I just wanted to get trashed as it has been a while. Eventually ended up at Haymarket Hotel (It’s the final night of free entry before promoters take over on Fridays) and feeling pretty tipsy. There were DJs on the underground level playing some music!! Unfortunately its a private party, but not to be deterred, and full of dutch courage, M and I walked up to the door dude. He asks for my name. I said “James”. No surname given. I squint down at the list to try and lift another name for M, but my state of intoxication does not allow me to focus on the small words on the guestlist. Thank god, he found a “James”, and said James is crossed off the list. I was in, but what about M? After I was crossed off, he just danced his way in. Ludicrous. Me and the door guy gave each other a strange look, and I just shrugged my shoulders and we continued on in – so here we go!
Random Birthday @ Haymarket Hotel
Assessment Time: 01:00AM – 2:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 02:00AM
Address: 661-663 George St, Chinatown Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual was ok tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free tonight.
Guestlist: See intro above
Inside: The entire basement level was reserved for this party. Lounges about, a small dancefloor at the front to hold 10-15 people. DJ in the corner.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: I didn’t drink anything here tonight
Music: Hardstyle and Hard Trance was being played tonight. I just remember lots of thumping around. Is this what 19 year olds listen to? Oh wait I should know – my 19 year old brother blasts this kind of stuff out of his room all the time.
Crowd: Birthday boy is 19, and so the crowd around is of similar age.
Entertainment: Just the DJs
Video: 360 of the bottom level
Continue reading »
I Love Uni White Party - Home Nightclub
I’ve been asked to check this University event out. A combined effort of all the universities, targeted for students who had just had their first O-Week. Well, considering my own O-week was about 8 years ago, I was wondering whether I should go. Then.. on the promo poster were the magic words: “WHITE PARTY”. Can anybody say GANDALF DA WHITE IS BACK??!! Got my dancing partner C to come along and so off we set our dancing merry feet – here we go!
I Love Uni White Party @ Home Nightclub
Assessment Time: 11:00pm – 3:00am
Opening Hours: 9:30pm – late (4-5am?)
Website: http://www.homesydney.com.au
Address: Cockle bay wharf, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: White attire only. However people who were not wearing white were still allowed in, despite warnings that people were not going to be allowed in.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 presold tickets (sold out). $25 at the door. The girl at the counter liked my outfit and I asked for a discount for having such an ‘awesome’ outfit. She lowered my entry fee to $20. Score!
Guestlist: none
Inside: The White Party event was for the main arena room to hold 500 or so people. All the other rooms were closed. Later after midnight, the other trance / house / rock band rooms were opened up for the general public.
Cloak Room: Did not utilise cloak room today.
Bar: Didn’t drink tonight
DJ: Unknown.
Music: RnB initially in the main room. After around midnight, a change of DJ’s and an opening of doors to the public for sublime ensure the RnB was killed, and house and trance/ house took over for the rest of the night. It was strange because at one point in the night, a singer came out and sang some house songs, it was so bloody bizarre – how could people dance to this?? The small room upstairs was also used for a local rock band gig. I have never seen it done like this – what has happened to Sublime?? I was disappointed in one’s choice of music selection to dance to after the rnb stopped.
Crowd: Lots of asians for the rnb component, with a sprinkle of other nationalities. Almost all are uni students. Of course, as rnb is killed, the rnb lovers left and the ratio became a mixed bag of everything – Whites, Asians, Indians.
Entertainment: MC and professional male dance crews. Wow, they actually *do* hire men to dance. They were more house dancers but were pretty good at what they did.
Atmosphere: Main room was always happening. The other rooms later in the night were only so so. The sublime room was the only other somewhat happening room for the trance lovers.
Video: – 360 view at around 2am,
Taken by C – you can see me for 2 seconds dancing with a random dude
Keep reading on for Gandalf’s adventures!
Continue reading »
Funky Buddha @ World Square Pub (Equilibrium): Saturday 26th December 2009
Assessment Time: 23:45 – 1:30am??
Website: http://www.funkybuddha.com.au
Address: Address: 680 George St Sydney (Formerly Equilibrium)
Dress Code: Casual ok. Guys wore smart casual, girls wore dresses.
Door Policy: You will be rejected if you are a group of guys. You will be told to leave if there are not enough girls. This is apparently WSP policy. At least they’re honest.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: I forget. $20 I think.
Guestlist: See Website
Inside: Upstairs room to hold a small group of 200, dark. Also downstairs open area for Trance to hold 50 or so people. Well lit.
Cloak Room: None
Bar: $5 Gin and Tonics
Music: RnB upstairs, typical contemporary and classic songs. Downstairs area was the trance area, which was a welcome surprise.
Crowd: Almost entirely Asian
Entertainment: MC Upstairs
Atmosphere: Pretty packed. Pretty, pretty packed. The whole city was pretty packed – it always happens that Boxing Day never disappoints in terms of crowd attendance.
Continue reading »
DCMs @ Havana
A birthday for a friend. She has chosen Havana, so here we go!
Assessment Time: 22:45- 1:30am
Website: http://www.havanaclub.com.au
Address: 169 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Dress Code: Casual OK. Hats OK.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25. $20 on guestlist (?)
Guestlist: see website. No problems getting in
Inside: One central dance floor, three bars. Private room in the corner, and lounges everywhere.
Cloak Room: Yes
Music: ‘Scouse’ House and Trance. It was actually pretty good tonight, as the DJ has a big group of songs to choose from. Of course, he chose some of the popular house songs as well as mixing it up with a bit of progressive trance. It was pretty good i would say.
Crowd: Dominantly Euro, some Aussies.
Entertainment: Dancers on the podiums. No MC’s tonight, but dancing chicks are good enough for me.
Atmosphere: Good vibe. Not as packed as the Chocolate City RNB nights, but still busy nonetheless. A good vibe in general.
Video: 360 View from the dancefloor
Continue reading »
What an acronym!! The University of New South Wales Business Society ‘Be Sexy’ dance!!! Try saying that 10 times. My boss has been encouraging me to use my annual leave, so I took a Friday off and went with a friend on Thursday night!
About Home Bar
Address: 101 Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Harbour (opposite the IMAX theatre)
Website: http://www.homesydney.com
Inside: Entry is via their side door. It is not accessible via the front bar entrance. When you enter, there is a little foyer with two openings. On the right opening is entry to the main room. The other is a set of stairs that lead up.
The main room is quite large both in terms of dimensions and height. You enter from the back where the bar resides. At the back is a technician (yes, a light and possibly sound technician) The DJ is at the front. The huge Shiny sublime logo hangs as a modern day chandelier. Overlooking the main room on 3 sides is a balcony setup where people are peering down Upstairs is another bar and the balcony peering over downstairs. On Level 2 there is a small room playing trance music. another set of stairs around the bar leads you to level 3 – set of stairs and a tiny room resides where slow house plays. It’s not crowded and it’s quite good music, but it was dead as throughout the night.
The main room of Home Nightclub. Taken from the 2nd level balcony
About BSXC
A once off event, possibly once a year for the UNSW BSOC.
Entry: $10 (1st round), $15 (2nd round), $20 (3rd round). $25 at the door. A relative bargain.
Crowd: Dominantly Asian. It was UNSW, after all.
Atmosphere: Main room – very good. Use of MC had the crowd continually going. Trance room – Small, but there was no pretentiousness when dancing here. House room upstairs – Dead most of the night, but for me, seemed to be the best room, I liked the beats, and I loved the freedom to dance, compared to downstairs were it was packed to the rafters.
Entertainment: I caught a glimpse of some dancers at the front. Don’t know if there were any other forms of entertainment. It was a good way to break things up. No podium dancers at this place, nor podiums to speak of.
Continue reading »