This place has been on my to-do list for quite some time now.. let’s check it out!
Me2 @ Home Nightclub (The Terrace Level Only Upstairs)
Assessment Time: 11:20PM – 3:15AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (10:00PM?? – 4:00AM ??)
Lockout: I asked security at 2:30AM if there was a lockout. “What would you like it to be?” is the sly response. Definitely not a lockout.
Address: 101 Wheat Road Darling Harbour, Sydney. Home Nightclub is next to IMAX theatre. BE CAREFUL about entry! Entry to the Terrace is on to the RIGHT of the main entrance. It is NOT the main entrance. I am sure a handful of people have stumbled into the main entrance to find themselves amongst the Sublime crowd. RnB lovers in a trance room. That is an experience I’d like to see.
Venue Website: http://www.homesydney.com
Event Website: http://www.facebook.com/me2sydney
Promoter Website: Dynamic Entertainment http://www.dynamicau.com , Mizuya Entertainment http://www.MizuyaEntertainment.com.au
Occurrence: Every Friday since July 2011
Outside Line: No line outside, just the promoters. After 5 minutes of the door girl desperately trying to find our names, she gave up and let us in anyway after I showed her our confirmation email. It was quite interesting as she had at least 10 pages full of names of 100 names each page, and yet my name wasn’t on there.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart casual is encouraged, but there were people (guys AND girls) who came in casual t-shirts / singlets without any issue. Hats, I didn’t see anybody wear, as everyone here had some blown up Asian hairstyle, and when you have a crazy hair style, you don’t want to ruin it by putting on a hat. Nobody likes hat hair.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full charge. $20 on guestlist.
Guestlist: I sent a guestlist the evening prior, and got confirmation pretty quickly from two different promoters the same night. It was a shame that when we rocked up tonight, our names were NOT on the guestlist. What a shock. Luckily I had my brand new spanking smart phone (which was NOT an iPhone, haha) and showed her the two confirmation emails. She let us in with discounted entry. But seriously, if I didn’t have those emails, I would be pretty upset at this point knowing I’d have to pay $25.
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I have literally finished with the Stereosonic Festival and ready to clunk out at home. On the way to my car, a friend calls me: “PARTY IN THE CITY TONIGHT JAMES!”. The problem is that I’m wearing this giant toothpaste costume, and its covered in dust, dried sweat, and spilled drinks from the hours prior. “Don’t know if your costume will get in, but try anyway!” is the reply to my question. Okay, good enough.
An hour later and I have arrived. Dress code here is Smart Casual, but I have a strong suspicion that they are very lenient tonight regarding dress code, due to Stereosonic removing pretty much more than half of the crowds from the city’s clubs tonight. Suspicion confirmed, as the security allows the giant toothpaste costume through without any questions. The toothpaste party continues! Here we go!
Most of the crowd @ 2AM
Sassy Saturdays @ World Square Pub (Formerly known as Equilibrium)
Assessment Time: 12:50AM – 3:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (Facebook page states 8PM, but I think 10PM?) – 3:00AM tonight.
Lockout: Unknown.
Address: 680 George St, Sydney. Google Map Link: http://g.co/maps/wvqjz
Venue Website: http://www.worldsquarepub.com.au
Promoter Website: Appears to be a multiple promoter event. Dynamic Entertainment (http://www.dynamicau.com) & SyndicateEvents.com.au and others.
Occurrence: Every Saturday since September 2011
Outside Line: A handful of people, but we got in within 5 minutes.
Dress Code / Door Policy: As mentioned before, usually a no daggy clothing policy applies, but due to Stereosonic being on, the dress code was pretty much open. Costumes and hats were freely allowed in. Though marty was asked to remove his wig when he was inside.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: You would have thought I remembered how much the charge was here. Last time I was here at this event (no review was written) it was $20, but from the depths of my memory it MAY have been $25, but I cannot remember. Either way, it is at least $20 for full entry. If you are on the guestlist, a discount probably applies before either midnight or 11PM. You will need to contact a promoter for exact details on this one.
Guestlist: If you can find a promoter, go through them, otherwise send an email to: Youngnsassy.saturdays@gmail.com
Inside: Previous weeks had the event held upstairs but tonight it appears that only downstairs was open. Perhaps they expected a low turnout tonight. Regardless, enter into the ground level to enter the “stand around” atrium like area, with dancefloor on the right to hold about 80-120 people. In front of you is the corner of the bar. It extends down the left side where there are lounges and tables. On the left is the outdoor smoking area. it’s a long space and enough for most people to get a lounge seat or a table.
Cloak Room: No cloak room facilities tonight.
Bar Prices / Line: Unknown, but you could get service pretty much right away.
Bathroom Facilities: Pretty clean and maintained well tonight.
Eviction Count: None spotted. There were not that many people here tonight anyway.
DJs: Dirty Dex for most of the night.
Music Style: Pop, House, RnB , and many “Songs dedicated to the people from Stereosonic” – mostly LMFAO songs or something house related lol. All from the same DJ so minimal song repeating, if any.
Crowd: Mostly Asian tonight. It’s a mix of local and international Asians. also as the night progressed on, the crowd became more and more comprised of people dropping in from Stereosonic. I would suspect that without the Stereosonic crowd, tonight would have been pretty dead, as are the clubs out there. Rest of the crowd were a handful of South Asians/ Indians, and some Caucasians.
Ratio: Despite low numbers, the ratio was fairly even throughout most of the night.
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We had just left a dress up party, and simply put this was the closest place nearby for a dance… a guestlist was sent a day earlier – here we go!
1AM - Taken from the DJ Podium
WOW @ Martin Place Bar , Sydney
Assessment Time: 12:10AM – 4:00AM
Opening Hours: Unknown (Probably 10:00PM) –
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 51 Martin Place
Venue Website: http://www.martinplacebar.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.urbanagent.com.au http://www.facebook.com/WOWSaturdays http://www.ohsnap.com.au
Occurrence: Every Saturday since Winter 2011. This replaced the previous “Bamboo” event running for the 6 years prior. It’s run under the same promoters though. At time of writing it appears the “Bamboo” event will make a return under a new venue.
Outside Line: It was quite the long line our late arrival after midnight. We ended up waiting about 25 minutes before we got inside the club. This is typical for a busy event. I would try to get here before 10:30 if you want to have shorter lines – but in return you’re going to get a dead club upon entry.
Dress Code / Door Policy: “Strict” no hat policy was advertised, but it was weakly enforced. I had my hectic punk hair on. Someone else was dressed as a Chef, complete with a Chef’s hat. Most guys and girls were dressed at minimum smart casual and dressy/chic/sexy.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full entry was paid. Discounted entry before 12:30AM if you sent in a guestlist prior.
Guestlist: wow@ohsnap.com.au I sent a guestlist the day before but there was no confirmation – however it did turn up on the list while people before me entered. Sadly enough when I got to the cashier it was too late.
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2AM. Phone rings from a girl – It can only mean.. Booty call!! “No” is the answer. Aww.
Even better though – it’s an invitation to go clubbing! Hooray!
At 2AM??
Haha, well I was already in the city, so might as well drop on by – here we go!
Upstairs 2AM general dancefloor shot
Volar @ Civic Hotel:
Assessment Time: 2:00AM – 2:45AM
Crowd: Asian – mixed Internationals and Local Asians. Mostly guys at this time.
Music: RnB
Atmosphere: Packed inside on the dancefloor. there were enough sofas around to sit down on, but nobody here was in a dancing mood.
Bar: The bar appeared to still be busy, but only with a row of people at the front instead of 4 or 5 rows deep.
Entry Fee: Full $25 forked out for this quick visit.
Video:
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Friends are at Pontoon Bar tonight, so this should be a good chance to see how it has progressed since opening night. Here we go!
12:40AM Upper Level Bar Line
Perfect @ Pontoon Bar (Ground Level and Upper Level: Wallaby Bar)
Assessment Time: 12:05AM – 2:45AM
Opening Hours: The bars are open throughout the day, but the event opens 9:30PM. Tonight it closes at 4:00AM
Lockout: Around 2:30AM, but definitely no re-entry after 3:00AM
Address: Cockle Bay Wharf (201 Sussex St from the other side)
Venue Website: http://www.pontoonbar.com
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/perfectnights or http://www.theperfectnight.com.au
Occurrence: Every Friday since April 2011. Note that this is the event that succeeded Flow Fridays @ World Square Pub, after it closed.
Outside Line: Arriving just after midnight, there was a huge massive line outside the downstairs entrance. A good 70+ people waiting, which is ridiculous. So I went to the second, lesser known entrance upstairs. There was a pretty long line here too, but only about 30 people or so. It took 30 minutes to get in. This was including some folk who joined the line and got sick of waiting, and left. This was also the first week off for pretty much every tertiary school student in Sydney, so people were out clubbing in their droves.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Hats allowed. Most guys are casual in jackets jeans, pants due to the winter. It is encouraged by promoters to go ‘dressy’, but I did spot a friend dressed in sweatpants and a jumper, so there you go. Again due to winter, many girls have leggings on but most brave the cold and wear their clubbing dresses on. I actually paid attention to the dresses tonight and there were a number of questionable leopard print designs tonight. Tonight I wore a blazer, jeans, collared shirt, white sneakers and my ‘bad hair day’ cap.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 full charge. $20 on guestlist before 11:30PM , $15 if it is a birthday guestlist.
Guestlist: Ends at 11:30PM. Email info@theperfectnight.com.au
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No reason for tonight’s festivities, except my friend wants to get hammered. That’s the spirit… so a guestlist was organised, I dragged pretty much as many friends as I could and we were set – here we go!
Boys shall be boys
Bounce @ Slide Bar
Assessment Time: 10:15PM – 03:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 03:00AM, but doors only opened 10:15PM.
Lockout: Lockout at around 2:30AM as noted by security.
Address: 41 Oxford St, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.slide.com.au
Promoter Website: The guys at Red and Blue events run off a Facebook profile page http://www.facebook.com/bounce.kpop.party
Occurrence: Typically once every month or two months, depending on how they feel.
Outside Line: Friends started lining up at 10:00PM and there were about 5 people in front of them. When the doors opened the line got to about 20 deep. Later in the night at around 11:00PM, the line was observed to be 30 deep. The wait didn’t seem to take long, as they freely allowed people in. The wait would have been around 10 to 15 minutes.
Dress Code / Door Policy: There is no suggested dress code by the promoters. Guys: Most guys wore collared shirts. Normal t-shirts were allowed inside as well. Sneakers are okay. Hats are allowed here. I wore a collared shirt with black pants. Some clever girls wore bunny ears! I’m so doing that next time…
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 full cover charge. $15 on guestlist. It’s $5-$10 cheaper compared to all the other Asian events held on Fridays.
Guestlist: redandblueevents@hotmail.com – I brought 10+ friends, and got a complimentary bottle of champagne to share around as a reward. Very cool 🙂
Inside: Walk into an open floor to hold about two hundred people. The floor includes an elevated dance platform in which the floor tiles light up and change colours. Bar to the left for a length of about 20 people. DJ booth is in the far right corner. Overhanging the bar back on the left is a balcony for private functions and what not, to hold about 60 people in a squishy fashion. The upstairs balcony has its own separate bar as well. There is also a large projector screen behind the DJ where they are playing random clips from Asian television
Cloak Room: $5 per item. However I did get a little surprise that my large sports bag qualified for the special $10 offer as not advertised. Sweet! I didn’t ask why, but I suspect it was because it had other jackets and bags inside. (Cloak room girl asked me earlier what I had inside the bag)
Bar Prices / Line: Tonight’s specials were $6 Alize & Sprite, $6 Bourbon and Coke. I drank a glass of house red wine for $8; It was grossly bitter – never again. It was fun though feeding the wine to unsuspecting friends, and watching their faces twitch in disgust.
Eviction Count: One of my friends was kicked out for being too touchy feely with the girls around here, and creeping them out. Unfortunately I’m going to be a bad friend and say I can’t disagree. Guys.. girls don’t like it when you are grabbing a handful within 30 seconds of interaction.
Music Style: Primarily RnB and K-Pop (Korean pop). A handful of house, and hip hop songs are scattered throughout the night as well. So if you are a fan of K-Pop, you are going to like it tonight. Even if you haven’t heard of any K-Pop songs – they are pretty catchy to dance along to.
Crowd & Ratio: That said, pretty much everyone here is Asian, with the majority being that of Korean descent. Both Australian Koreans and Koreans from overseas are here tonight. The rest are a mix of whatever Asian races there are left. At around midnight the ratio was pretty good/even.. but of course as the night wears on, the girls leave and there are heaps more guys. However there were plenty of people, so there were still plenty of women around. Ages would vary here, but the general gist of the crowd is that of people in their early 20’s.
Entertainment: All that the promotional poster mentioned was that it was a ‘naughty’ event. They brought a female stripper in. This was followed by an equally entertaining guy strip show. More on these later in much more detail in the timeline.
Atmosphere: The first hour or so the music is blaring out the speakers, but people are only drinking and chatting. Nobody dares to go up onto the dancefloor. Eventually though, effects of alcohol and a crowd that is building up gets people going. Pretty much from that point on, the crowd was constantly on the dancefloor going hard at it. Even when we left at 3AM, it was still packed! This was a first for my times here, as usually it would be dead by 2:30AM. I could only attribute this to being the beginning of the 5 day long weekend, so everyone was going hard out at it. Needless to say the atmosphere on the dancefloor and immediate surrounding areas was pretty energetic, especially when they play a random K-Pop song and everyone sings along to it.
Video: Music Sampling of the night
Bounce @ Slide Bar – Crowd
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