Underground Level: Dancefloor

This event had all the hype, and it pretty much drove my curiosity insane! Take my money you sneaky little promoters, its time to visit this event – here we go!

Volar @ Civic Hotel (All 3 levels)
Assessment Time:12:35AM – 03:30AM
Opening Hours: Unknown the exact time of opening for the club levels – probably 10:30PM. The club levels close at 04:00AM
Lockout: Unknown, but throughout the night it seemed to be okay to slip in and out of the venue, so long as there isn’t any trouble going on.
Address: 388 Pitt St (It is on the corner of Pitt St and Goulburn St between World Square and Mr B’s Hotel)
Venue Website: http://www.civichotel.com.au
Promoter Website:Primary Promoter: http://www.urbanagent.com.au alongside with ESO.net.au, 1nitestand.com.au , viplist.com.au, Z3nent.com, EpikEntertainment.com.au, G6
Occurrence: Every Friday since March 2011. (Tonight was the third week open)
Outside Line: The line was pretty short when I arrived (I did arrive a bit late), but earlier it was reported to be much longer.. to at least 50 deep. I waited about 5 minutes or so to get in.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual is recommended, but it does appear that pretty much most attire is accepted tonight. A hat was spotted worn inside the club, so I assume hats are okay. I wore a black t-shirt, jeans and clean white sneakers and got in without a problem.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 is the full charge tonight….$20 on the guestlist. Guestlists closed at midnight.
Guestlist: Email volar@urbanagent.com.au or submit via the website. The guestlist submitted was not recognized at the door when my friend Marty came up, which was unfortunate. Alternate addresses are volar@z3nent.com and volar@epikentertainment.com.au
Inside: It’s promoted as three levels of clubbing. Upper/Rooftop level, ground level, and Underground.
Inside Upper Level: Otherwise known as the Rooftop level, walk into enter an area with a bar to your left and lounges to your right. The bar has three sides to it, to line up maybe 15 people comfortably. A narrowish path leads you to the other side of the room, where the open space serves as the dancefloor. In the corner is the DJ area and 2-tiered podium for dancing. The podium holds about 10 people. The immediate clear area for dancing holds about 40-50 people, while people can still dance a bit further back near the entrance or on the other end near the VIP area. Tonight the VIP area was roped off. On the diagonally opposite corner of the room is the smoking area, where people sit around on marble/wooden seating arrangements and smoke and talk. The area is ‘roped’ off by a thin stream of water, similar to the Cool Zones at Town Hall station during afternoon peak hour.
Inside Ground Level: Enter the ground level from Pitt St and be presented with a bar to your left spanning half of the floor. Roughly the same size as the Rooftop level bar. DJ area in the corner with a small dancefloor for 20 or 30 people. Stools and lounges dot the walls. No podiums and minimal lighting exists here, but there is a disco ball.
Inside Underground Level: It kind of feels like you are walking to the bathroom going down the stairs. Then you realise, that there are actually toilets here. However, there is also an entrance to the Underground room. Walk in here to be faced immediately with the side of the bar, about the same or smaller size than the other two bars above. On the right are saloon like seating arrangements on the wall, with a mirror running along around shoulder height on the side. On the far left corner is the dance area. It is actually a sunken squareish area about 50cm below the floor level here. The area holds 50 comfortably upto 80-100 squishily in my estimation. Rails border the sunken dancefloor so that observers can watch on by. Right in front of the dancefloor is the stage area at floor height. The stage could hold 20-40 people. This room also holds one of the most well recommended sound systems in the Sydney club scene.
Cloak Room: Located in the Underground level room. Pricing is unknown. Marty got inside at midnight and discovered that the cloak room in the Underground level was at capacity! That’s crazy! It’s not a very big cloak room though. It would be hard enough to cater for one full level full of people, let alone 2 full levels of people. Keep this in mind and put stuff in the cloak room ASAP for this event.
Bar Prices / Line: Upstairs is a nightmare to get drinks. Just like the Taboo event on Saturdays here, you still have to wait at least 20-30 minutes to get served, if you don’t push in. Ground level, there generally isn’t a line or a very sparsely populated line – the sole bartender here was a testament to that. In the Underground level, the line wasn’t as bad as rooftop – the line was 2-3 people deep with about a 10-15 minute wait during peak times. Pricing unknown – I didn’t drink tonight.
Music Style: The poster at the time was that the Upper level was dedicated to RnB, which was true. The poster mentioned the bottom underground level was dedicated to House music. This was kind of true. Some house was played, but easily the majority of music played was that of RnB/House mashup. The promoters had to cater for the crowd here tonight. Every time a house song came up (even if it was commercial house) which did not even have a hint of RnB in it, the dancefloor would pretty much clear out, and people would head upstairs to the other room. It’s quite the sad story for the Asian House music lovers. Then, when an RnB song or a pop song came on.. the TB’s would come RUNNING back to the floor to have their little dance. The music sounded pretty freaking awesome though with the sound system. very crisp even though it was pretty loud. I guess i didn’t appreciate it as much last time I was here due to me not appreciating the type of music they were playing that night. The Ground level was a designated ‘chillout’ area by the promoters, but there is some Retro music playing here with matching dancefloor. Typical Retro from the 70s and 80s would be played here, from my time in this floor.
Crowd & Ratio: (Upstairs and undergound levels) The majority .. maybe 85% were of Asian descent. It would be a mix of Asian Australian and Overseas based Asians. The rest of the populace consisted of Caucasians, some Europeans/Middle Easterns and Indians. Upper level had the distinct advantage/disadvantage to have a prominently more dominant male crowd, for whatever reason I dont know why – maybe they didn’t like the house/rnb mashup music in the underground. Either way, I personally didn’t stay up here too long. The Underground level also had heaps of guys at peak, but as the night went on.. the ratio started to become more balanced – Quality was good on both sexes, so nothing to complain about here. Ground level, it was pretty much mostly Caucasians of mixed ages, who were appreciating the music.. and the odd handful of Asian folk who came here for a bit of a rest. Nothing special here. Overall, I am guessing tonight is a mix of young crowd and old… I would hazard to say there weren’t too many TB’s to be honest, but the crowd in general is young. 
Entertainment: MC’s on upper and underground levels. A bottle water dump competition (aka cleverly disguised wet t-shirt contest) was on the cards followed by a booty shake competition. Oh wait, what’s that you hear? Oh yes, its me dropping the V-BOMB – The VIDEO BOMB of BOTH competitions for your viewing! Booyah!! Go on and watch it… you perverted scumbags
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Atmosphere: Underground Level Was pretty packed in the dance area, since most of the happenings and going ons were here. The sound system impressed me well enough to stay here the majority of the night. People are pretty much constantly dancing here the entire night. Only about after 1AM then did some space free up for us other people to have a chance to dance, but it still kept busy. I mean, there were less and less people, but it didn’t feel dead as people were still dancing and enjoying themselves.
Atmosphere: Upstairs/Rooftop Level It was extremely packed as well, but the amount of guys there compared to Underground Level didn’t encourage me to try to slice through the crowd. I’m sure girls with thick skin and a propensity to enjoy the act of rejecting the advancements of men would love it here. Later on in the night the population does decrease significantly after 1:30AM, as people realise downstairs is much more better.
Video Montage
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Here to catch up with a friend.. let’s check it out!

Crowd shot of the dancefloor area - 12:00AM

Crowd shot of the dancefloor area - 12:00AM

Sweet Taboo Saturdays @ Civic Hotel (Rooftop Level 1)
Assessment Time: Midnight – 03:40AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM(?) – 04:00AM
Lockout: I think no more new guests were allowed after 03:00AM
Address: Level 1, 388 Pitt St (Corner of Goulburn St Opposite World Square / Tao Lounge). Don’t go downstairs, as a separate dance event is held here on Saturdays.
Venue Website: http://www.civichotel.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.syndicateevents.com.au/
Occurrence: Every Saturday since late 2010.
Outside Line: There was no line outside where security was, nor there was a line at the cashier as we walked upstairs.
Dress Code / Door Policy: At least Smart Casual is recommended – Collared shirt and nice shoes. You may risk non-entry with dirty shoes. However inside, I did notice guys with normal t-shirts on and sneakers (non-dirty). Most guys wore collared shirts. Hats are allowed as well. Girls that were let in tonight were mostly well dressed up and looking pretty good.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free before 10:30PM if on the guestlist. $20 between 10:30PM and midnight if on the guestlist. All other conditions is $25 full price
Guestlist: taboo.saturdays@gmail.com
Inside: Walk upstairs and give out your hard earned cash. Walk into the door on your left into the front of the venue. The whole place is of two distinct parts. You are in the combined dancefloor/bar area to hold 100 or so people. There are facing lounges to your right which are used for birthdays. DJ in the corner of the room with a 2-step poodium in front. In the back half of the club space are two rooms. One taped off ‘VIP’ area for larger private functions (later opened to all) and a smoking/chillout courtyard. It doesn’t feel like a courtyard as you enter, as it is partially enclosed. Walking in and out of this area you are sprayed with a very fine mist of water to cool you down. The courtyard area is all benches and holds probably 40-50 people.
Cloak Room: None. This is surprising.
Bar Prices / Line: The ‘theme’ of tonight was the promotion of Agwa Bombs for $10. A mix of new drink Agwa and whatever the chosen mix is. I am not sure if anyone tried it out. I didn’t drink tonight, but I did line up with M for when he ordered some drinks. The line was 2 or 3 people deep, but it appeared the bar was understaffed, as it took at least 20 minutes according to my watch before being able to place the order with the bar staff. This is an exceptionally a long time – almost if not worse than Bamboo.
DJs: Rotation of Dj’s tonight. See poster in gallery below for details.
Music Style: Contemporary Modern American RnB with Hip Hop and House mashups. After 3:00AM is old school Rnb. Expect to hear from the likes of Taio Cruz, DJ Unk, Nicky Minaj and Afrojack. Watch the music sample below for more. Yes, some songs were repeated tonight! Yuck.
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Crowd & Ratio: Dominantly Asian Australian. Mixed ages from teenagers to guys in their late 20’s Girls are of similar age bracket. We met some English backpackers here as well who didn’t mind the crowd at all – they just stumbled upon this event tonight from downstairs. There are a less than a handful of other people here from other backgrounds / nationalities. The Ratio was pretty good here tonight. It was even or maybe a few more girls than guys, but certainly enough to keep the boys entertained.
Entertainment: MC to keep things going.
Atmosphere: We pretty much entered during the peak phase of the club. The bar and dancefloor were quite busy. The area near the VIP entry was entirely closed off, and nobody was inside there. It probably would have been opened up if more people arrived. Guys were friendly here. Some even smile at me for no reason, and some even pat my back for no reason either. Easy to talk to. There were also a handful of drunk guys going mental and getting their sleaze on. Entertaining but probably annoying for some of the girls on the dancefloor. It resulted in girls keeping to themselves and friends most of the time. Otherwise the vibe was pretty good on the dancefloor itself, if you let yourself immerse into the music.
Video: 360 view
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