Thursday Nights @ Ivy Bar Sydney

On November 28, 2013, in EDM, Ivy Bar, Old School, RnB, Top 40, by J T

I wanted to review another club tonight on my own but my friend has somehow gotten me to join him for a farewell party at the Ivy. It was free entry, and what do you know.. I stayed here all night:

Main room

Main room (view from the rear)

Thursdays @ Ivy Bar, Sydney
NB: This review is for the regular Thursday nights in the main building, and not for Pool Club Thursdays, held in Building 2

Essentials:

Opening Hours:
Ivy is open all day, but the clubbing tone (and volume of music) is turned up at 11:00PM

Address:
330 George St. Entrance is via a side entrance and through the back.

Venue Website:
http://merivale.com/ivy

Promoters:
Self promoted

Occurrence:
Every Thursday

Dress Code / Door Policy:
No dress code enforced. Any attire is accepted here tonight. Girls did their most part to dress well to impress while guys were a bit of a mixed bag of smart casual towards dirty casual (thank you backpackers)

Entry Fee / Cover Charge:
Free entry all night. Amazing for a place such as Ivy

Passouts:
No passout rules enforced

Guestlist:
Not Applicable

Cloak Room:
Cloak room is free, and is accessed in the second building at reception

Tonight:
Assessment Time
11:15PM – 2:30AM

Outside Line:
There is a constant stream of people walking into the Ivy, however because there’s no cashier to collect money, there wasn’t much lining up to do. I probably waited 1 minute in line.

Inside
The main building is open for free entry tonight. The Pool Club is also free, but is not reviewed tonight.

Bar Prices / Line:
I didn’t buy any drinks tonight but, according to friends, the wait for a drink downstairs was about 1 or 2 orders.

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

Hello… New Zealand! Christchurch is where we are tonight, and since the earthquakes of 2010/2011, the entire city nightlife has disappeared. Imagine Sydney’s CBD, Kings Cross, and Darling Harbour decimated and fenced off because of an earthquake. That is the equivalent of what has happened here. The former city is rebuilding, and pretty much if you wanted to go for a dance, you have to make do with DJs playing at local bars or go out in the suburbs. It is quite sad.

Anyway, I asked a foreign backpacker where the place to be is at on a Thursday night. “The Rimming Bull”, he proclaims! I’m sure in proper English that meant “The Running Bull”, which is, coincidentally is across the street from where we rented our hotel. So much win! Let’s check it out!

Crowd 11:30PM

Thursdays @ The Running Bull, Riccarton, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

Assessment Time: 11:10PM – 12:45AM
Opening Hours: Open during the day as a restaurant / Grill – 12:45AM
Lockout: Unknown, but there was one a lockout at 12:30 when I checked
Address: 1 Riccarton Road, Riccatron, Christchurch City, Canterbury, New Zealand. Map: http://g.co/maps/njtg8
Venue Website: http://www.runningbull.co.nz
Event Website: http://www.facebook.com/TheRunningBullBar
Promoter Website: Self Promoted by the venue
Occurrence: Every Thursday. DJ events also available on Fridays and Saturdays here
Outside Line: 2 people in front but we were in within seconds. We had to use our passports to be accepted entry. The drivers licenses were not accepted. 
Dress Code / Door Policy: Boys are pretty casual, with a handful with collared shirts with jeans. Girls in most part did wear their going out dresses and heels for a dance here. It is encouraged for guys to wear collared shirts and to not smell like B.O, and for girls to wear dresses. (According to the facebook page anyway)
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: None
Inside: Walk into the bar / dining area where tables and stools are aplenty. Bar is at the back opposite wall. This are has about 4-8 tables. To your left are some lounge spaces for 10 or so people. On the right is the “dance room” is how it is best described. It really is just a walled off room from the rest of the bar, where you can walk in and suddenly you are in a rectangular box to hold maybe 100 or so people where there are lights and a podium.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink.
Bathroom Facilities: Pretty clean.
Eviction Count: None spotted
DJs: Sole DJ tonight. No song repeats thank god.
Music Style: Mostly Top 40, RnB and probably after 12:15ish the reggae / some other esoteric music was put on. Total mood killer, but it was apparently approaching closing time so that was how it was done.
Crowd: A mix of Christchurch locals and backpackers such as Marty and I, with the Irishman and his friends as well. But definitely a majority would be locals. Ages varied but mostly we are dealing with a young crowd – teenagers, low 20’s.

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

A Monday night dinner takes a turn for the (better/worse) as we accidentally drank too much and decided to go clubbing. The only decent venue that people recommended tonight was.. Scubar. Yuuck!! However it’s been said that  it’s good on a Monday, so let’s give it a shot. Here we go!

Scubar Sydney Downunder – Monday night

Mondays @ Scubar Sydney Australia
Assessment Time: 10:30PM – 12:15AM
Opening Hours: Midday – 03:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 4 Rawson Place, Sydney central (Next to the YHA Central) Google maps: http://g.co/maps/kz2gn
Venue Website: http://www.scubar.com.au
Promoter Website: Self promoted
Occurrence: Every Monday (The venue is open everyday)
Outside Line: There was a LINE outside. Omg, people lining up to get inside Scubar, what is this madness? Line was about 15 people deep and took about an equivalent 10-15 minutes to get in as it was already at capacity.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty casual today, most people were casual. Didn’t spot anyone with hats. Thongs are a no no, even here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night
Guestlist: N/A
Inside: Walk downstairs underground to enter the entire scubar. On the left is the bar attended by 2 or 3 people. Standing room and tables for about 40 or so people. In front and to the right is the dancefloor area. Its quite small in comparison to proper clubs, but tonight it seems to be holding quite a number of people to the tune of around 60-100 people.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: $5 foster cans. This must be one of the last places on earth that you can buy Foster cans, because I definitely don’t know where else I can buy them. 4x Jagerbombs + 4x Tequilas = $66.

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

Friends desire a late night wish to visit Scubar tonight – let’s go!

View of the Bar from the Dancefloor - Scubar Sydney

View of the Bar from the Dancefloor - Scubar Sydney

Dropping by: Fridays @ Scubar
Assessment Time: 1:05AM – 2:30AM
Opening Hours: Open through the daytime – 2:30AM
Lockout: None
Address: 4/11-23 Rawson Place, Sydney (near YHA Central)
Venue Website: http://www.scubar.com.au
Promoter Website: Self promoted
Occurrence: This place is pretty much open everyday until late. Most popular nights are Mondays and Tuesdays (apparently)
Outside Line: There isn’t anyone outside lining up upon entry.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual is okay to wear in here, and is normal. Some are even wearing hoodies.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free entry all night
Guestlist: None.
Inside: Walk underground to face the dancefloor to hold around around 60 people. Bar is on the far left, and around the walls and in between are dotted tables and chairs. There are the occasional sofas in dark hidden crevices of the bar. Some disco balls hang down from the ceiling. Standard lightfare is around the place.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: $7 cowboys. There was only really one or two orders in front at a time, and it wasn’t very packed at the bar. You were going to get timely service at the bar.
Eviction Count: None seen, not many are sloshed tonight
Music Style: A Mix of Commercial RnB, Top 40 and past hits from different genres. Typical stuff you would hear at backpacker places – songs played in most of their entirety with minimal transitioning. Regardless we had a good time dancing to the tunes tonight.
Crowd & Ratio: The crowd is almost entirely made up of backpackers, so you have nationalities from all over the place. Ages vary as well. Mostly Caucasian / European backpacking crowd though. Ratio was more men than women, especially at the front. There was about 50 or so altogether including patrons at the bar side. Not many of the girls chose to dance here tonight.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment
Atmosphere: It’s quite dark on the dancefloor side of the venue, while at the bar it is much more lighted up. But back to the floor – at this point in time people are in the mood for love, with various people around making out with strangers that they met that night. Considering past experiences with backpacker nightclubs such as Scary Canary and side Bar, you would expect the floor to be pretty dirty, but suprisingly it’s clean!! I am truly amazed.

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

The official after party of the cruise I had attended earlier, so let’s check it out – here we go!

Dropping By: I Heart Unipackers @ Home Nightclub (The Terrace)
Assessment Time: 11:15PM – 11:30PM
Opening Hours: Unknown (probably 10:30PM) upto a probable 3:00AM finish
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 101 Wheat Rd, Darling Harbour, Sydney.
Venue Website: http://www.homesydney.com
Promoter Website: http://www.unipackers.com.au
Occurrence: Every Thursday
Outside Line: None as we entered.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes. I suppose no thongs here I guess.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20. Since we were on the Dragonboat cruise earlier, we got free entry tonight.
Guestlist: Unknown
Inside: It’s at Home Nightclub, but not the entire venue is utilised – it’s only the smaller Terrace area that is occupied tonight by the promoters. The terrace consists of two dance rooms. The ‘square’ room has a square wooden floor for about 60 people comfortably. It has its own bar and DJ. The slightly larger oddly shaped glass room is kind of triangular in shape, with the DJ area being at the pointed end. One side is lined with couches while the other side of the glass is the larger bar area than that of the other room. Dance floor area is a bit more smaller though, to hold 10-15 people.
Cloak Room: None that I could find.
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink tonight, but the population was low, and so I could have gotten a drink if I needed to. Water line was separate and there were plenty of water to be had.
DJs: Steve Frank, and others.
Music Style: Main room appeared to play pop/RnB, while the ‘square’ room .. well I didn’t spend much time at all in there.
Crowd & Ratio: There were some folk from the cruise, and some other backpacking folk as well. Slightly more guys than girls here, with a total of about 30 people at this time.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment
Atmosphere: Not very lively. I thought backpacker events were supposed to be more packed. The ‘square’ room was pretty empty and desolate most of the time, while the glass main room only had 4-5 people at a time max on the dancefloor. It was very strange indeed. However though, it does get packed later in the night, according to the photos anyway. 
Video: Walkthrough
YouTube Preview Image

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 


easter the bedroom nightclub

With a bartender. It's easter long weekend!

Spending tonight at Surfers Paradise, and tonight the venue is The Bedroom! So here we go!

Saturdays @ The Bedroom

Assessment Time: 10.30pm – 3:00am
Opening Hours: 10:00pm – 5:00am
Lockout: 3:00am lockout for clubs up in the Gold Coast
Website: http://www.thebedroom.net.au
Address: 26 Orchid Avenue, Surfers Paradise Gold Coast Queensland, Australia
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual was ok. Jeans at a minimum. A female friend of mine was able to get in wearing thongs / flip flops / Havianas / whatever you want to call them / sandals.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15
Guestlist: Do submit via the website. Events are on everyday I think.
Inside: On entering, there is a lounge and bar to the right. Stools and area for about 50 people. In front and to the left is the second bar, DJ and dancefloor to hold about 200 – 300 people. Carpeted areas around as well to hold more people. Podiums spotted around and beds. Along two walls are VIP ‘beds’ of single and double/queen size variety. These need to be booked in advance via the website. Late in the night the beds are open for all when everyone leaves.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: No recollection of prices
DJs: TyDi was the special guest DJ for tonight for an hour. At the moment he is Australia’s #1 DJ.
Music: House
Crowd: Caucasian – mix of locals and tourists. Handful of asians and other nationatlities.
Entertainment: Waitresses dressed in bunny ears for Easter and on top of this, corsets and super short skirts / and or lingerie. Enough said, and TyDi was coming tonight!
Atmosphere: Cockfest at first then around 11-11.30 it seriously picked up and got packed. Good ratio afterwards.

DJ booth at The Bedroom Nightclub Gold Coast

DJ booth at The Bedroom Nightclub Gold Coast


Videos:
Walkthrough around 10:30pm. It’s dead at the moment but it does pick up later.
YouTube Preview Image


360 view
YouTube Preview Image

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 


Sin City Lounge and Nightclub Surfers Paradise

Sin City Nightclub Gold Coast


It was panic after booking the plane tickets – Clubs in Sydney were closed on Good Friday. But what relief to find out the clubs in Surfers Paradise all opened after midnight – score! So off we went to Sin City nightclub – here we go!

Easter Good Friday @ Sin City Nightclub
Assessment Time: 12:30-3:00am
Opening Hours: 12:00am-5:00am (Special opening times due to Good Friday)
Lockout: 3:00am
Website: http://www.sincitynightclub.com.au
Address: 22 Orchid Ave, Surfers Paradise Gold Coast, Queensland Australia
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 standard. $10 or possibly cheaper on guestlsit
Guestlist: See website. They have events everyday to which you can submit guestlists to.
Inside: Walk in with a bar on the left with podiums for girls and tables. On the right is the main dancefloor and DJ area. Dancefloor holds about 100-150 people. Elevated platforms around the columns. Balcony like area, and second bar as well on the far end. VIP lounges in the back corner. Everything is carpeted except for the dancefloor.
Cloak Room: None offered.
Bar: 12 Tequila sunrises and 12 Chatreuse shots for a total of $243
Music: A mix of modern rnb and commercial house. There is also some top 40 music.
Crowd: Being surfers paradise, mostly backpackers or people holidaying this weekend up in the Gold Coast. Most are of caucasian background.
Entertainment: All the waitresses are dressed in corsets and really short skirts / lingerie. Enough said. There are also permanent podiums for dancing on.
Atmosphere: Considering it was Good Friday, did not expect a big turnout, but since it *was* Surfers Paradise – there were a billion backpackers looking for a place to party!
Video: 360 of Sin City
YouTube Preview Image

Continue reading »

Tagged with: