I wanted to visit the new club Beach Haus, but I was told by security at 11PM it was closed. I could claim the race card but to be honest I think you have to pay for membership to get in here. Backup clubs The Temple and TheClub were closed as well – Even on Christmas Eve, many places are closed, and Kings Cross looks desolate. A lady promoter nearby handed us free entry cards to Trademark Hotel. I didn’t like it as the last time I attended the Eve event but, I really had no other choice, so with our free entry cards, there was nothing to lose, let’s check it out!

The central bar and lounge area at Trademark hotel

The central bar and lounge area at Trademark hotel

Eve (aka eVe) @ Trademark Hotel

Assessment Time: 11:40PM – 02:15AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 4AM?
Lockout: Did not appear to be a lockout. The cashiers were still there when we left.
Address: 1 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.pianoroom.com.au/trademark/index.html
Promoter Website: http://www.boymeetzgirl.com.au
Occurrence: Every Friday
Outside Line: There was no line outside and we got straight inside. I was told by the lady I had to hide my wig and then put it back on inside, as they may not allow it past the door.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual seemed to be ok tonight as numbers were low. I would suspect the dress code to be more strict on busy nights, but tonight, it was casual ok. I wore a green t-shirt, black clean sneakers. Majority of males wore collared shirts with jeans/pants, while girls wore mostly dresses, though there were a handful of girls wearing jeans, as it was a cold and rainy night. However the vast majority of girls looked their best. There were some people in Santa hats as it was christmas eve.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 standard full entry. One of the promoters/managers gave us a free entry ticket for use before 12AM. During a break just before 1AM, she was still outside giving out her cards, so I am not sure how that works.
Guestlist: info@boymeetzgirl.com.au, or through the various individual promoter facebook pages which are easily found. 
Inside: Enter ground level to walk halfway upstairs to the cashier. Walk all the way to the first level to enter the main bar area to your left. To the right are lounges and a separate sectioned off lounge area to hold 50-80 guests – a possible VIP area on busy nights. Bar sits in the middle of the whole setup, within lounges surrounding the North, East and Western sides. The southern side of the bar is where the DJ is located, complete with dancefloor, podium, and mirrors in the far corner to give the place a bigger feel. It needed it, as the floor was quite small at about 30-50pax.
Cloak Room: None could be spotted or found.
Bar Prices / Line: The drinks are not cheap here. The prices escape me, but think along the lines of Ivy, Establishment. This is what Trademark is about. You needed to order water from the bar, so the wait was around 5 to 10 minutes. A bit long. At times as i wait for my water right in front of the bar, other people would just cut in and order. So rude.
DJs: Unknown tonight.
Music Style: Mostly contemporary American RnB tonight, with some top 40, hip hop and some house thrown in. It was good enough to dance to all night.
Crowd & Ratio: The majority are Caucasian from a Aussie-European background. Some Aussies here, some Asians, some Africans, some Indians. A bit of everything. All appear to be well dressed so its not the sleazy type you would expect. There are a number of people here to keep the dancefloor busy. The ratio was probably just about even or 40:60 Women to Men, so nothing to complain about. Also spotted some other people here who were earlier walking around the streets of Kings Cross looking for a club to go to.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: On the dancefloor itself it wasn’t too packed, so it never overheated. You did have your own space and at times, there were spots on the floor where you could express more bold dance moves if your heart desired. The dancefloor and lounge area directly next to it were the busiest, with people mingling there. People are friendly here. The rest of the club was pretty desolate, with about 40% of the club being completely void of people.
Video: 360 of the main dancefloor
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Major fail tonight as I was wearing no collared shirt and just sneakers. Got some promoter cards to go to Soho for the new event tonight, alright so here we go!

The Usual Suspects (Opening Night) @ Soho Bar Sydney
Assessment Time: 01:00AM – 03:00AM
Address: 171 Victoria St, Potts Point (Kings Cross) Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.sohobar.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.usualsuspectsblog.net/ Hard to tell if this was self promoted but it probably was.
Occurrence: Every Saturday
Dress Code / Door Policy: Clean sneakers and t-shirts are ok. At the door it was 3 of us guys and 1 girl. The door bitch told us straight out we needed more girls in our group at this time, which was fair, but the way in which she said it was with such attitude, it didn’t make me happy or sympathetic to the cause. We got in anyways after her question of ‘So do you want to go in or not??’. Oh such attitude (!!), but that’s a door bitch for you. I’m surprised we were not given the guestlist treatment excuse. They do try to encourage more women to come here.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 for all persons all night. Promoters on a nearby corner are giving out discount cards which gave guys $15 entry and women free entry. These promoters specifically were only giving out the cards to women on the street and we had to interrupt one of the guys chatting up a girl to ask for cards.
Guestlist: Guestlists can be sorted out through the websites listed above.
Inside: Walk through the hallway to enter the main bar on the ground level, where lounges are on the left and right. Keep walking through to the main dancefloor to hold about 100-200 people. Elevated dance podium at the back of the room. DJ at the front, some lounges along the far end walls and behind the DJ. Go back and upstairs to the second main dancefloor with a smaller floor for about 30-40 people and bar in the same area. In surrounding rooms are other reserved rooms for parties and various lounges to chill out. Also a smoking area upstairs.
Cloak Room: I couldn’t find one. Assumed non-existent.
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight. The lines were very short – you could order right away or at max wait for 1 or 2 orders.
DJs: Main Ground Level Room: Bingo Players (Netherlands), Jaxx da Fishworks (Japan), Allep Oop, Oakes n Lennox, Fat Cue DJs. Upper Level Room: Rogers Room, Here’s Trouble, Bangers n Mash, Kristiano
Music Style: Main Room appeared to be house, electro while I was there. I had Jaxx da Fishworks on set here playing down here, and he mixed songs well and keep the beat going. I was really able to shuffle and dance around like a mad man here. Upstairs was more top 40 and pop. Lady Gaga and things like that were being played. Difficult to dance to, and not only that, the DJ during this time often slowed down or increased the tempo of the song currently being played for about 5 or 10 seconds before going in to match the tempo of the next song. This was absolutely a show stopper everytime this happened. Even though I am not a DJ, I am sure there are better ways for a DJ to transition into the next song being played without killing the rhythm. This was pretty much why I was downstairs most of the night.
Crowd: Dominantly caucasian. Younger crowd of teenagers and low 20’s. There are a handful of Asians as well – appeared to be a mix of local and international students. Crowd can be friendly, but certainly not cold I suppose. There were more guys than girls in here tonight. Probably 65:35 ratio
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: Both rooms on the dancefloor everyone is dancing happily away, and was always busy until around 2AM when people started to leave. Upstairs, the dancefloor was very sticky due to spilled drinks / lack of cleaning up, so difficult to dance well to. Also both rooms had a dark atmosphere with minimal lighting. In the chillout rooms/areas there were plenty of seats to go around – so the club wasn’t at capacity.. but these were just chillout rooms – we shouldn’t go clubbing just for the opportunity to relax all night.
Video: 360 of the main room
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Video: 360 of the upstairs room
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Intent on going to Empire Hotel tonight but it was dead as – there were already cleaners cleaning the place up! Strange for only midnight. Random promoters for Ladylux give us free entry passes on the street, so the matter of ‘what venue do we go to next?’ was pretty much sorted out – here we go!

Robin Hood with M's Russian Commisar hat

Fridays @ Ladylux Nightclub, Kings Cross Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:10PM – 01:45AM
Opening Hours: 9:00PM or earlier ~ 03:00AM (facebook page states 06:00AM, but Dj set list lasted until 2AM.. so I wouldn’t know to be sure)
Lockout: No lockout.
Address: 2 Roslyn St, Potts Point (Kings Cross), Sydney.
Venue Website: http://www.ladylux.com.au
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted
Occurrence: Every Friday and Saturday is open. Saturday are the more heavily promoted nights while Fridays rarely get a mention.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. Half the guys wore casual t-shirts while the other half wore collared shirts. Girls were mostly in dresses. Hats were allowed. I was dressed up as Robin Hood with feather hat.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 is the full cover charge. We were given promoter cards on the street to get free entry all night. A very fair deal here.
Guestlist: Submitted via the website. The existing link at time of writing is at http://www.myguestlist.com.au/mgl/ccp/ladylux/index.html
Inside: There’s not much of a giveaway that the entrance is of Ladylux. It’s just a doorway in the side of a building with 2 security guards outside. As you walk inside, there is a private VIP room to the immediate right. I didn’t go in there, but I would be making an educated guess based from the outside walls that it would only hold about 10 people. Continue walking past a small lounge area on the left – as you look around note the wallpapers – white with fuschia-coloured flowering patters on the walls. Continue to the next small area which is the bar. Once you reach the bar you are now at the edge of the dancefloor, which takes up probably two fifths of the entire floor area of the venue. DJ corner in the far right. The dancefloor area is about 5-6 people width by 15-20 people long. There are sofas along both sides of the dancefloor as well. At the far end wall are a set of lights that flash around looking pretty. The video below will walk you through the setup.
Cloak Room: No cloak room. Well I didn’t ask, but I didn’t see any signs indicating presence of a cloak room.
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink tonight, but lining up would set you behind 2 or 3 other orders.
Music Style: Primarily Commercial House and Electro. The occasional RnB mashup song thrown in as well. I quite liked it as I knew the songs and people were singing along to it. Songs were mixed well without complaints.
Crowd: Almost entirely Caucasians, all young 20’s or teens. From the people we spoke with, backgrounds were a mix of locals and backpackers who mysteriously ended up in here. The ratio was about 35% women 65% guys. By the time we left at 2:00AM, it was almost all guys.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment.
Atmosphere: It’s pretty dark in here. The entire first half of the place (lounge areas) have been decorated with various Halloween things hanging from the ceiling and what not. Pretty cool. However, even before you notice the decorations, the first thing that hits you is the pungent smell of the whole place. It kind of smells like a mix of dried up alcohol spilled on the floor combined with the results of a very poor urinal flushing system, or someone peeing all over the entire place. It wasn’t powerful enough to scare you out of the club, but at various points throughout the night your nose would be wondering… ‘What on earth is that smell?’. Kind of like when I was in India – the yucky smell was always there in the main cities, but you tolerated it. People wise, the dancefloor itself always had people on it, so there was no need to feel lonely. Most kept to their own, there were also a few drunk guys as well.

Video: Walkthrough: Starting at the cash register – walk through the lounge area, bar area and dancefloor. (12:11AM)

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Video: 360: Dancefloor from the corner where the DJ is (12:30AM)
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A friend’s birthday tonight, and my first time to the popular Candy’s Apartment on a Saturday – here we go!

Candys Apartment - Best photo I could get of the main dancefloor

Candys Apartment - Best photo I could get of the main dancefloor

Saturdays “Shake Shake Shake” @ Candys Apartment (Potts Point, Kings Cross, Sydney)

Assessment Time: 01:30AM – 03:50AM
Opening Hours: Early – 5:00 or 6:00AM
Lockout: No lockout
Address: 22 Bayswater Road, Potts Point (Kings Cross) Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.candys.com.au
Promoter Website: Self Promoted
occurence: Open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and probably Sunday as well. Tonight’s review is for Saturday.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty much anything is allowed, including dirty sneakers. Just don’t look drunk or cause trouble. It took about 10-15 minutes of lining up outside, and another 5-10 minutes lining up in the stairs to get inside. I didn’t exactly time it but its an educated guess.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 standard. $15 on guestlist before 10PM. $15 after 2AM for everyone.
Guestlist: carol@candys.com.au – see website for updated guestlist details.
Inside: Tonight the entire place was open. Walk downstairs underground to enter the rear of the main dancefloor to hold 100 or so people. DJ on the far left. Upper lounge and dance area that runs on the left alongside the dancefloor to the DJ area, where you can also dance next to him/her. Bar on the right of the dancefloor. Lounges behind the dancefloor, and behind the lounges is the backroom and second bar area, where it is close off on smaller nights.
Cloak Room: $5 for all items.
Bar Prices: Didn’t drink tonight, though the line didn’t seem that long. No longer than 5 to 10 minutes to get a drink from the backroom. I would say the same for the main bar as well.
DJs: Slappin’ Plastic, Brojo le Fro, Ember, Smokin’ Brojo Mekhael, Teez, Diskoriot, Black tie Dj’s, DJ Frostii, We Can Solve Mysteries.
Music Style: Each DJ had their own different styles. The underlying style was house music, whether it be mixed with rock songs such as Chop Suey or recent house songs such as Barbara Streisand. It was definitely good enough and thumpy enough to dance to.
Crowd: Mostly caucasian crowd. Mostly young 18 and early 20 year olds.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment
Atmosphere: Dark and loud throughout the club. It was pretty mush packed on the main dancefloor the entire time we were here. The backroom didn’t receive as much attention, but half the time there was someone dancing there. It got pretty smelly in the backroom after someone vomited. The crowd here was well into the music back in the main room, and even one of the DJs was into it, drinking and taking in the crowd.

The backroom - Candys Apartment Sydney

The backroom was open tonight - Candys Apartment Sydney

Video: Walkthrough – Side to the front DJ area. Jump into the front of the dancefloor through lounges to the backroom.
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Video: 360 of the Main Room Dancefloor 
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Random birthday invite at Hugo’s for some drinks. The only time I was here before was I believe on a Thursday with a friend, who happened to be a kleptomaniac that night, and so eventually we were kicked out. Tonight its a different set of friends, so hopefully I will be able to stay here longer than 15 minutes, so here we go!

Hugos Lounge Sydney Dancefloor

Hugos Lounge Sydney Dancefloor

Saturdays @ Hugo’s Lounge

Assessment Time: 09:00PM – 11:00PM
Opening Hours: – 03:00AM
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.hugos.com.au/
Address: Level 1, 33 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Appears to be strictly smart casual. Collared shirts and dress shoes for men. Dresses for women. Inside I don’t recall any non-collared shirts or guys just wearing casual. Women all are dressed very well. Hats allowed. No mohawks. 
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free on birthday guestlist. $20 after 10PM from what I heard from someone who was trying to get in, but I do not know for certain about this. 
Guestlist: See website.
Occurence: Every Friday and Saturdays
Inside: Walk up the set of stairs to the forked entrance. Take the right stairs to visit the bar and lounge area. It’s mostly for stand and talk and drink. Take the left set of stairs to walk through the narrow walkway and into the main room. another bar is presented along with an entirely carpeted area with lounges along the walls. an area in the middle for dancing. Overhead disco balls roughly mark the designated dance area.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: Cocktails are roughly $17-$19 each.
Music: House by DJ Dolso
Crowd: Mostly older caucasian crowd. People mostly in their 20’s and older. Being more of a classy place the people are more well behaved.
Entertainment: It was just the DJ
Atmosphere: Definitely pretentious, but the people on the dancefloor seemed pretty friendly which was good. The whole place is very dark, so I guess thats a good thing for everyone.
Video Walkthrough

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Empire Hotel was $20. Nope. We wanted to go to Kit & Kaboodle but we accidentally walked into The Sugar Mill and paid $10, thinking the entry fee covered both venues. Apparently not. I am really upset that I didn’t get to go to K&K, as Art vs Science were playing a DJ Set, but being asians, we just stayed here for the rest of the night..

With Fans @ The Sugar Mill, Kings Cross, Sydney

With Fans of our dancing @ The Sugar Mill, Kings Cross, Sydney

KX Marks the Spot@ The Sugar Mill
Assessment Time: 11:00PM – 01:30AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 04:00AM+
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.sugarmill.com.au/
Address: 33-37 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual OK. Hats OK. Most wore casual. Men had jeans and collared shirts. Girls had a form of dress on.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 standard. No guestlist. A surprise, as it was previously free for all once upon a time. They’ve caught on. Two groups in front of us were told “$10”, and scoffed at the idea, and then turned around to discuss walking away. In both cases, the bouncer and cashier respectively told them “wait”, and offered them free entry. So, what a great idea to try it as well. When we got to the cashier, we were told “$10” and we immediately discuss the possibility of leaving. Meanwhile, I am waiting for the dude to say “wait, come in for free”, but NO, he doesnt do it! Like what the fuck. Assholes really don’t want us in their venue.
Guestlist: None
Occurence: Every Friday and Saturday
Inside: More of a bar for drinks, as you enter, there are tables and stools all around. Bar on the far end in front. DJ booth on the right. A small opening where it looks like a table or two could have been, is the quasi-dancefloor.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: Did not purchase tonight. The wait is no more than 2 or 3 minutes.
Music: A mix of house, pop, rnb.
Crowd: Mix of backpacker, locals. Mostly caucasian. Mostly an older crowd 25+.
Entertainment: It’s just a pub, no extras.
Atmosphere: Average. you just come here for a drink and dance, and just happen fork out $10 in the proceess.
Video: 360 of the quasi-dance space
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M, random drunk dancer and I - The Tunnel Nightclub Sydney

M, beer breath dancer and I - The Tunnel Nightclub Sydney

It’s my birthday weekend, but I’ve already had two dinners, a karaoke and a meat tray raffle birthday party. My friends are getting sick of me celebrating, and I still had a house party to host as well. Tonight was my clubbing choice of night out, so here we go!

Addiction @ The Tunnel (Formerly Dragonfly) Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:30PM – 03:30AM
Opening Hours: – 03:30AM
Lockout: 02:00AM ? We tried to leave at 02:30AM but was told it was lock out if we tried to re-enter.
Website: http://www.tunnelnightclub.com.au, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166455593127
Address: 1 Earl Place Potts Point / Kings Cross, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual. Hats were allowed inside. Groups of guys are allowed, and people of non-caucasian backgrounds were welcome tonight. Can you believe it?? The racist door policy of the old Dragonfly club on Fridays was no longer evident. This is primarily because tonight is an RnB event. However I do not know if their Saturdays have relaxed their door policy. Guys inside tonight are dressed mostly with collared shirts, and the girls are all dressed up and looking very good. There was a dancing girl with multicoloured boots with funky lycras and loose shirt etc, like a dancer from the fluro 80’s, and so it is safe to assume as long as you look good, you can come in no matter what you are wearing.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I got free entry as it was my birthday, but if you submit a standard guestlist, the cover charge would be $10 before midnight. I am unsure what the standard non-guestlist entry fee is. I would assume this to be $20.
Guestlist: I sent mine to nathan@exclusivproductionz.com, though there are probably other email addresses as well. There is also the Facebook group.
Occurence: Every Friday
Inside: Similar to the old Dragonfly, as you walk in you are presented with lounges with a bar behind. Surrounding the bar are booths and lounges. One of these booths was mine. On the left is the dancefloor, which seems more open. The DJ booth has moved from the far left wall to the side of the dancefloor closer to the bar, to replace a booth that used to be there. In the old place of the DJ seat, is an elevated podium for the show offs to dance to the side of the crowd. A glassed off private area to the left exists as well but nobody has booked it tonight, and it remains closed off for the entire night.
Cloak Room: Yes, there is a cloak room offered (its on the far left behind the dancefloor) but I am not sure of the pricing. We just left our stuff on the booths during the night.
Bar: I didn’t drink alcohol tonight but waiting in line didn’t take long at all, at most 3-4 minutes, unless there was a big order in front of you. No more than 1 person deep.
Music: Primarily RnB and pop, with some house, Baltimore, etc as advertised.
Crowd: The crowd tonight was mostly Euro. Minority consisted of blacks, us asian dudes, some backpackers. You can’t tell who were the backpackers as they are all dressed like everyone else. Most of the crowd are young, but there are some older folk (ie myself) in their late 20’s and met some people in their 30’s.
Entertainment: There was an MC to keep things moving along.
Atmosphere: A pretty friendly atmosphere. The staff and security are pretty friendly so long as you don’t get on their bad side. No fights tonight that I witnessed.

Photo from my booth at the back of The Tunnel Nightclub

Photo from my booth at the back of The Tunnel Nightclub

Video: 360 view from my booth
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Video: 360 view from the dancefloor taken at 1:00AM
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