The final stop, after visiting Northies and Sting Bar. This is where all the action is supposed to be in the Shire – so here we go!

Central dance area (2:30AM)

Central dance area (2:30AM)

Easter Saturday @ Fusion Nite/Night Spot, Cronulla
Assessment Time: 12:15AM – 02:45AM
Opening Hours: Unknown – 03:00AM
Lockout: Unsure, but likely to be enforced due to the attentiveness of RSA staff here
Address: 84 Cronulla St, Cronulla
Venue Website: No official website that I could find (I am sure I found it). FB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/FUSION-NITE-SPOT-Cronulla/234586068300
Promoter Website: Self Promoted Event
Occurrence: Every Saturday. Fridays are also open under a different event name.
Outside Line: About 20 people in front of us with a waiting time of about 10 minutes.
Dress Code: No hats are allowed in side. Anything goes here, and most are locals dressed up in casual gear – shirts, jeans etc. I met a guy inside with long dreadlocks so there you go. Girls wear whatever makes them feel sexy. I particularly very overdressed just wearing collared shirts, let alone with ties, dress shoes and blazers to match, but better than underdressed, right? 🙂
Door Policy: “How many drinks have you had?” – The standard sobriety question. At this place, the guy asking is very particular – if you look even slightly drunk then you’re denied entry. Speaking to another patron of the club, she did say it was a 50/50 chance of getting in, whether you had been drinking or not. It’s a massive clamp down here, as there probably were some incidents in the past.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $10 for the entire night. Let it be noted that there are no stamps given on your way in – That’s fine, but guess this – there are no stamps on your way out either! Huh? Yes.. why would they do such a thing? I was wondering the same thing – it turns out that every time you exit and want to re-enter the club, you need to pay an additional $10. Shameful! Does it keep the patrons inside though? Sure does.
Guestlist: None can be submitted. These guys don’t have a contactable email address that I could find.
Inside: The Fusion Nite Spot is situated on the upper level of its residence. Walk up the stairs and enter via the Southern side to face the middle of the room. On the SW corner to your left is a small bar to service the small lounge area to hold a small party of 20-30 people. Smoking area to hold about a handful of people along here as well. During busy times, there is actually a queue to go to the outside smoking area – it’s that small – and since people are not encouraged to leave.. you have to wait it out. On the NW corner is a second bar, to line up for 5 or 6 people. On the North wall is the DJ area, which is defined by the platform the DJ set stands on. On either side are lounges. To the NE corner are two pool tables and more tables and stools. This general area is a standing / drinking area. The SE/E corners is where the main bar and bathrooms area. There are also lockers and lounges. Right smack in the middle of it all is the dance floor – In the middle of this is a very thick mirrored column about 2×2 metres in the middle. Around the column is a tier of elevated podium dance area about 1 person wide, surrounded by the main dance area about 6×6 metres. This area is bordered by tables and metal poles, so the areas are pretty well defined, but there is nothing stopping you from dancing in other places around this central dance area. No drinks are allowed on the dance floor here, similar to Sting Bar’s policy. Cronulla must be the only place that I have seen purposely created signs that disallow patron to bring beverages to the dance floor.
Cloak Room: None, but I did spot some women using the lockers. I didn’t ask staff about the lockers so I am not sure if they are open to the public, but I would be guessing so, but I have no idea how the mechanism works.
Bar Prices / Line: The bar on the Eastern side is most busy, wich people constantly there placing orders. You would wait about 5 minutes for your order, which isn’t bad. If even that is too long, just hop on to the other side where the two other bars are usually less crowded and you will hopefully get an order faster here. Throughout the night there are also time-outs of 5-10 minutes, where alcohol is not allowed to be served to patrons.
Eviction Count: I saw someone nearly got kicked out, but after lots of negotiation managed to stay inside I believe.
DJs: Anthony K / Louise Love (sax)
Music Style: In the main proceedings of the night mostly a mix of Contemporary Commercial RnB and known commercial House track mash ups was being played here. Later nearing the end of the night it was more of a Hip Hop style of music, typical of a closing night of an RnB club – they even played Sexual Healing! It’s been a while since I’ve heard the clubs play that near the end of the night. This was definitely a club that fostered romance.
Crowd & Ratio: Like the other places around here, the entire crowd is pretty much local. Local Caucasian Australians are dominant here but there are also a tiny handful of islanders and Asians. Most of the guys are beefcakes though. Women are generally pretty well dressed, and looking pretty fine. Everyone here is pretty young  – ages range from teenagers to 20s… with a few late 20s early 30s too. Also some of the crowd that we saw at Sting Bar also made the trip down here later in the night. The ratio was quite okay here. It was probably on par or just slightly more guys for most of the night. Also there were plenty of people here so your options weren’t that limited.
Entertainment: No MCs or extra entertainment
Atmosphere: Pretty much all the crowded dancing action was here. Most of the people making out in the club were in the middle as well. Throughout the night it was constantly packed, so it was a bitch trying to dance well here – one can only manage to secure their own little spot and bob up and down. You actually had better luck going up on the central podium area as at least you only had two people next to you on either side, instead of being surrounded by people. Outside the immediate dance floor there was generally space for which daring people could dance here at the observation of the drinking crowd. The eastern side was quite busy with an extreme abundance of men particularly in the pool table corners. The other side was more balanced, but there were fewer people than that of the side with the main bar.

The general mood in the middle is party party with the darker lit atmosphere, lights and smoke machines helping out with the club feel tonight. The crowd seemingly are enjoying most of the songs being played tonight. Generally here the crowd is either quite friendly or tolerant, thought there were some aggravated blokes towards Marty at one time. I can’t blame them after he pretty much danced nearby near their little private space, right next to the dance floor. Besides that people were nice here. Some of the ladies were 50/50 friendly and cold.

Video: Walkthrough and Music Montage
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Just dropping by here for a quick dance as I was in the area.


Thursdays @ Albion Hotel Parramatta, Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:45PM – 12:45PM
Address: 135 George St, Parramatta
Venue Website: http://www.albionhotel.com.au
Promoter Website: Self Promoted
Occurrence: Every Thursday
Outside Line: Very short outside, did not take long to get in. You could also freely enter via the beer garden entrance tonight. Normal weekend nights you would only be allowed initial entry via the outside carpark entrance.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual is ok tonight. Tonight was a mix of casual and smart casual.. a lot of the guys just came up with their casual shirts and girls wearing casual one pieces.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free all night.
Guestlist: None
Inside: Enter via the carpark into the ‘gasworks’ nightclub room, a square-ish floor to hold 200-300 people. Stage area where bands would play during other events is converted to a dance area as well with the installation of 2 dancing poles. DJ area is up in the middle here as well. Bar on the opposite side of the room. Head outside to the beer garden about twice the size of the nightclub area, with an extra bar outside and inside the gambling area.
Cloak Room: None
Bar Prices / Line: Didn’t drink tonight. The line wasn’t that long. A probable 4-8 minute wait.
DJs: (From the website) DJ Tiklez, Anthum, G-Wizard, Tommy Funk
Music Style: Everything is covered here. Modern and retro pop, contemporary rnb, with some house tracks as well. Mostly tunes people could dance to. On the website it is listed as RnB, 80’s Funk, NRG.
Crowd & Ratio: Mostly local people from around the area – Dominantly Anglo-Saxon, mostly from a European background with the rest being Aussie. There are also Middle Eastern and Indians here. Hard pressed to find an Asian here. It was also a noticeably large proportion of men to women. About 7 to 1 on initial count. A guy told us how shit he thought tonight was. I looked around, and there were people everywhere. It was just the dominance of guys that we was probably referring to. Ages varied from teenagers to people in their 30’s.
Entertainment: No extras.
Atmosphere: Pretty dark inside here, so it does feel more of a nightclub, especially at the front. Near the back it feels more like a bar as people aren’t dancing so much up the back. Most groups of people kept to themselves here. There was this one drunk kiwi or samoan looking guy dancing, and yelling with everyone. You can tell he is drunk as he has a beer in his hand.
Video: 2x 360 views. One from the back and one from the front
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We spent an hour or two at Shark Hotel dancing around (I don’t write reviews for Puls8 @ Shark Hotel anymore – it’s the same every weekend). We decided to go upstairs after 4am, when entry became free.

Dropping by: Masif @ Space Nightclub
Assessment Time: 04:00AM – 04:15AM
Opening Time: 10:00PM – 05:00AM
Address: 109/111 Liverpool St, Sydney (2nd Level above Shark Hotel)
Venue Website: http://www.spacevenue.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.facebook.com/masifsaturdays , http://www.harddancesydney.com/ http://www.masif.org
Occurrence: Every Saturday
Outside Line: No line at time of entry 4AM.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 on guestlist before midnight. $20 otherwise. Stamp includes free entry to Hunter Bar’s day club event “Daydreams” from 5AM onwards.
Guestlist: info@masifsaturdays.com
Inside: The big room at Space has a curtain about 3/4ths of the way back, which was used, to cut off some of the space in the back not being used. It shrank the dancing area but also made the effect of a more smaller and cosier room, which works. Otherwise the room may have looked a bit more dead as the turnout isn’t so big here.
Cloak Room: Unknown
Music Style: Trance, hardstyle, Dubstep
Crowd & Ratio: Mostly guys. I am surprised at the number of people still here as well, dancing or not dancing, at 4AM. Granted, most people were standing around or too tired to dance, there were still a handful dancing on the floors themselves. I was honestly expecting a lower number of people.
Atmosphere: Dying down. Well, it was 4AM but it wasn’t dead. People are up and about.
Videos: Main Room
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Video: Secondary Trance Room
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Timeline
I had a quick dance, and even I was too tired to do much. We left quite soon after.

Thoughts
I wouldn’t mind seeing what it was like at capacity. I would imagine it to be pretty good if you are into hardstyle / contemporary trance.

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(The views expressed below are those of the author and NOT of Phat Entertainment)

Hung out at Shark after going to Haymarket and Bar Century earlier for a dance.

Got into Zaia @ Space Nightclub upstairs after 3AM, where the promoters have somewhat disappeared from the entrance, so we got free entry. There were still a number of people here.

Most of the kids here lost their energy and were sitting or standing around. A handful dancing in the big rnb room and a few more in the trance room, whose dancefloor has been resized to double the old configuration. More lighting effects in the tranceroom as well. There has not been much changes to the rnb room – Except for a large cage in the middle for the attention whores. Here’s a video walkthrough:

[VIDEO REMOVED ON REQUEST BY PHAT ENTERTAINMENT]

I was still in my suit but I managed to hold up in the Trance room. I miss shuffling. Considering I just got in here, I still had heaps of energy and was going at it like mad and everyone looks at me with awe. I am sure they were hard at it earlier in the night. Apparently it is extremely packed earlier in the night, which is suffocatingly not cool.

anyway last week at Shark Hotel (no entry was written for this) I met a girl, we agreed to hang out, and I asked her out for dinner. On the night of said date, she bailed as she was “lesbian” and “didn’t date guys”. Fine. So I moved on. Well tonight, guess who I see – yes, it was said lesbian hanging out with guys! She saw me, we said hello how are you, and she walked away. Tonight I was sober – and let me tell you, while I was chatting with her, i was thinking “thank god she cancelled on me.”

We were here for an hour before it closed at 4AM.

I can imagine coming here and it being like bamboo but on a larger scale – just really packed with nowhere to go, just like a few years back when Sir3n promoted Space. So, if you love squishy places, come here.

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Sin City Lounge and Nightclub Surfers Paradise

Sin City Nightclub Gold Coast


It was panic after booking the plane tickets – Clubs in Sydney were closed on Good Friday. But what relief to find out the clubs in Surfers Paradise all opened after midnight – score! So off we went to Sin City nightclub – here we go!

Easter Good Friday @ Sin City Nightclub
Assessment Time: 12:30-3:00am
Opening Hours: 12:00am-5:00am (Special opening times due to Good Friday)
Lockout: 3:00am
Website: http://www.sincitynightclub.com.au
Address: 22 Orchid Ave, Surfers Paradise Gold Coast, Queensland Australia
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 standard. $10 or possibly cheaper on guestlsit
Guestlist: See website. They have events everyday to which you can submit guestlists to.
Inside: Walk in with a bar on the left with podiums for girls and tables. On the right is the main dancefloor and DJ area. Dancefloor holds about 100-150 people. Elevated platforms around the columns. Balcony like area, and second bar as well on the far end. VIP lounges in the back corner. Everything is carpeted except for the dancefloor.
Cloak Room: None offered.
Bar: 12 Tequila sunrises and 12 Chatreuse shots for a total of $243
Music: A mix of modern rnb and commercial house. There is also some top 40 music.
Crowd: Being surfers paradise, mostly backpackers or people holidaying this weekend up in the Gold Coast. Most are of caucasian background.
Entertainment: All the waitresses are dressed in corsets and really short skirts / lingerie. Enough said. There are also permanent podiums for dancing on.
Atmosphere: Considering it was Good Friday, did not expect a big turnout, but since it *was* Surfers Paradise – there were a billion backpackers looking for a place to party!
Video: 360 of Sin City
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mixing in with the crowd at Space

Mixing in with the Crowd at the "119" event at Space Nightclub

Before you ask ‘Why are you here at Space??’ Well, I got free entry. If you haven’t been to Space before, well read on!!

119 ‘Chocolate Party’ @ Space Nightclub

Assessment Time: 11pm-12:30am
Opening Hours: 10:30pm-3:00am
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.club119.com http://www.infinityproductionz.com (as of April 2010 the websites are not up yet)
Address: 127 Liverpool St, Sydney (as of April 16th 2010 the venue has moved to St James Hotel)
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual OK. I had dress shoes, a collared shirt and jeans
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Full cover charge. Tonight I got free entry.
Guestlist: Info@infinityproductionz.com
Inside: Take the elevator to the third level of the building. Doors open and you are now looking into the chill out room. It’s fairly large and there are tables and stools, and lots of standing area. A bar is in the middle and on the otherside is the main DJ/dance area. In this room there is a room/hall to hold a good 750 people or so. Almost as big as the main floor at Home Nightclub. Minimal lounges around the walls.
Cloak Room: Yes, there was one offered. Pricing unknown.
Bar: One bar to service the whole club, which was enough.
DJs: Edo/Normz/Jun/D-Kutz/Siera/Kai
Music: Contemporary RnB and some Hip Hop
Crowd: Everyone here was asian. Mix of local and fobs
Entertainment: Just an MC to keep things going
Atmosphere: Chill out room was dead. Main floor was reasonably good and busy. Initially as we got in, it was dead (11pm) but it picked up a bit later.

Video: Walkthrough of Space
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View from the front of the DJ booth

View of Brooklyn's main room from the front.

Never in the history of my RnB clubbing career for 4 short years have I been bombarded with promotional material for the Grand Opening of this night. Facebook, email, posters, more facebook, more email, more posters. You would expect them to do door knocking as well. The previous event at V-Bar had finally closed and the promoters, Urban Agent, have had success on their 40/40 Saturday Nights at Brooklyn – “why not do a Friday one as well?” They think. It’s an ambitious launch, to replicate the experience of a Shanghai nightclub with waitresses and limo service to the venue from a pick up spot at world square. A friend wants to check it out, so a guestlist was organised, and I was keen to see how Brooklyn has changed since the new promoters took over. So here we go!

Shanghai Nights @ Brooklyn Hotel Sydney

Assessment Time: 10:30 – 3:00am
Website: http://www.urbanagent.com.au
Address: Cnr George and Grovenor Street, Sydney
Dress Code / Door Policy: Dress code applies. Collared shirt for guys. However casual would have gotten away with it tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Guestlist: Well well well.. this is a special point. One can usually send in a guestlist and get a $5 discount or more. Tonight, as we enter the club, the flat fee was $25, and ALL GUESTLISTS WERE CANCELLED. What the fuck! It was only 10:30. Well, apparently they were allowed to do it, because there were so many fucking people outside. They could have charged $30 or $40 and people would still have probably paid up. Total fucking rort.
Inside: A main bar dance area to hold 100 or so people with DJ elevated a metre or so above the floor. Central circular bar. Second bar at the back to primarily serve the back outdoor courtyard. The courtyard holds 2 or 300 people. A second DJ resides here as well.
Cloak Room: I can’t remember, but it was a reasonable price – $4 or something for an item.
Bar: I did not drink tonight, but they had $3.50 for shot based drinks until midnight. Much more reasonable than $17 vodka red bulls the last time I was here.
DJ: Unknown Music: RnB inside the main room. Mixed as a professional does – choruses only to keep the crowd going with the occasional commercial house song thrown in.
Crowd: Mostly if not all asian. The occasional white person and indian clubber were also represented tonight.
Entertainment: MC for the main room at night. Promoters giving out lanyards the entire night like hotcakes, I suspect it was because the lanyards had the old V-Bar “Amber” event printed on them, rendering these lanyards throwaway material. By the end of the night everybody including myself had two of these things. Head promoter is throwing out free T-shirts out to the crowd. Nice. There is also a free shuttle service from world square to Brooklyn, if you book ahead, but why World Square? My suspicion is partly to show all the people lining up ouside of Flow: “Hey, you guys going to Flow, do you get a stretch hummer? nope. we rule and you drool”. That is my conspiracy theory. (Promoters have since dropped the Stretch Hummer promotion). Later around midnight, a dancing chinese dragon came in, which had blinking lights and everything. That was pretty impressive, even though Chinese New Year was last month. Also being the grand opening night, confetti is sprayed everywhere amongst the crowd. It’s hard to not like and hate this place at the same time. To top it off, there’s also a BBQ out in the back. They’ve gone all out here.
Atmosphere: Packed like sardines inside, smokey in the back outside area. Inside the vibe was good, but still too packed for my liking. Keep reading for more details on my thoughts on this whole setup

Nom Nom Nom

Nom Nom BBQ

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