It was 4AM and Marty just got kicked out of the Oxford Art Factory – I asked some trannies on Oxford St what was good at this time. Arq was the definite place to go at this time. Sure thing, here we go!
Ground Level Arq Sydney
Twinkland @ Arq Sydney
Assessment Time: 4:25AM – 6:55AM
Opening Hours: 9PM – Late (apparently until midday next day?)
Lockout: None so far as I am aware of.
Address: 16 Flinders St, Taylor Square (off Oxford St)
Venue Website: http://www.arqsydney.com.au
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted by the venue .
Occurrence: Most Fridays. Exceptions are special events such as Fomo, the massive Foam Party regularly held here.
Outside Line: There were just 2 people in front of us when we approached. We quickly got in without any trouble, though the security was pretty strict on not letting drunk people inside. He just stares at you while he asks the standard sobrierity question “How are you tonight?”. Bloody scary.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes here. Most of the guys dancing have taken off their shirts to set the standard – don’t expect any less in a gay club.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night. Free entry policy was introduced in May earlier in 2011.
Guestlist: N/A
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After leaving Sideways Fridays @ Phoenix Bar, we are now looking for clubs that are still going strong after 2AM on Oxford St.. we came across Oxford Art Factory – a little favourite of mine, hope its still good – here we go!
Crowd - Live Art Space (3:30AM)
Friday I’m In Love @ Oxford Art Factory
Assessment Time: 2:10AM – 4:00AM
Opening Hours: 6PM to late.
Lockout: Unknown.
Address: 38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.oxfordartfactory.com/
Promoter Website: Appears to be self promoted. But there was probably an act earlier on in the night at the Live Art Space Room.
Occurrence: Every Friday.
Outside Line: There looks like a line but its actually a smoking area – there was no line upon approaching and entry. I’m sure though that during peak hours there would be a huge line outside.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Pretty casual. Not sure about hats – didn’t spot anyone with hats.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free at time of entry for the Live Art Space Room, but this is normal after 2AM. Unknown whether there was cover charge beforehand. Free all night in the smaller Art After Hours Room.
Guestlist: None at this time
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After leaving Hotel Chambers, the 24 hour party continues at Phoenix Bar – Here we go!
Sideways Fridays (“The Experiment”) @ Phoenix Bar
Assessment Time: 1:55AM – 2:05AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 5:00AM (Separate Recovery Party after 5:00AM)
Lockout: None
Address: 34 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.exchangehotel.biz/default.asp?id=9
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/sidewaysfridays
Occurrence: Every Friday
Outside Line: None
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual, anything is okay.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night
Guestlist: None
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Bounce @ Slide Bar
Assessment Time: 12:15AM – 2:00AM
Opening Hours: Opening Hours: 10:30PM – Unknown (probably 03:00AM)
Lockout: Just after 2:00AM – 2:30AM – the actual time is decided by the security personnel.
Address: 41 Oxford St, Surry Hills, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.slide.com.au
Promoter Website: Again, it appears the authoritative source of all things ‘Bounce’-y is http://www.facebook.com/bounce.kpop.party
Occurrence: Once every month or every two months depending how the promoters feel. always on a Friday night. Running since 2009/2010?
Outside Line: There was no line as we approached, but there were people outside. Typically a bad sign, but the place was pretty busy tonight.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. Sneakers are ok. More people more are smart casual tonight. Girls wore mostly nice little dresses. Tonight was Valentines Day weekend, so yeah, most were dressed their casual best.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I paid full price of $20 tonight
Guestlist: I didn’t send one in, but the email is redandblueevents@hotmail.com
Inside: Same as last time – Walk into an open floor to hold about two hundred people. The floor includes an elevated dance platform in which the tiles light up and change colours. Bar to the left. DJ in the far right corner. Overhanging the bar is a balcony for private functions and what not, to hold about 60 people squishily.
Cloak Room: $5 for all items
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink tonight. A reader of this blog did come up and ask me tonight to ask why I usually dont drink – I actually go clubbing for the music and dance, not to really drink and pick up girls… *cough* Bullshit *cough* you may think, ok ok ok … but its true. To be fair though, there is nothing wrong with making the most of your time at a club and meeting new people, it enhances the experience when you’re out. In any case, I am satisfied either way so long as I get my dance fix. Plus nowadays I drive, so double the reason not to drink.
DJs: Unknown
Music Style: The main theme tonight was RnB with many Korean Pop songs thrown in as well during the peak hours of the night. Still nowdays, the only Korean song I know is the Nobody song.
Crowd & Ratio: Pretty much entirely all Asian. The majority being Korean or fans of K-Pop. A friend I brang along was a huge fan of K-Pop, and had no idea about these Korean Pop nights. Conveeeerted! Ratio wise was pretty even throughout the night.
Entertainment: MC to keep things going, but tonight there were not “half time” breaks for some entertainment as of the previous incarnations. Kind of strange, but I don’t think anyone minded. I thought it added a bit of chill down time and something to talk about, but that’s me. Either that, or I missed it altogether by coming in after midnight.
Atmosphere: Pretty busy throughout the time we were here. It’s hard to find a spot in the middle of the flashy dancefloor, but at around 1:30 it started to cool down people wise, as well as female-wise.
Video: Walkthrough of the club, followed by a Music Sample throughout the night:
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Two friends wanted to go Havana tonight, so I sent in a guestlist. Organisers even gave me a free booth! woohoo! So off we went!
Candy paint / Chocolate City
When: Every Friday Night
Entry / Cover charge: $25 general entry. Guestlist is free before 10:30 (chance of getting in before then is unlikely), $15 before midnight.
Attire: Casual accepted, including all hats.
Music: RNB
Crowd: Asian
Timeline
Jason re-appears
Got in and the first thing I saw was Jason, the Korean bum dancer from the Bamboo events. He was up on the podium doing his thing. I later say hi to him but he doesn’t recognize me, as usual – he probably has hundreds of fans saying hi to him randomly. The last time we met clubbing, I was in a fully fledged santa suit. Tonight I was just plain James. I think he was wearing his favourite green striped polo shirt. He must be sponsored by the polo green striped division.
My booth gets stolen
The organisers – so nice of them, reserved me one of the lounge booths at the club. So, what a surprise that when we got into Havana, when there was no longer one for me. All the other lounges had “reserved for anna” “reserved for Ben”, etc etc… and there was two booths which had their “reserved for” signs pulled down. One of them was mine!!! GRRRR which one stole my booth!!?? I didn’t really want to start a confrontation, so I let it go. This was definitely karma getting back at me for what we did earlier this year – we pulled down the “reserved for Susan” sign then stole her booth.
Music/Dancing
The 4 of us chose a orner near the DJ and danced our socks off. The place was packed to the rafters – It was the first time this year that Havana was completely packed on the dance floor. We were literally stuck in our corner and didn’t have the freedom to move anywhere – so we were really restricted to limited dancing moves such as swaying, and “raising your hands in the air”, which happened quite often.
Music was typically RNB, and I had no complaints. Most of the DJ’s mixed it up well, chopping out the boring bits.
Otherwise quite a good atmosphere if you love your music and your asians
C tries to hook me up
She intoduced me to a Chinese girl she met last week.. from Bamboo. She was cute. Not bad at all. I said hi, and that was that. Later C tells me she tried to get us two to hook up. It didn’t help that I had a scream mask on when we were formally introduced:
Posing with an unsuspecting clubber
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Someone’s 21st on the top floor.. The last time I went here was 3 years ago for a birthday and it was a crapola (probably because I was uninvited and i invited myself).. there happened to be an rnb event on the middle floor that night..
About Burkedin Hotel
Location: 2-4 Oxford St, Darlinghurst
Website: http://www.burdekin.com.au/home.htm
Inside: Bottom level is the watering hole level. Middle floor was the dance event, and the top floor was the birthday with a DJ also playing (house). On entering the middle floor there is a small area to dance, and a smaller room to sit. Both have large mirrors so you can check your self out. A common bar for both rooms.
About Absolute
Music: RNB, Hip Hop
Crowd: Asian
Dress Code: Casual. I wore jeans, sneakers and a pink streaked wig.
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: $20 / $15 Guestlist
Occurence: Unknown
Atmosphere: Crowded with some sort of class.
Timeline
Ask before you pay
I saw Kevin while lining up (inside the stairwell).. After I paid my $15 (the fee was mandatory in order to attend the event and the birthday party) Kevin told me he didn’t like the place. Great.. I should have asked earlier!
Sardines, Mirrors
This was a packed place with too many people. There were about 50 people in the dancefloor.. a bit too much but typical I guess. I was wearing an oversized pink wig and when I saw the large mirror hanging on the wall, I just *had* to adjust my hair. Girls and guys giving me strange looks, meditating on whether the hair was real or not.
Music
It was the typical RNB music you would hear at the nightclub. No complaints, the DJs throughout did a nice job of song selection. Upstairs on the RNB (then later House) level, Josh’s cousing was playing, the music was good as well but unfortunately the music stopped for a few seconds.. wasn’t a good impression.
Atmosphere
The girls – for some reason there were a higher proportion of good looking females. Couldn’t explain this phenomenon. Perhaps being single forever have had my standards dropping… naaahh.The small space and unusually loud and boisterous crowd made it more friendly.
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