A birthday at Arthouse tonight. We kind of debated for half an hour outside in the cold, outside the venue, to whether we should go in or not. Of course, we went in eventually. A second visit for tonight’s event, let’s see how it fares:

AJ Rafael performs (1:30AM)

Flirt Saturdays @ Arthouse Hotel – Saturday Night – 11th August 2012
(some content will be similar to last week’s review)
Assessment Time: 11:35PM – 3:55AM
Opening Hours: “10:00PM” – 3:55AM. The quotes are subject to how long it takes for these guys to setup the DJ equipment and venue for the event. 
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 275 Pitt St, Sydney (near Town Hall Station)
Venue Website: http://www.thearthousehotel.com.au
Event Website: http://www.fb.com/flirtsaturdays
Promoters: Urban Agent in conjunction with 1nitestand, VIPList, Eso, and others. 
Occurrence: Every Saturday since July 2012. 
Outside Line: There is a general line and a guestlist line. When we were debating whether to go in or not, there was a line of about 10 people. After deciding to go in inside, the line had been cleared by then – we got in without trouble.  Considering the rain, at least they put one small table canopy up for whoever was standing in the front of the guestlist line. 
Dress Code / Door Policy: There was no enforced theme/dress code, so casual was definitely okay. I had a long jacket with a double layer t-shirt (Breaking some fashion crimes there) with cardigan, jeans and casual shoes. I looked very daggy, but I was cold, and I didn’t care how I looked today.  Half the crowd were casual and half were dressed smart proper. 
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 on the guestlist before 12:00AM, otherwise $25. I would recommend getting your name on a discount guestlist. 
Guestlist: Send lists to your preferred promoter or check the Facebook page for details. 
Inside:  Main Room: Enter via the cashier entrance and you are at the back of the room- It’s a large, tall, long-ish room – now split it as such. The whole left wall is lined with lounges, tables and stools. The right wall is the main bar to hold about 5 bartenders at a time, with a secondary “shots bar” with a small selection of shots. This leaves a narrow path in the middle for which people line up and mingle. Right at the front the area widens for what is the general dancefloor area to hold about 40-50 people comfortably. DJ is right at the centre front, with a sight adjustment tonight – there is a large-ish podium in the middle. This was to be reserved for AJ Rafaels performance. Guys and girls were not allowed up on here. Arthouse has gone through a few additions since my last visit, to make it more ‘club’ friendly. There has been a proper segregation between tables/lounges and the mingling area with an open panel wall in the middle – people can dance and others can drink in peace. Also laser lights and squares of LED colour lights have been installed. Let’s also chuck in a few ribbons as well to break up the space – this defintely helps in making the place feel a bit more intimate as the ceiling is like 10 metres high. There is also a common back area for smoking, general chit chat. 
Inside: Second Room: Again, the second room had a private party! Luckily the party was to end at midnight so I had the chance to finally get my grubby feet into the House music. Enter the room via cashier entrance and you are at the front. DJ on your right and bar on your left on the far end wall. In between is just dancefloor with lounges lining one wall, with large barrels (literally those barrels you see on pirate ships) along the middle length of the dancefloor to break it up. Also a tall room, and its pretty dark in here.

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Promoters have launched a new event at the refurbished Arthouse Hotel! Lets check it out – Here we go!

Flirt @ Arthouse Hotel – 4th August 2012
Assessment Time: 10:00PM – 2:45AM
Opening Hours: “10:00PM” – 4:00AM. The quotes are subject to how long it takes for these guys to setup the DJ equipment and venue for the event. People were let in at 10:30PM.
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 275 Pitt St, Sydney (near Town Hall Station)
Venue Website: http://www.thearthousehotel.com.au
Event Website: http://www.fb.com/flirtsaturdays
Promoters: Urban Agent in conjunction with 1nitestand, VIPList, Eso, and others.
Occurrence: Every Saturday since July 2012.
Outside Line: There is a general line and a guestlist line. Nobody lining up at 10PM, so we were the very first! A bit worrying as I expected at least someone to be lining up. When the doors finally opened at 10:30, there were about 30 people in line, and I was literally beginning to shiver – it was bloody cold. I felt a bit sorry for the people behind me in line, as I hear the security guy whisper to his colleague “Let them in 5 at a time – keep it (the rate of letting people in) slow” – So it is true! promoters want to keep a visible presence with people outside, while said people freeze outside. I plead on behalf of us payees, please keep us warm with an outdoor heater or something. A general tip for any clubs with separate lines – if you don’t care about entry fees, line up at the general line to get faster access into the club – security purposely let full fee payers go in as a priority, for obvious reasons.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Tonight the theme is a school uniform party – so ties and shirts were seen, but most just wore whatever they had on. Casual was okay. Girls had their one pieces on and guys were a mix of casual and well dressed. It was more of a casual affair though – my impression anyway. I had some old converse chucks, pants, cardigan with a collared shirt and my old “Class Captain” pin from primary school.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 if you were in school uniform theme. Free entry before 10:30 if you had your student ID! Well, lucky old me had a student ID, so I got free entry. The promo girls were nice to come outside to give free entry cards to whoever was in line just before the doors open, despite it being after 10:30PM. $20 on the guestlist before 12:00AM, otherwise $25. Bit pricey in general but normal for the Asian events – I would recommend getting your name on a discount guestlist at the very least.
Guestlist: Send lists to your preferred promoter or check the facebook page for details.

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Flirt @ Slide Bar

On January 16, 2009, in Hip Hop, RnB, Slide Bar, by J T

A bit tired of Havana, so I sent in a guestlist for Slide Bar and me and Josh went along to check out their opening night.

About Slide Bar
Location: 41 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, Sydney
Website: http://www.slide.com.au
Inside: On entering the venue there is a main rectangular floor area, a third of it occupied by a bar. This left room for about 50 standing people. There is also an *awesome* light up elevated dancefloor with multiple square tiles. Above the bar is an overhead 2nd level lounge area. Huge mirrors adorn the walls to check yourself out on the light up dance floor.

About Flirt
Music: Hip Hop, Rnb
Crowd: Asian
Dress Code: Casual. Sneakers and hats allowed.
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: $20 guestlist, $25 after 11.30/non guestlist.
Occurrence: Every Friday
Website: www.eso.net.au
Atmosphere: Crowded but a seemingly flat atmosphere.

Timeline
VIP entry.. pah
We lined up about 10.45pm, and waited about 30 minutes until we got in. A guy gave us ‘VIP Tickets’ for discount entry before 10.30pm. What stupidity.

Got to the door girls, and mentioned my guestlist. They hadn’t printed it out, even though it had been confirmed via email earlier in the day. Boo! Luckily they were reasonable and let me create a ‘tally’ checklist. I told them how many people I had under my name, and they would just make a tally of how many came to the door under my name.

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