Someone guilt tripped me to come out at the very last moment tonight. Honest. It was already 11PM at home. Why would I crawl out of my warm home, out into the rain and hit a club on the otherside of the harbour 1 hour away? Well, I still don’t know why.

Courtyard area (just the front bit)

Wonderland @ Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:10AM – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: 8:00PM – 3:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 36 Blue St, North Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.greenwoodhotel.com
Promoters: The claim was 17 promoters joined in the fun to make this event. The main promoter was Syndicate Events, GTB, and Colab – the same promoters for Perfect Nights @ Pontoon Bar.
Occurrence: Once off event for Australia Day
Outside Line: There were about 5 people in front of us, but we quickly got in
Dress Code / Door Policy: Relaxed dress code. Most things were okay. Most guys wore t-shirts but girls still glammed up.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full entry. Pre-paid tickets unknown.
Guestlist: N/A
Inside: Enter via the rear via the ramp where the register is. Pay your dues and walk down the ramp to enter the courtyard where the DJ is on the left with a standing area in front for around 100 people. There are tables, chairs and stonewalls for people to sit on to get their smoko on. The whole building looks like it could have been a little church (and it probably was), considering the large sandstone bricks that make its walls and the general architecture of the building. There are four separate door entrances along the walls to each of the 4 internal rooms. The right most room is “the clinic” room, a small room with a bar, lounges and a small dance area to hold 15-20 people. The next rooms are the chillout room and the Mashup room – mashup room has a bar along the wall and a wall cushion bench thing with a slightly larger dance area with DJ in the far corner. The chillout room is just that, with music supplied just outside from the courtyard – saloon style lounges and bar exist in here. The “Black Label” room is the largest of the rooms with DJ on the far right and dance area for a good 100 or so people.

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Greenwood Hotel Thursdays Dance area. DJ on the right. (12:50AM)

Greenwood Hotel Thursdays Dance area. DJ on the right. (12:50AM)

Finally, I have a Friday off work. I have decided to spend Thursday night visiting Greenwood Hotel, which apparently gets pretty busy. C was free as well, so off we went to check it out .. here we go!

Lining up: Thursdays @ Greenwood Hotel
Assessment Time: Midnight- 00:45AM
Address: 36 Blue St, North Sydney, NSW.
Venue Website: http://www.greenwoodhotel.com
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted.
Occurrence: Every Thursday
Outside Line: We waited for 45 minutes before giving up. For the poor souls who arrived here at around the midnight or just before midnight (i.e. Me and C), we are hoarded like cows to the line. The lining up area is a down sloping ramp which begins wide at about 8 people and narrows down to about 4 people wide. Being a special type of lining area that it is, without rope or restrictions on how the people flow, it kind of became a moshpit, where little pushy bitches of girls push in and the guys silently complain. More details below.
Dress Code / Door Policy:
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: No guestlists are taken here. It’s one shared line, and free entry all night.
Inside: I didn’t get to go inside tonight, but based on previous encounters during the day and from what C told me tonight: Walk straight into the front courtyard where a DJ stand is setup in the middle, with people. The building itself is in a C shape formation, with 3 bars inside. The dance area is enclosed by the three sides of the hotel. DJ is inside as well. Out back is the courtyard for smoking, relaxing, chatting, whatever.
Music Style: Dominantly Commercial / Contemporary House. There are some RnB mashups as well, but are ony short samples taken. There is also a second DJ inside the chapel playing RnB, according to the website.
Crowd & Ratio: “I’m getting my L plates next week”… “You need 86 UAI to get into commerce, I hope I get in” … these were the lines overheard while lining up. Its become clear that you are amongst a dominantly young teenage crowd. For tonight, most are local Aussie teenagers. I saw one young Asian guy lining up but that was it really, in terms of the ethnic make up in line.
Atmosphere: Didn’t go inside, but from what I could see from outside, people were dancing away in the courtyard, but not too vigorously. They look like they are just swaying their arms and bodies around. Ok, so they can’t dance so well, but we clubbers all were once like that. C (who went inside) reports that the bars on the inside were not that packed at all, and that everyone could have been easily let in without problem. It was just the outside courtyard dance area at the front and drinking areas at the back that were busy. It is possible the venue isn’t licensed to hold more patrons, but I’ve seen other regular drinking nights where it has been packed out.
Video: 180 of the DJ area. Taken from the back of the crowd:
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Taken from the front:
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