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:
 

Thursday and the beginning of a long weekend, and a new event is on! Looked promising, so rounded up some friends, we got our presold tickets and were ready to go! Check it!

12:40AM. View from the front podium

12:40AM. View from the front podium

ZEN (Grand Opening) @ Ivy Bar, Sydney – Thursday 28th March 2013
In a response to the successful OPM @ Marquee nights by Urban Agent, competing promoters Syndicate (Kinki/Perfect) and Mizuya (Me2/LKF) with a whole subset of smaller promoting companies decided to launch their own equally big event at a big venue named ‘Zen’, down at the large Ivy bar. Ivy bar would be one of the few venues that would be able to hold so many people.

Essentials:
Opening Hours: 8:00PM – 3:00AM

Address: 320-330 George St, Sydney

Venue Website:
http://www.merivale.com.au/ivybar

Event Website: None as of yet. Refer to promoter websites for info.

Promoters: Syndicate Events, Mizuya Ent., Colab Ent.

Occurrence: Tonight was the grand opening. It is unknown whether repeats will happen, but considering the sell out, there will most likely be future repeats of this event. It won’t be every Thursday, but just on special days such as long weekends or when uni students are on holiday.

Dress Code / Door Policy: “Strict Dress Code” applies were the words tonight, but everyone was being let in. I wore dress shoes, black pants, white shirt, vest and skinny tie.

Entry Fee / Cover Charge:
– $25 first release (super limited)
– $30 second release (which “sold out” two days prior).
– On the night 8PM-9PM the entry fee was $35(?) then after 9PM it goes up  to $40.

This high pricing could only be successfully pulled off at big venues like Ivy and officially sets a new record high for an Asian clubbing event, since Vanity (now closed) charged people $35 to see some dude sing on one particular night. Also considering only one of the Ivy buildings was hired tonight, these guys have made an absolute killing.

Passouts: No passouts before 11:30PM.

Guestlist / Reserved Areas: See promoter websites for details. Reserved VIP areas require min spend of $1500 at the bar.

Cloak Room: Since everyone has paid such a steep price for entry, the cloakroom was free tonight. A saving grace. Though at the end of the night, the line to get your stuff was ridiculously long. Probably 20-30 minutes.

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

I was at Shark Hotel and I heard music coming from the club upstairs! I had to check it out..

Back view of the floor at 12:30AM

Naked (Thursday nights) @ Space Nightclub (Shark Hotel), Sydney

Essentials:

Opening Hours:
9:00PM – 4:00AM

Address:
127 Liverpool St.
You need to enter Shark Hotel first on the 1st floor, and from there take another flight of stairs to the 2nd floor, where Space is.

Venue Website:
http://www.spacevenue.com.au

Event Website:
http://www.facebook.com/nkdthrsdys/

Promoters:
http://www.tarantulamusic.com.au/

Occurrence:
Every Thursday night since October (was at another venue prior to this)

Dress Code / Door Policy:
Anything goes. Casual is okay, everyone (almost everyone) is wearing t-shirts or whatever is comfortable. Singlets everywhere. Saw a guy in a bear costume as well as a backpacker wearing a pair of thongs. I had sneakers/jeans/shirt/jacket.

Entry Fee / Cover Charge:
Free entry all night.

Guestlist:
See facebook page for info

Cloak Room:
None

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

Always wanted to come here but I’ve always had something on Friday morning, until now..

Upstairs Qbar | Main Room (12:15AM)

Upstairs | Room 34B (12:15AM)

“Hot Damn!” at The Exchange Hotel  [Q Bar (Upstairs)]

The Hot Damn! event is nestled within the complex that is The Exchange Hotel and is split over two areas of the Hotel – Q Bar and Spectrum. Spectrum hosts live bands up until midnight, while Q Bar, a few shops down, hosts DJs that play various styles of music, all night. Tonight’s review is solely based on Q Bar.

Opening Hours: Unknown – 5:00AM
Address: 44 Oxford St, Sydney. (Q Bar). It’s just a small doorway from the outside, can be easy to miss. 
Parking: Easy to find closeby parking on a Thursday night. We found a small car spot on the street behind. 
Venue Website: http://www.exchangehotel.biz
Event Website: http://www.fb.com/hotdamnsydney
Promoters: http://www.destroyalllines.com
Occurrence: Every Thursday since late 2006
Dress Code / Door Policy: there is no strict policy. People in costumes, singlets, shorts, hats.. anything that a classy club would ban is allowed here, even hairstyles that make you look like a member of One Direction.  Tonight’s theme was End of Semester, so many collared shirts and ties were to be displayed. 
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20, but if you know one of the promoters names or send a guestlist you get in for $15. 
Guestlist: toby@destroyalllines.com
Cloak Room: $3 all items. So good.

Continue reading »

Tagged with:
 

Waiting for a friend in the city, so I am dropping by here for a bit.

Bad Party / Club Wings @ Cheers Nightclub, Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:50PM – 12:40AM
Opening Hours: 11:00PM – 4:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 561 George St. Cheers Nightclub is underground, separate from Cheers Bar on the ground floor.
Venue Website: http://www.cheersbar.com.au
Event Website: http://www.cheersbar.com.au/sydneycheers
Promoter Website: Unknown, but it is definitely one of the Korean promoters.
Occurrence: Every Thursday since 2011. It was called “Bad Party”, with the idea that “Bad” implied naughty-ness, but that has immensely backfired in a contextual sense, and because of this, the promoters have changed the event name to “Club wings” this year. You can tell the promoters are the same, when the club stamp on my arm says “Bad Party”. These promoters are living off a shoestring. 
Outside Line: There was no line. Just 3 pretty girls in Angel Wings. Admittedly they swayed my decision to go inside here tonight. Damn me for having a mindset of a man.
Dress Code / Door Policy: No hats allowed in here. Other than that, you were allowed to pretty much wear casual clothing within reason. Most guys wore collared shirts. The girls were pretty casual as well tonight
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $5 entry. Previous weeks girls got free entry before 1AM but it is unknown if that was applied tonight.
Guestlist: N/A
Inside: Walk downstairs underground to enter the one room of the nightclub. On the left wall is the bar. On the right wall are TV screens playing the video clip to whatever song is being played at the moment. The other two walls are lined with lounges. The DJ booth is on the far right wall. Right smack in the middle is the wooden dancefloor, with the rest of the area being carpeted. The floor is approximately 7×7 metres.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink tonight. Water can be had separately.
Bathroom Facilities: On a weekend the bathroom usually reeks like urine and vomit. Thankfully tonight nobody has done such things, and they are acceptable for a Thursday night. That’s right folks, it doesn’t smell like piss tonight.
Eviction Count: None spotted
DJs: DJ Nick Kim all night
Music Style: Purely Top 40 and classic party hits. Full music songs are played, with the associated video clip played on TV screens around the walls. The DJ doesn’t really have much flexibility in this case in terms of mixing – being forced to really only be creative when transitioning between songs, which isn’t the hardest thing to do. Even my mother could do it. I felt sorry for the DJ, he looked like he was over these pop songs.

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:
 

Everyone is working on Friday, except for me and another unemployed friend. So let’s go clubbing on Thursday and spend what little money we have left – always a great idea! So headed to Kings Cross and looked for some places to go. Trademark looked dead when we entered, so we changed to Sapphire Lounge. It looked pretty dead as well from outside, but it was smaller, so it might be a cosier atmosphere. That’s the thinking anyway. Paid our cover charge and in we went – here we go!

Crowd: 12:15AM

Flaunt @ Sapphire Lounge, Kings Cross, Sydney (Under new promoters)
Assessment Time: 11:25PM – 2:05AM 
Opening Hours: 9:00PM – 4:00AM (according to Facebook anyway)
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 2 Kellet St, Sydney, Kings Cross. http://g.co/maps/ex79j
Venue Website: http://www.sapphirelounge.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Postman-Productions/193173984047360 (This event is no longer run by Urban Agent) 
Occurrence: Every Thursday night. Formerly run by Urban Agent the past few years, we have actually stumbled upon the “re-launch” of the “Flaunt” nights, this time run under the new promotions company Postman Productions. Tonight was the second week of “Flaunt” under Postman Productions.
Outside Line: No line as we entered.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Dress Code is encouraged. Hats are allowed in here. Most girls wear pretty dresses, and guys in general are looking good. There are some suits and casually dressed people as well (i.e. me), but this was no issue in getting us through the door.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 if not on guestlist. According to poster, entry is free before 10:30. Unsure if guestlist is required.
Guestlist: According to the promotional poster send emails to djtikelz@hotmail.com for birthday packages. Yes, it is the DJ.
Inside: The entrance is on Kellet St, just around the corner from the kebab store, its quite easy to miss. It’s a small entrance to a small club. Walk in past the cloak room to enter the main room, where there is a bar on the left manned by 2 staff. On the right are 3 separate lounge areas as well as one behind you to seat about 8 people each.

Continue reading »