After leaving Verandah Bar, organisers of Vanity have re-opened at The Watershed Hotel. Tonight is the second week of opening – It’s bloody pissing down cats and dogs and we were all pretty drenched with rain..  so let’s get inside asap please – here we go!

Floor at 12:20AM

Vanity @ The Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour, Sydney 
Assessment Time: Just before 11:00PM – 2:55AM
Opening Hours: The venue is open all day for the general public but the Vanity entry cash register is in place by approximately 9:30-10:00PM. Closing time would be ap
Lockout: Unknown but we saw people re-entering at 2:00AM
Address: 10 Darling Drive, Darling harbour, Sydney. OK Where the hell is that? It’s NOT ON THE SAME SIDE AS Pontoon or Home Bar! It’s opposite! Find it at Harbourside Shopping Centre. We had an epic discussion (note: argument) about which side the bar was on before asking google maps. My team won 🙂 When you get to the shopping centre its not hard to find, just look for the place around the middle of the centre with the loud music coming out. Entrance is outside by the water. 
Parking: Special mention goes to parking. It’s a bitch to park in Darling Harbour, but if you park at the Harbourside Shopping Centre carpark and validate your ticket at the cloak room inside the venue, then you only have to pay $10. Not bad if you hate walking.
Venue Website: http://www.thewatershedhotel.com.au
Event Website: https://www.facebook.com/vanitysyd
Promoters: Urban Agent, ESO Events
Occurrence: Every Friday since September 2012
Outside Line: No line as we entered (10:55PM), but when we got to the counter, about 10 people suddenly were lining up behind us.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Very relaxed policy here. A mix of casual, and smart casual were dressed tonight. So guys can wear normal T-shirts and even hats and any form of shoe. Girls are allowed to wear leopard prints too.

2AM crowd status.

Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Normal Entry. $15 on guestlist (before 11:30/12???). Birthday Packages available where birthday person gets free entry. 
Guestlist: Ask your preferred promoter, otherwise either of the following emails: vanity@esoevents.com.au or vanity@ua.com.au

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I just finished Stereosonic, still upset I wasn’t able to wear my bubble wrap suit, as it got rejected at the gates. So where is a place that could let this outfit in? All I knew and all my friends knew that was there was a beach theme for Verandah Bar tonight. Oh well, I suppose let’s make the most of this thing shall we – here we go!

She loves the bubbles

Some people have serious bubble wrap fetishes

Vanity @ Verandah Bar
Assessment Time: Entered late at 01:00AM – 03:15AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 04:00AM
Lockout: Around 2:30AM
Address: 55-65 Elizabeth St, Sydney.
Venue Website: http://www.verandah.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.eso.net.au, http://www.viplist.com.au, http://1nitestand.com.au (I believe they are backed by http://www.urbanagent.com.au )
Occurrence: Every Saturday
Outside Line: There was no line at this time when we arrived, but we had to wait about 5-10 minutes before we could get in, either due to being it busy inside or to keep up appearances outside to anyone walking by – it was the latter.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Today was a beach theme, we saw people walk outside with their thongs on, even though it was advised not to. Also people were allowed to wear singlets inside as well as hats.. anything beachy. Half the guys here wore casual and the other something dressy. Girls mostly wore dresses here, unless they were here for the podium dance off .
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Full Entry. $20 guestlist before midnight. Free before 10:30PM if you are on the guestlist.
Guestlist: See websites above, and on facebook. Last time i sent mine to wendy@1nitestand.com. (still valid at time of writing)
Inside: After paying entry, you can visit the gambling room, which served no other purpose, or head straight into the main area where you are frisked before entering. Walk into the main dancefloor area separated into two distinct areas by columns and central podium – A dancefloor half that is kind of narrow .. about 10 people wide while spanning the length of the entrance to the bar, which would be about 40 people, and a second half of primarily people dancing, standing around, and others walking through. Walk to the back half of the club where a bar on the right serves the entire venue, and on the left are lounges to hold approximately 3-5 birthdays for 10 people. At the far back is the “Verandah” itself, a 2 person by 40-50 person smoking area where you only have standing room.
Cloak Room: $5 per item. Cloak area is located on your right as you walk inside the the main venue.
Bar Prices / Line: I didn’t drink tonight. Last month though, 5 Malibu + Lemonades and a Smirnoff double black would cost $52.
DJs: Unknown tonight.
Music Style: Primarily RnB with house and hip hop mash up later in the night. No complaints here, as I was only here for a short time and didn’t experience repeated songs.
Crowd & Ratio: Tonight the crowd is majorly Asian Aussie. There are a handful of people from stereosonic.
Entertainment: Theres a bouncing inflatable dice ball being thrown around the venue. Fun times, but eventually is taken down by security at around 2:00AM. There are also podium dancers, both guys and girls, which is good.
Atmosphere: On the dancefloor itself it was pretty busy and vibing. Out in the back half of the venue where the bar is, it is quite busy, but people here are more or less standing around and talking, and not dancing. The back area here is not suited for dancing as there isn’t much dancefloor space. Some of the lounges, chairs, etc are free for people to sit on. The outside narrow area for smoking is very busy/packed.
Video: 360 view just after 1:00AM
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A friend has a welcome back party at Verandah. Yeah ok, lets give this place a second chance after the horrible last time I was here. I organised a VIP area and guestlist and we were set – here we go!

Podium area - Vanity @ Verandah

Podium area - Vanity @ Verandah

Vanity @ Verandah Bar, Martin Place, Sydney
Assessment Time: 10:30PM – 03:45AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 04:00AM
Lockout: Again, I don’t remember, but it was later than last time. I think at least 2:30AM this time. It appears the more drunk people that are evicted, the earlier the lockout is.
Address: 60 Castlereagh St, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.verandah.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.eso.net.au , http://www.viplist.net.au,
Occurence: Every Saturday
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual. It was a mix of both tonight. an additional security measure was the photography of all forms of ID. Presumably put into place due to the massive fights 2 weeks prior, so offenders can be put into place. In general, places with security checks like this can be dangerous, or have had trouble in the past. Better than fingerprint machines, I hated that.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Full Entry. $20 guestlist before midnight. Free before 10:30PM if you are on the guestlist.
Guestlist: See websites. I sent mine to wendy@1nitestand.com.au . So as opposed to my rant last time, its actually a better system employed, where guestlisters are ticked off while standing in line, and non-guestlisters sent to the non-guestlist line. It took about 30 minutes to get in. There are birthday packages which include 3 free entries and a $50 bar tab.
Inside: They’ve opened the gambling room, but this time its not used as a second dance room. Instead its the cloak room. anyway, after paying entry the cloak room is on the left. Continue walking on the red carpet to the main room Dancing room and DJ with podiums on the right. Continue walking down the path to the bar area, where lounges are around and standing area for patrons to line up. At the very back is a small outdoor smoking area. 
Cloak Room: $5 per item
Bar Prices: 5 Malibu + Lemonades and a Smirnoff double black can for $52. Lines sometimes got upto 4 people deep.
Music Style: Rnb Mashed with some hip hop, pop and house.
Crowd: Almost all Australian Asians here tonight.
Entertainment: Podiums are reconfigured yet again. This time they’re all in the middle configured in a podium winner 1/2/3 style.
Atmosphere: Pretty busy throughout the night in the dance area, from what I could tell anyway. The back wasn’t packed but it was busy enough.
Video: 360 from the podium
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Video: Fast Walkthrough
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Saturday night. Dinner – completed. Dancing is on the cards. I am surrounded by Asians who love rnb. The latest hot spot is, surprisingly, Verandah Bar. Rave reviews all around. I tried to come in here last week at 1:00AM but the line wait was about 30 minutes. anyway, tonight the night was still young, so here we go!

Posing during the podium tryouts - Verandah Bar

Posing during the podium tryouts - Verandah Bar

Vanity @ Verandah Bar
Assessment Time: 11:15PM – 02:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (Assumed 10:00PM) – Unknown (Probably 4:00AM as last time I was at Bamboo, around the corner, they closed at the same time)
Lockout: I can’t remember if the security guard said 01:00AM or 01:30AM. It was definitely one of those times, but my gut is telling me 1:30AM. I’m not very helpful so far with the timing thing, am I.
Address: 60 Castlereagh St, Sydney. http://www.verandah.com.au
Occurence: Every Saturday Night
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart is encouraged. It is more smart casual as well as casual. I think most people were let in regardless of what they were wearing. Boys and wore a mix of casual/smart casual (mostly collared shirts), girls probably were also casual as well. It must be winter.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 standard cover charge. $20 on the guestlist before midnight.  You need to line up on the gustlist line in order to qualify for guestlist entry. There is a separate full-price guestlist line on the other side of the entrance, which we used. There was nobody in the full price line when we arrived. More on this later.
Guestlist: Free before 10:30PM, $20 until Midnight. Send in via the promoter websites above or to info@eso.net.au.
Inside: I was told it was refurbished (again), but it hasn’t changed since their last refurbishment. After paying your cover charge, you walk down a red carpet to the indoor entrance to the club where you are scanned by security. Walk inside to the first area, which is split by two columns forming an invisible line between the main dancefloor to hold 150-200 people (right) and the walkway (left). You can dance here as well. Walk through to the second area where the bar is and lounges and a small smoking balcony out back.
Bar Prices: I didn’t buy any drinks tonight
Cloak Room: To the right as you walk in. Pricing unknown.
Music Style: Primarily RnB tonight. We were only here for 3 hours, but there were some popular rnb songs which were played THREE TIMES over, and most others TWICE! you notice, and it annoys you, but you arent sick of these songs yet so you dance regardless. anyway it was a minor teething point to this place.
Crowd: Mostly Asian. Crowd aged probably in their low 20s. Though here I found 4 people with braces. Perhaps teenagers come here as well but are a bit more mature than ones found at Funky @ Sanctuary Hotel.
Entertainment: So there are 6 or 7 podiums in the dancefloor itself, which is insane. It looks like the norm now, its just missing a dancing pole to be exactly like bamboo, haha. Tonight was the podium dancer tryouts for a dance crew.
Atmosphere: In the dancefloor area itself, it was consistently busy and pretty lively throughout the night. people are jumping up to dance and they’re singing and what not. Pretty good. In the back area though, it was very subdued – most of the population were at the front area. I avoided this area most of the night. Later on in the night the back area became a mecca for drunk guys and fights. Pretty dangerous. More on this later :>
Eviction Count: I counted 7 separate instances of people being kicked out including 4 Fights.
Video: A Rushed Walkthrough
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Video: 360 view of the dancefloor area
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Verandah Bar Crowd around 11:30PM

Verandah Bar Crowd around 11:30PM

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