowd didn’t seem too much into it either. It seemed that the crowd only stuck around as they wanted to make the most of their entry fee. It was probably better to go to another place and spend another few bucks on their cover charge.

Steam Partie @ Tao Ultra Lounge – 2/10

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline
I had a quick dance, and even I was too tired to do much. We left quite soon after.

Thoughts
I wouldn’t mind seeing what it was like at capacity. I would imagine it to be pretty good if you are into hardstyle / contemporary trance.

Stereosonic Festival Sydney 2010 @ Sydney Showgrounds: Saturday 27th November
Assessment Time: 02:00PM – 11:00PM
Opening Hours: 12:00PM – 11:00PM
Lockout: Entry at anytime.
Passouts: No passouts at all.
Address: Sydney Showgrounds, Olympic Park. Basically walk out of Olympic Park station, walk down to the road and turn right.
Venue Website: http://www.sydneyshowground.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.stereosonic.com.au
Occurrence: Once a year.
Outside Line: It probably took longer to queue in the train station to get out rather than queuing to get scanned to get in – aka there was plenty of people to scan you in. There was only one person in front of me when I was going in.
Dress Code / Door Policy: There is no dresscode, you can pretty much wear anything. Most people wore causal gear and every person here also wears sunnies. It’s a necessity. Taking your shirt off is frowned upon especially in the moshpit areas. Police were ordered to refuse entry to anybody not wearing a shirt upon entry. It didn’t matter as heaps of guys were walking around inside with their shirts off, albeit they almost all had shirts tucked away somewhere just in case they were asked to put them back on. In terms of costumes – there were the Mario brothers, a dude in a a full body red spandex suit thing, a dude walking around with a twister board around his neck, and Lil Jon. It was either me or there wasn’t much creativity in terms of dressing up. I was forced to take my outfit off before entering the venue. See more for details below.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $120 1st release, $125/130 second, $135 3rd and final release.
Inside: Basically if you have been to the Easter show here at Homebush, its all the areas converted to DJ areas. There were 7 stages including the main Stereosonic stadium itself. 2 of the rooms were enclosed, and the other 5 were in open plan areas. Needless to say all had large capacities. Thank god the weather held up today. There was surprisingly no silent disco area, despite some other cities having it. Complete setup at the website PDF map
Cloak Room: $3. This is probably the only fairly priced thing here today

Bar Prices / Line: Bar lines went very quickly if you went to the right ones. Some bars had massive long lines eg the ones outside Creamm stage, but other ones barely had anybody lining up, and you could just walk straight to the bar eg the bar outside Carl Cox stage near the DJ Hero playing area. Pricing was $9 for a Middie of Smirnoff. A total blatant rip off!!! Previous festivals had them at $10.50 for full strength Smirnoff black and we are hit with Middies. Stupid angry alcoholics who ruin it for everyone. Even so, its still a rort and a half – I didn’t feel the effects at all from the drinks. 
DJs: Tiesto, Calvin harris, Sebastian Ingrosslo, Benny Benassi, Wiley, Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano, Andy Murphy, Carl Cox, TV Rock and more. Complete line up found on the PDF map .. with about 50 acts listed
Music Style: Mostly Soft/Uplifting Trance, Dance, Electronic, various different House styles of music here. 
Crowd & Ratio: Mostly Anglo-Saxon crowd. Pretty much an even ratio here all around. 
Entertainment: Besides the main stages, there was a DJ Hero play area, a riding bull, human ten pin bowling (you are strapped inside a huge inflatable bowling ball) a passion pop photography area, food stalls, water cool down areas. There were also some amusement rides. 
Atmosphere: Pretty good/vibrant everywhere. Early on before 6PM most stages were at about half capacity or less. Browntown, OneLove and Sneakerpeeps stages experienced it the worst, where no more than 30 or 40 people would be dancing there at the same time. Of course, these were the smallest stages. I’m not into the Carl Cox style of funky house, but the people there who were into that really enjoyed themselves, and there were plenty of them. Main arena was atrociously packed near the mosh pit, and I never got a chance to go inside (they actually have a sealed off moshpit area here, quite generous in size). Outrage was openly busy throughout the day thanks to its location right next to the entry gate. Also Cream(field) stage was also full of patrons throughout the day and night, you couldn’t go wrong here. Tiesto atmosphere fizzled after a stage power blackout near the beginning of the set. Very unfortunate.

Video: Ten pin bowling

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stereosonic main stage during Calvin Harris set – just before Tiesto

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Riding the bull for 21 seconds (fail):

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Timeline

What did you wear James?
I hear you ask, my dearest reader. CAN I SAY I CREATED A REALLY AWESOME BUBBLE WRAP SUIT!?? Hell yes. I was inspired by this guy who walked into a bar just wrapped in bubble suit a few weeks ago, but he really didn’t make an effort. He just wrapped bubble wrap all around his limbs and torso and looked like a giant ROLL of bubble werap, which was fair enough. So I set to make my own. Imagine 3/4 length shorts, a blazer constructed from individual pieces of bubble wrap complete with hood and velcro buttons. Imagine a 4 piece overlaying skirt to flow over my delicious legs. Imagine your shoes entirely wrapped in bubble wrap. THIS WAS MY SUIT.

wearing the bubble suit after the festival

Did I also mention that this amazing suit was rejected by security?

Huh? A costume rejected at the gates… .At a festival?

Yes.

Rejection I: Security Talk
“Are you serious? What are you meant to be – bubble boy?”  - The first words out of his mouth.
How do you answer that question – what am I supposed to say? “No, I’m superman/Ironman but I couldn’t afford spandex/Iron so I got bubble wrap”. Of course I said yes, I was bubble boy.
Fun Nazi Security: “NO. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED INSIDE WEARING THAT. TAKE IT OFF AND GET CHANGED.”
James: “What do you mean? it’s a festival. You can wear whatever you want”… (Security guard is now being a real asshole)
Fun Nazi Security: “I don’t like people dressing up because I was raised in a world where costumes were only for the circus freaks, and because i was such a freak I wanted to join the circus, but I was rejected and now I am taking out my anger on other random people.”. Well, he didn’t say that but he might as well have – but he repeated to me that I wasn’t allowed in.

Rejection II: Police talk
Police officers: “That’s a pretty cool outfit. why are you taking it off?”
James: “Blah blah… fun nazi security is mean blah blah blah”
Police officers: “That sucks. There were three guys painted in blue body point. They were sent home as well”
James: “Oh Rly?”
Police officers: “They were coming in as smurfs”

How can you deny smurfs entry into a festival????? SO COLD

Rejection III: Security Talk II
I’ve walked back to the same security guy.
Fun Nazi Security: (Shaking his head in disapproval at me) “Seriously, bubble boy? what were you thinking??”
James: “I dont know” 
Fun Nazi Security: “Unbelievable. Get in.”

It’s one thing to politely tell someone they aren’t allowed in, but to actually question and look down upon me based on my outfit is bloody outrageous. You f*cking ASSHOLE!! Really fucking frustrated at his attitude.

Post mortem I was told the next day that the Smurfs got in later. This suggests that it was more of a security guard being a fucking asshole issue rather than a Stereosonic being a party pooper and not telling anyone issue.

Rock, Scissors, Paper
I’m wearing an attractive PINK LEI around my neck and some boys I walk by want a piece of it! Oh really do they. They wanted it. I refused. Why should I give it to them? They challenged me to a ROCK SCISSCORS PAPER duel. The winner would get to keep the LEI.

My Pink Lei with a t-shirtless dude.

Well, being the man of honour, I had to oblige to his challenge – and so the gauntlet was thrown down.
Challenger: “Before we start, which one are you going to be?”. A strange question to ask someone. Was it a trick?
James: “I’m going to be ROCK”
Challenger: “Ok, ok!”
Rock…… Scissors…… Paper!!
James uses ROCK, as promised.
Challenger has thrown out SCISSORS.
ROCK smashes SCISSORS !
James is confused to why Challenger didn’t use paper.
James wins. James keeps the LEI. +55 HP
James earned the UNDEFEATABLE award.

So anyway, if there’s a lesson to be learned in all of this, its the most obvious one – and that lesson is that ROCK. ALWAYS. WINS. I mean really – do you think you can beat a rock? HELLOOO.. It’s a freaking rock!!!

All the asians are at the cream stage, lol
OK this isn’t really true, but all my Asian friends who I bumped into or tried to catch up all were at the Creamfields stagge at one extended point in time. It’s the music they were playing – I don’t know how to describe it – classic uplifting trance I suppose is the best way to put it. I certainly had a good 1 or 2 hours here dancing to Aly and Fila, Sied van Riel.

My starjumps moment
Also, at the Cream stage, I did starjumps on top of the overhanging walkway above the DJ stage.. and lots of people did starjumps as well below. It was awesome.

Cream stage just before I did some star jumps to the crowd below

Toiletries are upstairs too
Don’t we all hate lining up for the bathroom! So all day we avoided queues. Queue at a bar? We walked the 5 minutes to the other bar on the otherside of town with no line and got our drinks right away. Queue at the toilet? We hated the portaloos that were setup as you risk walking into a smelly one. So we went in the stadium, walked up some flights of stairs and found that the in-built stadium toilets were readily available for use. Since not many a people came up here, not only were there no lines at all here, but also they were pretty clean throughout the day. Pretty cool!

Showing the DJ love
Met up with a friend at one of the dying stages. There are less than 10 people in this room. After some stupid dancing, we realised nobody was up at the front dancing – it was decided to show the DJ some love!! Ran right up and jumped around for a good 10 seconds until the DJ realised he had some fans. An acknowledgement and that was it. It was really loud as well, I had the earplugs on but my whole body was shaking here, and I ended up getting a serious headache for the next half hour after we left the area. It was that bad – I don’t think I’ve ever had a headache from dancing too close to the front before – or its just been a really long time since I remember.
Where’s Wally?
I found him.

Tiesto fail
Tiesto – what the majority of people came here for, and it was my first time to see him. I didn’t know what to expect – I got familiar with his classic tracks and songs from his latest album, but only a lot of trance was being played instead of the classic tracks. It left some parts of the set a bit .. i dunno.. stale. I’m sure it was going off near the front. Anyway maybe about 30 minutes into the 2 hour set, the power cuts off!!! Holy crap. Silence for a minute and then the music is back up, but the video clips that were playing behind Tiesto were replaced with default clips that were being played in previous acts – BORING! Also for a good total of 30 minutes at least, tiesto stepped offstage to let the music play. He was probably upset that Stereosonic’s Audio Video system monumentally screwed up. That, or he was playing from a CD.

Arrivederci
Left at closing of Tiesto – some of my friends had already left only an hour into set – they were disappointed in Tiesto. 

Recommendation
A strong lineup, very good weather make it a good day out. Of course, only for house/trance lovers of music. Very disappointed in the Tiesto set – I had really high hopes for it. Also some of the smaller stages could have done with more people.

Also, the security guard who gave me attitude for wearing my bubble outfit and then not letting me in was such an asshole. Major points lost. Whenever someone asks me about Stereosonic you are the first thing that comes to my mind. Also stereosonic need to tell security what the dress code is. Total fail.

Stereosonic @ Sydney Showgrounds – It would have been 7.5/10 but due to the dress code incident, only 6.0/10. I really had tinge of bitterness throughout the day after that.

Gallery:

Fridays @ Stonewall Hotel, Oxford St, Sydney
Assessment Time: 01:30AM – 02:30AM
Opening Hours: 09:00PM – 04:00AM
Lockout: 02:00AM
Address: 175 Oxford St (Next to Live / Havana), Darlinghurst Sydney.
Venue Website: http://www.stonewallhotel.com
Promoter Website: Self Promoted
Occurrence: Every Friday and Saturday.
Outside Line: There was no line as we appeared.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes here. Singlets allowed, drag of course as well.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Appears to be $5 all night. When I was here a few years ago, it was free entry, but $5 is still ridiculously cheap. It’s not even the price of a drink.
Guestlist: No guestlist applicable
Inside: Stonewall is pretty much the largest gay friendly club in Sydney AFAIK. 3 Levels – Bottom level consisting of a seated table and stool area for 30-40 people. A Bar in the centre area, with a permanent stage/podium to hold 10 people or so. Further in is more standing room but it’s very limited here. Head to the middle level where it is more of a lounge area. Lounges everywhere and no much of a dance area at all here. Bar to service this level to hold about 60-100 people comfortably. Top level is the proper dancefloor area where there are smoke machines, lights, podiums along the wall and a DJ booth in the far corner. The main room would hold 50-100 people for dancing, with a smaller back room holding lounges and a bar with standing room for 30 or so patrons.
Cloak Room: $3 an item. Great.
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink tonight. However there was always a spot at the bar for you to be served.
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: Tonight I was only at the top level. Gay anthems were primarily being played, with various pop songs from Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, and the occasional house/trance song as well thrown in. An eclectic mix to say the least. Most songs were played in their entirely with little mixing done.
Crowd / Ratio: Mostly local gay men of caucasian background. There are some girls, and it would be a safe bet that most if not all the girls here were straight, just to keep away from the sleazy straight clubs.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment
Atmosphere: I don’t know if my memory served me wrong, but tonight the vibe wasn’t that good. Bottom level wasn’t too busy, middle level was completely dead, and the top level was starting to die – we easily found room on the dancefloor in front of the DJ and we didn’t have to make room for other people to pass by us. Very dark upstairs as well – it’s definitely a club atmosphere here.
Video: Walkthrough the middle and top levels – its very dark and fast so don’t expect to see much:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

She found someone
Well most of the time up here we just danced around various spots around the club. There was a girl all alone, walking around. One of my friends knew her and said hello. Then she went off to wander around. About 5 minutes later we decided go downstairs, and we saw her making out with some random dude. Yup.. two randoms meeting up and making out in a gay club. What are the chances.

Arrivederci
So buggered, we all left after only an hour. The place was dying quickly anyway. 

Recommendation
Well its a nice place to go. Seems to cater for straight and the gay crowds, and everyone seems friendly. Also there is room to keep to yourself if you wanted to, unlike some of the other bars where you would be forced to interact with others. Could do with a few more people though. Was it the cover charge? The other gay bars appeared to have free entry and were more busy..  but I don’t know. If you decide to do spend a night here, come earlier to make the most of it.

Fridays @ Stonewall Hotel – 4.5/10

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

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.

[VIDEO REMOVED  on request by Phat Entertainment ]

Video: Trance Room 360
[VIDEO REMOVED on request by Phat Entertainment]

Video: RnB Room 720
[VIDEO REMOVED on request by Phat Entertainment]

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:
[VIDEO REMOVED on request by Phat Entertainment]

Here are the contestants:
[VIDEO REMOVED on request by Phat Entertainment]

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.

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

Zaia @ Space Nightclub Sydney – 4.5/10

Hung out at Shark after going to Haymarket and Bar Century earlier for a dance.

Got into Zaia @ Space Nightclub upstairs after 3AM, where the promoters have somewhat disappeared from the entrance, so we got free entry. There were still a number of people here.

Most of the kids here lost their energy and were sitting or standing around. A handful dancing in the big rnb room and a few more in the trance room, whose dancefloor has been resized to double the old configuration. More lighting effects in the tranceroom as well. There has not been much changes to the rnb room – Except for a large cage in the middle for the attention whores. Here’s a video walkthrough:

[VIDEO REMOVED ON REQUEST BY PHAT ENTERTAINMENT]

I was still in my suit but I managed to hold up in the Trance room. I miss shuffling. Considering I just got in here, I still had heaps of energy and was going at it like mad and everyone looks at me with awe. I am sure they were hard at it earlier in the night. Apparently it is extremely packed earlier in the night, which is suffocatingly not cool.

anyway last week at Shark Hotel (no entry was written for this) I met a girl, we agreed to hang out, and I asked her out for dinner. On the night of said date, she bailed as she was “lesbian” and “didn’t date guys”. Fine. So I moved on. Well tonight, guess who I see – yes, it was said lesbian hanging out with guys! She saw me, we said hello how are you, and she walked away. Tonight I was sober – and let me tell you, while I was chatting with her, i was thinking “thank god she cancelled on me.”

We were here for an hour before it closed at 4AM.

I can imagine coming here and it being like bamboo but on a larger scale – just really packed with nowhere to go, just like a few years back when Sir3n promoted Space. So, if you love squishy places, come here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:
Found the birthday boy
Well, we quickly found the birthday boy. He seemed sad, or more likely tired, or possibly trying to recover from drinking. I couldn’t tell. Wished him a happy birthay. He didn’t seem like much of a talker. I wonder how much it cost him to rent out this floor and DJ all night?

We didn’t recognize each other the entire night
Struck up a conversation with random girl in the corner not doing much at all. She doesn’t dance. Not many do. I don’t know why, but I told her I was famous online, haha. She believed me, but I refused to mention what I did online. Chatted for maybe 15 minutes and that was it. anyway it was only after I woke up the next morning, I realised she’s one of my twitter followers! I spied her twitter photo and confirmed that it was, indeed her. Right now at the time of writing, she still doesn’t know who I am. You follow me on twitter! How can you not know who I am by now! anyway, I found it strange that, of all people to talk to, I picked one of my 92 twitter followers. However she didn’t recognize me at the time, so the recognition count still stands at 6 (The 5th recognition was at Shark Hotel on the 16th, which I did not blog about).

There are actually djs in here on the bottom level
I am pretty surprised there is DJ in here on the Friday, but I guess it was hired for the birthday tonight. Tempting to request some house or rnb, but that would have majorly pissed off some of the crowd in here, as well as the DJ. anyway, I am surprised that there was a DJ in the bottom level, and none upstairs.

Arrivederci
Well we were only here for a short time, and we left at closing time.

Recommendation
This can be a good place for a birthday. It’s dark, one end you have a DJ and the other end there lounges far enough to be able to talk.

Additional Info: 5th August 2010
The birthday boy himself has stumbled upon my blog and of course, found this particular entry – he had some things to clarify:
-  Hardstyle was only later in the night. RnB / Pop was earlier in the night. 
-  Hiring of the floor + DJ cost $1300. Cloak room would have cost even more.
- He was wasted when I met him.

Pirate and Indian

Visiting a random who we only met last week. We reached the door and I don’t really want to go in. Random begs us to come in for an hour or so because its her birthday. Well, we were already here, and we were in our costumes from the party before, so let’s make the most of this – here we go!

Impulse @ Hunter Bar
Assessment Time: 02:00AM – 03:15AM
Opening Hours: – 11:00PM  - 10:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.myspace.com/impulsefridays
Address: 50 Hunter St, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: anything goes. Hats allowed, costumes allowed.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20. Unsure on guestlist but there probably was one
Guestlist: impulse_chamber@hotmail.com
Occurence: Every Friday.
Inside: Under street level, the place is quite dark. It is just one room – low ceiling height – a bar to the right, a dancefloor at the front to hold about 100 people tightly and the DJ at the far end. Lounges are located as you walk in. 
Cloak Room: Free for umbrellas. $3 or $4 for other items
Bar: Did not drink tonight.
DJs: Main DJ was Amber savage. See this pic for the set list. Aren’t they so nice to supply one?
Music: Hard Trance, Hard Style
Crowd: Older, mostly asians. Older meaning being on the wrong side of 30. There are also a handful of younger people, but no less than 25. These people were the last remnants of the classic trance generation of the 90s, still partying until the end, and you know what, I applaud them for it.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: Dark, loud and kind of seedy, in a bad way. Most were standing around in the dark, and avoiding the dancefloor. Everyone kept to themselves in here.
Video: Walkthrough / 360

Click here to view the embedded video.

Set List - Impulse @ Hunter Bar

Timeline:
No talk in here
It’s way too difficult to even strike a conversation inside here. It’s so damn loud. My attempt to talk to someone remotely my age was met with fierce resistance by her friends after half a second. I talked to an older, non-attractive asian woman and she was all over me. We almost kissed after some boogie, but I couldn’t do it – the light unfortonately landed on her face, and I saw her true age – thank god I was sober.. Thank god.

Crowd - Impulse @ Hunter Bar Sydney Friday

The outfits that didn’t work
Usually Captain Jack Sparrow gets the adulation and love from the entire place but for some reason tonight, only one person came up to take a photo with me and M (who was dressed as an American Indian). What is with this crowd? It was this place – it was designed to make everyone on equal footing by making it really dark as well as blaringly loud. Not even a hardcore shuffling Jack Sparrow could excite people up.

Arrivederci
We left after an hour of shuffling. Just exhausting stuff, and the place never really picked up.

Recommendation
Only come here if you really want to continue your dancing fix from 4am onwards. It’s not very good as a place to go to unless you are into your hard style. Probably HSU would be better (apparently, I haven’t been).  As a venue itself it isn’t so good either. It’s dark and not many lounges to sit down on… but that is standard. I don’t know of any other place in the CBD that has a day club going on, so Hunter has kind of a monopoly in the day club scene. $20 entry is dear for a club that did not have many people either.

Hunter Bar Fridays (Hardstyle) : 2.5/10

I Love Uni White Party - Home Nightclub

I’ve been asked to check this University event out. A combined effort of all the universities, targeted for students who had just had their first O-Week. Well, considering my own O-week was about 8 years ago, I was wondering whether I should go. Then.. on the promo poster were the magic words: “WHITE PARTY”. Can anybody say GANDALF DA WHITE IS BACK??!! Got my dancing partner C to come along and so off we set our dancing merry feet – here we go!

I Love Uni White Party @ Home Nightclub

Assessment Time: 11:00pm – 3:00am
Opening Hours: 9:30pm – late (4-5am?)
Website: http://www.homesydney.com.au
Address:  Cockle bay wharf, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: White attire only. However people who were not wearing white were still allowed in, despite warnings that people were not going to be allowed in.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 presold tickets (sold out). $25 at the door. The girl at the counter liked my outfit and I asked for a discount for having such an ‘awesome’ outfit.  She lowered my entry fee to $20. Score!
Guestlist: none
Inside: The White Party event was for the main arena room to hold 500 or so people. All the other rooms were closed. Later after midnight, the other trance / house / rock band rooms were opened up for the general public.
Cloak Room: Did not utilise cloak room today.
Bar: Didn’t drink tonight
DJ: Unknown.
Music: RnB initially in the main room. After around midnight, a change of DJ’s and an opening of doors to the public for sublime ensure the RnB was killed, and house and trance/ house took over for the rest of the night. It was strange because at one point in the night, a singer came out and sang some house songs, it was so bloody bizarre – how could people dance to this?? The small room upstairs was also used for a local rock band gig. I have never seen it done like this – what has happened to Sublime?? I was disappointed in one’s choice of music selection to dance to after the rnb stopped.
Crowd: Lots of asians for the rnb component, with a sprinkle of other nationalities. Almost all are uni students. Of course, as rnb is killed, the rnb lovers left and the ratio became a mixed bag of everything – Whites, Asians, Indians.
Entertainment: MC and professional male dance crews. Wow, they actually *do* hire men to dance. They were more house dancers but were pretty good at what they did.
Atmosphere: Main room was always happening. The other rooms later in the night were only so so. The sublime room was the only other somewhat happening room for the trance lovers.

Video: – 360 view at around 2am,
Taken by C – you can see me for 2 seconds dancing with a random dude

Click here to view the embedded video.

Keep reading on for Gandalf’s adventures!

Timeline

Gandalf is back
It’s been 10 weeks since I took over Sensation White Melbourne.. and now it was time to take over Australia’s largest club. (yeah, it really is the largest one). As I line up, people in line are pretty much staring at my awesome outfit. People left right centre are taking photos of me and with me, and I still haven’t stepped into the club yet! I think the outfit is alright. I still like my pirate one better.

No usyd represent?!
This was a joint university thing. There were placards everywhere with “I <3 UNSW”, “I <3 UTS”, and “I <3 MACQ” .. but where was “I <3 USYD”??? Nowhere, my friend. I couldn’t find any placards. What a travesty!! Well, someone has to represent!

Photobooth is designed to steal your money.
Met some girls and we jumped into the photobooth for photos. It’s 8 dollars!! Jesus H. Christ what a rip off. So in goes 1 dollar, 2 dollars.. a few more.. until it says there is $1.50 left. Chuck in a dollar and it doesn’t accept it. Throw another $2 coin and it just swallows it. Oh my god.. what a crafty little machine this was… eating our money and yet not producing photos!! What a load of horseshit! Meanwhile, immature teenage boys keep peeking into the booth, praying that we are having an orgy of some sorts. Ha, one can only dream.

I have many many fans. Most of them guys.
A lot of guys come up and say things like ‘awesome outfit’, ‘can I have a photo?’, ‘JESUS!’, or anything along those lines. I like them, I take photos and usually we part. But shit, this one particular guy followed me around half the night! After we had our photo I dug into the main room and beelined to the middle. I turn around he is right behind me, following me! Fair enough, so I stop, but he stops as well. He wants to hang out and dance with Gandalf. My golly gosh. Biggest grin on his face everytime I looked back at him. He’s a fan of me, big deal. I had a suspicion he could have been gay, but I will never know.

He stalked me around the place

Getting up on main stage.
People are jumping up on stage and a random girl I met has jumped up for dance. Other people who are trying to get up are promptly taken down by security. I decide to give it a try, since I have the best outfit tonight and all. I crawl up onto the stage and stand up in front of the crowd. Everyone cheers, but within 2 seconds the security detail tell me to get off. So so unfair. Meanwhile the random girl is left ALONE up on stage to dance. She isn’t even dancing. I would call it swaying her body left and right, with the occasional booty bump to add flavour. She was obviously loving this attention. Godamn some things in life are unfair. One day I will be allowed up on stage!!

More guys follow me to take leftovers
Most places I went in the main room, guys are following me. I am noticing a trend. Girls come up to me and talk, and then these guys are swooping in left right and centre to be my wingman. I didn’t ask for this! Oh well, what are you going to do.

Girls don’t like hairy guys
I love this outfit. I walked by a few girls (and this only happens with girls) .. and you can see the look on their face as I walk by. Their entire face screws up into the ‘what the f*ck?’ look, or occaisionally a girl would turn around and see me coming – they literally YELP in shock / fright about this menacing wizard walking past. It’s quite entertaining for me. haha

Boob Squeeze War!
Yeah, a random girl squeezes my boobs without permission. I find that unfair, so I naturally grabbed and squeezed her boobs back without asking her. She REELED BACK in horror and gave me the DIRTIEST look ever. hahahahahahhahahaa..  how does it go – eye for an eye?

.. so take off all your robes
It was getting hot in here, so off went the cape and wigs. I felt like a free man. Meanwhile the wigs and cape sit near a group of 8 or so asians, who stare at me, C and her friend dance. They are literally gawking at us. I would probably have been doing the same thing back when I was 18/19, praying one day I could dance like that.

Getting pretty hot.. took off the beard

anyway they seem bored and decide to do what any normal bored person does at a club – PUT ON SOMEONE ELSE’S OUTFIT. Second thing I know, there is a guy with my wig, beard and cape on. It’s funny, but I have to keep a close eye on it – I don’t want to get this stuff stolen. They seem friendly enough and we take some happy snaps. They can’t dance though, which was a shame.

He put on my white outfit without asking - it suits him though

Here’s an extra video of a raver at the Sublime room:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Arrivederci
C and friend want to leave at 2am, primarily of the bizarre music that was now playing, but Gandalf convinces them to stay another hour, and we leave 3am.

Recommendation

First half rnb was good. Everyone is in the party mood. However only the main room was open at this time for the rnb lovers. Still was a good atmosphere.

I Love Uni @ Home Nightclub (upto midnight) – 7.5/10

Second half is where the sublime / Oh My! crowd came in.. mixed feelings – all rooms were opened up and the choice of music you want to dance to was wide open, but the crowd just wasn’t there. There were not enough people to fill all rooms up. It was busy, but not like you would expect on an old ‘Famous’ Saturday night when it was truly at capacity. If the ‘I Love Uni’ was not on earlier – I am pretty sure the place would have been pretty dead. The trance room was a sad sight – I wish more people were into it – however the people inside were friendly and just danced away.

Oh My / Sublime @ Home Nightclub Sydney – 5/10

Sensation White Melbourne 2009

Sensation @ Etihad Stadium Melbourne: 31st December 2009
Assessment Time: 10pm – 5am
Website: http://www.sensation.com
Address: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne
Dress Code: You have to wear white, pants, top, skirt, everything.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $149 (from memory)
Inside: This years theme is the Ocean of White.

One central area where the DJ spins around. The theme of tonight was the Ocean – Two platforms extend out to either side of the stadium, to hold where ten or so water geysers are installed. Huge octopus hang from above. There is also a trance room and a VIP dance room.

Never got into the trance room. The line was massively long and the room was PACKED and probably hot and smelly – just as I like it. Sadly never got to check it out, it really looked good.

VIP room was pretty clean in comparison as there was not as many people as the trance room, but was pretty good, because here you would have enough room to dance around in! It was pretty loungey here.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: $10 cans of Smirnoff blacks
DJs: Caz James, Roger Sanchez, Sebastian Ingrosslo in the main stage. There
Music: House in the main arena, and trance, funky house in the other rooms. Compared to last year, the music tonight was much better and ‘tolerable’ I suppose. Megamix was awesome and did not disappoint and well basically it was pretty pretty good.
Crowd: People of all types were here.
Entertainment: The whole setup was a show – dancers on the water, fireworks, laser lights, bouncing balls.. it was pretty decent
Atmosphere: Very white. We had room to dance. The event didn’t sell out but it didn’t get squashy packed, regardless it was still a crapload of people here tonight. The atmosphere is buzzing before and  during the opening, then we dance. Buzz goes up again around new years midnight, then slowly dissipates as people head home, leaving the hardcores behind until the end.

DJ to the left, fountains cut into the crowd.

Opening to Sensation Melbourne video

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline

The Epic Outfit that Came Out as Something Else
So basically if you haven’t figured it out by now, I am dressed up as Gandalf the White, from the Lord of the Rings. Your guesses were totally off the mark. Everybody, (including yourself, my ignorant reader) thought I was dressed as:

- Jesus
- Moses
- God
- Santa Claus,
- Merlin
- The kung fu master from Kill Bill where he strokes his beard and laughs really hard.

Primaly it was “Jesus” that was  being yelled around –  It was always “Jesus!” this or “God!” that.. which is something I got used to as time went on, and eventually I took on as my new persona. So I end up walking around with my arms in the air crying ‘Jesus walks!’ and ‘The ressurection is here!’, much to the amusement of everybody.

Oh look, heres a photo of a group of people ON THEIR KNEES PRAYING IN FRONT OF ME! Oh my father, how I missed being alive on Earth.

Young christians pray to me. Keep the faith up.

"James is my homeboy"

Can my ego be stroked enough? Never!!

Happy new years 2010!!
an amazing shower of fireworks falls down upon the setup.. much akin to the waterfall at the Sydney Harbour Bridge – but this is way cooler because I’m right in the middle of it!

New Years Fireworks 2010 - Sensation Melbourne

You have to see this video – its sweet as:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jesus made me a mini-celeb: Can’t be left alone
This outfit alone gave me celebrity status around the whole place – No other outfit that I encountered had topped mine, and only one came pretty close to being as awesome as mine – a man with a gas mask on… but I was still 10 billion times more awesome.

Cool outfit! His wasn't too bad either

Every waking second, people are looking at me with curiousity, and at an average of about once per minute, someone has asked to take a photo with me. I could not dance for more than a few minutes alone without someone asking me for a photo. I loved it, but I can understand how real superstars feel.. it can get annoying.

It was pretty bad so i took a video, so you, my loyal reader, can experience just a minute of what I went through.

So here, I present – 90 seconds through the eyes of James:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sneaking into the VIP Room
I didnt sneak in, I just walked right by the security fencing, and walked right by the door security – neither ask me for my wrist band. My friends however, got readily rejected, and I could not stay in the VIP area for long without dogging my friends. I do remember last year that they had opened up the VIP area for everybody later in the night, but this year security was a bit more tight.

VIP Room

New Years Milk
During the course of the night I run into a woman who appeared chemically imbalanced. Jesus immediately took hold of the situation and we are pretty much kissing… Shall spare you details. anyway, she stops and asks me:
Woman: “Where is my daughter?? Have you seen her??”. A strange question to ask, as I have not met her daughter.
James: “no…” (more kissing)
Woman: “But i want to introduce you to my daughter to hook up with!”
James: ……………. (omg this awesome, keep calm James) “Yeah.. alright.. let’s look for her. What does she look like?”
Woman: “Blonde… big boobs…. sort of looks like me”

JESUS. How is that description of your daughter going to help? It will truly help in absolutely no way whatsoever.

anyway she wanted to palm me off to her daughter!! Isn’t palming a guy off breaking one of the commandments? We never did find her daughter, and  she got obsessed with finding her. Her daughter was probably kissing a guy, then asking him if he’s seen her mum! So I left her after a few minutes…

Met some vietnamese
I was dragged by a guy to meet his friends. I assumed it was a bunch of girls, but it was an oldish woman and a scary looking, but friendly guy. They came all the way from America for new years! They probably would have had a better time in the Sensation White going on in Germany.

halp

Bouncing Balls!

During the Megamix, balls come flying down from nowhere – totally awesome. Here’s the video – I get to touch a ball!!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Megamix
The megamix phase is where the whole stadium sound, water, fire  and light effects synchronize for 15 minutes or so of fucking awesomeness. A short clip:

Click here to view the embedded video.

People crashing the water features – nothing short of hilarious
It’s near closing time, and people are pointing and looking up – 3 people have breached security and jumped up into the water fountains and are dancing along various spots. They are surrounded by security at different spots and they dance in defiance. The whole crowd is taking photos and cheering on. Two of the three are tackled to the ground/water, and there remains one sole man. Hopelessly outnumbered, he does only what a dancer can do – he gets down into the shallow water and starts doing the worm! WHOA. This was such a hilarious sight – a guy doing the worm up on stage to the cheers and laughter of the crowd. Loving it. Security for a brief moment looked a bit puzzled but ended up dragging him out of the water to a place unknown.

Arrivederci
5am was the end time and everybody got kicked out.

Recomendation
Not as crowded as last year but the solid and entertainment kept everybody going.
Sensation White 2009 Melbourne – 9/10
I probably won’t come back next year – 2 new years eves in a row is hectic enough for me, and this year, even though still very epic on its own.. probably didn’t have the same amount of buzz as 2008′s Sensation.. The DJ lineup wasn’t very strong and the event didn’t sell out. Everyone should though, definitely check it out, if you don’t plan to visit the one in Europe soon.

FULL PHOTO GALLERY FOR SENSATION WHITE CAN BE FOUND ON MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE !!!

Can’t run away
The whole night I spent dancing with some friends. One of them really likes to dance with me. So much so, when I wavered to try and dance with other randoms, she would pull me back in and keep grinding with me. -.-

Was packed
But jesus it was packed. Upstairs was expected to be packed, but I was surprised to see downstairs trance to be packed as well! On Flow Fridays, downstairs is usually a chill area, but the guys at Funky Buddha have utilised the space for a trance dance spot, and its quite a sight to see, since the room itself is very well lit, compared to the very dark trance rooms ravers are used to. This added to the good vibe of tonight.

Yeah! A podium
How good is this. Upstairs there is a podium/catwalk thing with about 50 people dancing on it! The promoters have let us go up and do our thing. This was way better than Flow whom are ever so tight ass about people dancing up on stage.
Arrivederci
I can’t remember what time we left, but it wasn’t closing, I think we were just tired.

Recommendation
Tonight’s Funky Buddha event was a once off at the WSP venue, but it was pulled off very well. Good music, great atmosphere and crowd. 9/10

A birthday for a friend. She has chosen Havana, so here we go!

Assessment Time: 22:45- 1:30am
Website: http://www.havanaclub.com.au
Address: 169 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Dress Code: Casual OK. Hats OK.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25. $20 on guestlist (?)
Guestlist: see website. No problems getting in
Inside: One central dance floor, three bars. Private room in the corner, and lounges everywhere.
Cloak Room: Yes
Music: ‘Scouse’ House and Trance. It was actually pretty good tonight, as the DJ has a big group of songs to choose from. Of course, he chose some of the popular house songs as well as mixing it up with a bit of progressive trance. It was pretty good i would say.
Crowd: Dominantly Euro, some Aussies.
Entertainment: Dancers on the podiums. No MC’s tonight, but dancing chicks are good enough for me.
Atmosphere: Good vibe. Not as packed as the Chocolate City RNB nights, but still busy nonetheless. A good vibe in general.
Video: 360 View from the dancefloor

Click here to view the embedded video.

Timeline:

How far would you let your GF go with another guy? A Q&A Session with James Tran:

One of the girls I know comes up and dances with me. She may have been a bit drunk… So lets have a Q and A session to best reflect of what had happened with this girl..

Q) James, is it cool to dance with you when I have a boyfriend in the same club?
A) Sure. It’s just a dance.

Q) James, is it cool to grind with you when I have a boyfriend in the same club?
A) Dunno, probably not, unless you explicitly allowed each other to do so.

Q) James, Dude, you’re grinding with my girlfriend! WTF??
A) I wasn’t grinding with her. She was grinding with me. I too, wasn’t cool with it, and I kindly reminded her that you were still in the club,  but I didn’t exactly push her off. I was just being neutral, standing there.. the pole to her strip tease. The Switzerland to the world.

Q) James, is it cool to tell you that I’m not wearing a bra while boyfriend is watching?
A) Well that’s nice to know. Just make sure he didn’t hear you, or you’ll be in biiig trouble. (which he didn’t). In a normal situation without loud music, I would advise not to do it. Besides, you should be telling your boyfriend that you’re not wearing a bra, not me!

Q) James, is it cool to sandwich you in the middle of me and my hot friend while boyfriend watches?
A) Oh hell yes!!! A Sandwiching god does exist.

Boyfriend finally arrived to take the pretty girls claws away from me. (they have now since broken up at time of writing)

Lady Gaga
I Met her! Well, I sort of met her. She has an awesome disco stick.

We steal someone’s booth
We didn’t quite steal it. The sign was still up there. It was a girl’s birthday, but the birthday girl wasn’t there. A friend had found the birthday girl, sitting in front of the DJ booth, with her girlfriends, looking quite bored. It was their first time in the club and they didn’t want to dance.. or even try. That’s a boring birthday.

Drug ladies
Two larger girls drop by and sit down. This was their booth as well. We all became friends. We left the two girls to chat up our non-dancing friend. After about half an hour, he has told us that one of the girls force fed him MDMA for free. (The free bit was the most important bit). The guy that they were with was a drug dealer.

Funny that the police dogs were here earlier, and they didnt catch him out.

Also as an aside, why is it that people assume that I know how to get drugs?? I don’t have the faintest idea where to start. Sure, drugs are a part of the experience, but alcohol is good enough (and bad enough) for me. I digress.

Coda
We leave early 1:30am as the designated driver has to leave.

Recommendation
7 out of 10

The place could have a better atmosphere with more people. Music is great though.

Godskitchen - During the Cosmic Gate set

Godskitchen @ Hordern Pavillion Sydney
Assessment Time: 10:00pm – 3:15am
Opening Times: 9:00pm – 7:00am
Website: http://www.futureentertainment.com.au/wsite/future-events/92-godskitchen-2009
Address: Hordern Pavllion, Fox Studios Sydney
Dress Code: anything goes. I had dress shoes, jeans, fedora hat. Pretty inappropriate for a rave. Everybody else was pretty casual, and the hardcore shufflers had their leg warmers out with glowsticks and light spinny things ( I have no idea what they are called ) and shiny reflective pants.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Prepaid tickets for $60. Also available at the door.
Guestlist: VIP tickets available for express entry, and access to the VIP room.
Inside: Just two of the halls were open. One hall for Godskitchen main area to hold everybody, and the second hall to serve as a chillout space.
Cloak Room: Yes, available, but forgot the pricing.
Bar: $10 smirnoffs
DJs: Main acts were Cosmic Gate, Blank & Jones, and John ’00′ Flemming
Music: The first act was .. ‘meh’. Crowd wasn’t really into it, just swaying around. The boombox wasn’t on at this time. Next was Blank & Jones, and the ‘official’ start to the Godskitchen event. Music was good. Everybody here seemed to be waiting for Cosmic Gate to come on. Music not too bad either! But, being someone who hasn’t heard any of the DJ’s before, it wasn’t too alienating. Everyone else seemed to know how to sing along to the songs. Once John Flemming came on, the music started getting a bit too hard, and was starting to get very repetitive. That is not something I really liked.
Crowd: Just anybody who is into these DJs. Mixed crowd all natios and all ages.
Entertainment: The ‘boombox’ was the star of the show. In the main room, it was a huge projector screen spanning the width and height of the stage. Behind the projector were bright lights and the speakers themselves. Four projectors from the back scan down to push projected imagess into the screen for awesome effect. Boombox wasn’t activated until 11pm, when Blank & Jones came on. Also alongside the DJs on occasion were two dancers in the Boombox. Pretty cool
Atmosphere: Initially upto 11pm it was pretty tame. During Blank & Jones, and cosmic gate, the main arena got quite packed and the atmosphere was pretty awesome. After 3am I was just suffering fatigue from the thumping repetitive beats. This was not a sell out event, as opposed to the Melbourne show. Perhaps it was because it was the same day as Parklife, which had just finished at 10pm?
Videos: on the next section

Timeline
Munky sponsored tickets
I won two VIP tickets by being featured in a Munky newsletter.  Thanks

VIP treatment
We had 2 VIP tickets. This gave us express entry into the event (we waited about 2 minutes) and access to the VIP room.

The VIP room was located next to the main stage. It was a small room with chairs outside facing the crowd. The room had a single unisex toilet and a bar. The “VIP Toilet” was totally crap, as both men and girls lined up for it. It was basically a disabled toilet. total joke.

The VIP room. Overwhelmingly disappointing

However on the other hand, the bar was pretty good. Even though there was only one guy at the makeshift bar, there weren’t many VIP holders in line, so we never had to wait long for a drink, where as outside the lines were massive long!

Boombox videos
Videos even cannot describe how epic the boombax was. Without this boombox, Godskitchen would have been only mediocre, at best, for me:

Blank and Jones: Intro to Godskitchen’s boombox

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cosmic Gate – “Firewire” Intro

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chillout room
So there was a chillout room. Not many people chose to sit in here, but instead chose to mingle in the outside cold, which was really bizarre, because on occasion there would be some rain and what not. anyway, inside the room there were two bars, and a DJ playing some songs. Behind the DJ set was a video feed of what was happening live inside. You could see the boombox doing its magic, and it always looked beautiful.

and the chairs! the chairs were were the most comfortable fold up chairs I have ever sat on. The cushion was at least 2 inches thick, and it wasn’t the plasticky material – it felt like office chair rug material. It was pretty awesome. on top of this there were chairs everywhere – anybody who came in had a spot to sit as well as a place to dance and drink if needed.

Also in the far corner was a huge inflatable head of a supposedly DJ. we took some photos with his nose. About an hour later, security had enough of people hanging off the nose ring and sealed off the area with metal gates. Boo!

Inflatable Head Guy - Got a photo before they fenced off the area

The huge Godskitchen balloon falls down
There are two huge godskitchen floats hanging from the ceiling, and during the night the whole balloon floated down. The crowd bounces this whole thing along like a beach ball and it looks pretty cool. Sadly after a few minutes, security pounces on the float and deflates it. Boo!

People:

Witnessing awesome shuffling
Well, its events like these where you meet true lovers of this music genre. They dress up to dance, and are easily recognized with these leg warmers. A funny look, but it works impressively when they dance/shuffle/whatever you want to call it. I witnessed an exceptional female shuffler, spinning and leg splitting, whatever you want to call it, it was hypnotizing and I don’t think I could ever be as good as that. I’ just not flexible enough.

Raver girl - godskitchen sydney

Met this guy and he wanted me to tag him on facebook, but I lost his contact, so I’ll just post the pic up here. I don’t think he would  mind:

Random face paint guy - Godskitchen sydney

This was in the VIP area – there was a little area where we could dance.

Coda
After John Fleming came on, the music got too heavy for us,  (even I have my limits) and we left. Time of departure 3:15am

Recommendation
I probably wouldn’t go back, as I didn’t know any of the songs. However, if you knew the songs and artists, you would have loved it. Crowd was right into it. I think most people, if not all, were here for Cosmic Gate, which was a good set. With all the aforementioned in consideration, my rating for the Godskitchen Sydney Boombox Tour  is 6.5/10