Deciding between Establishment or O2 – We are all pretty indecisive. None of us have been to either place and, well, I was calling the venue tonight. A friend’s mobile rings and her ringtone is a hip hop song. Haha, well… O2 it is then… here we go!
Dancefloor under UV light - O2 Nightclub Sydney
Oxygen Saturdays @ O2 Nightclub Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:15PM – 04:00AM
Opening Hours: 9:00PM – 5:00AM
Lockout: None. I had a friend enter freely at 3:00AM
Address: 247 Pitt St, Sydney. There are no clear visible signs to get to the door. Enter the mall via the “Coolabar” sign – there might be a red carpet and standing poster to point users to the O2 nightclub. Head up two sets of escalators to reach level two, where O2 nightclub resides, opposite Coolabar itself. It is also where the Monorail station is located. Bear in mind that O2 and Coolabar are two separate venues on the same level.
Venue Website: http://www.o2nightclub.com.au
Promoter Website: http://www.meentertainment.com.au
Occurrence: Every Saturday night.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual is ok. hats are ok. On the door it was stated that “absolutely no Sports Gear allowed”, because this is the place where NRL players head to go clubbing after a big match, right? Right? (the answer is no). Tonight’s theme is a White Party. Most girls wore casual dresses. A lot of the guys here were dressed in urban street gear, complete with hats and sometimes even sunglasses. I saw a T-Pain lookalike in here, you get a glimpse of him on the dancefloor walkthrough video. I really should have research before coming here tonight – Gandalf the white would have made an easy return, but I guess not tonight.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Guestlist pricing unknown. $25 full cover charge. $20 if you were wearing white. My friend got in at 3AM for free after waiting a few moments for the door girl to pack up to go home. That’s an asian for you.
Guestlist: info@meentertainment.com.au
Inside: Walk inside to the main room on the right and the bar/lounge on the left. Bar on the left spans half the length of the venue. Around the corner near the bar are lounges / bathroom / cloak room / chill out area for 40 or so people. Back to the dancefloor, the DJ takes one corner of the wooden floor to hold about 100-140 people. There is also an upper area with a second bar – this can be reserved for special functions, and has a dancing pole and dancefloor for 20-30 people. The dance area is bathed in UV light.
Cloak Room: Cloak room services offered but it was full tonight. FULL AT 11.15PM. Ridiculous. People are putting their belongings on tables and stools nearby and hope for the best. We left our jackets behind one of the speakers on the dancefloor. At the end of the night, my jacket was covered in someone’s spilled drink. Sigh.
Bar Prices / Line: $4 for an Orange Juice. (yes, I was not drinking tonight) . Fishbowl size drinks are offered at the bar and many people are buying them.
DJs: No idea.
Music Style: Most of the songs tonight were of RnB, but this place was heavily guilty of playing Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” at least 3 times during the night. Utterly sick of that song to death now. Otherwise there were some hip hop/rap songs thrown into the mix later in the night after 1AM. There was also some house songs thrown in for mashup.
Crowd: From 11-1.30ish, it was a mixed crowd. The two main groups were Euros and Africans. There were a handful of Asians, but we were the main Asian group in here. After 1.30am, most of the white crowd had left and more of the Africans came in. Hard to tell the age of the crowd, but there was a Hen’s night here, and some older looking folk, so the crowd would be ranging from their early 20’s to early 30’s.
Entertainment: an MC to keep things going. Tonight was a white theme, so there were white balloons dotted around the place.
Atmosphere: On the dancefloor and upper level, it was pretty busy throughout the night. Not packed, but busy enough to not be able to dance freely. On the other side though, the lounge was never really full at all – you could usually find a lounge seat to rest on. When we left, the main dancefloor was still going at about 70 per cent capacity, which is very good for any place. Throughout the whole night it was pretty cool temperature wise – only one or two moments where I felt a little warm after some vigorous dancing – you could however escape to another area of the club to cool down. People mostly kept to themselves except if you knew other people here.
Video: 360 of the dancefloor 
Video: Walkthrough – Bar, Lounge, back to the main dancefloor. You can sort of spot the VIP area where the white balloons are. Taken 11PM, so still early days.
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As a member of the SocialRice group (I’m not a promoter), the group has decided to have their first clubbing night. aww! Friends were all going, so I guess I was going too, so here we go!
Crowd shot of the main room at Arthouse - 11:50PM
Studio / Black & White Party @ Arthouse Hotel Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:45PM – 02:45AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM ~ 03:00AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 275 Pitt St, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.thearthousehotel.com.au
Promoter Websites: http://www.socialrice.com.au, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sydney-Australia/IMPORT-MEDIA/90727863220 , http://www.facebook.com/pages/VISIONSHOCK-Entertainment/130776623623024
Occurrence: Appears to be a once off event, as two of the promoters were not promoting this event on their facebook pages.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Smart Casual was recommended, and it appeared pretty much everyone followed this. Collared shirts, nice shoes for the guys, and dresses for the girls. The theme for tonight was black and white.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free before 10:30PM on the guestlist, and before midnight $20. Outside of these parameters, do expect to pay $25
Guestlist: My name was on the Social Rice guestlist, but poster advocated sending lists to richard (at) importmedia.com
Inside: Walk inside. To the right is the cocktail room converted to the photography ‘Studio’ for tonight. In front is the main Arthouse room. Inside the main room, there is a bar to the right, and an open floorboard/dance area spanning the length of the room, to hold about 200 or so people. Stools and lounges spot the walls. DJ booth right at the rear end along with the primary focus of the dancing crowd. Further walk to the rear to the smoking area for 100 or so people.
Cloak Room: I couldn’t find any cloak room services here. The main room was pretty dark, so you could probably just leave your stuff around, though last time at Arthouse I did find a lost jacket.
Bar Prices / Line: $8.20 for a Tequila Sunrise
DJs: Eko, Cass, D-Seev, Gizmo, Flipz. MC Elevate on Mic duties.
Music Style: Primarily contemporary RnB and Hip Hop. Occasional house mashups as well. I did note the DJ’s near the end of the night had an amazingly bad mixing moment. He just cut off the song right into the next song without transition. Probably it happens all the time but it was the first time I noticed myself dancing for a bit and then suddenly stop and lose all rhythm, and thought to myself “wow that was a total mood killer”. Otherwise music was pretty danceable to – I wasn’t paying much attention as I caught up with friends.
Crowd: Pretty much entirely asian. A handful of lost caucasians in the mix. Mostly in their 20’s
Entertainment: The primary addition for tonight’s clubbing event was the Photography Studio. You were able to walk in, grab yourself some canapes if you chose to do so, and take a photograph under the two umbrella lights with some professional photographers, all for free. Pretty snazzy.
Atmosphere: The dancefloor area directly in front of the DJ was pretty busy. The dancefloor alongside the bar is moderately busy, and the space between the bar and the front entrance is pretty much dead. (The space would have held an extra 40 or so people). At around 2AM the place was starting to die out and by 2:30 it was pretty much only the dance-a-holics left.
Video: Walkthrough Main Room then Studio 
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Note: This event has been superseded by the “Pacha” event as of November 2012. Review at http://www.jamestran.net/?p=4218
A drop by here on urging from a friend . an unintentional visit, but I suppose we can go see what its like!
Ivy Bar Dancing Girls
Pureivy Saturdays @ Ivy Bar Sydney
Assessment Time: 11:00AM – 01:15AM
Opening Hours: 6PM – “Late”. Late being at least 3AM
Lockout: Unknown
Address: 320 George St, Sydney
Venue Website: http://www.merivale.com/ivy/ivybar
Promoter Website: http://www.experienceentertainment.com.au, http://www.pureivy.com.au
Occurrence: Every Saturday
Dress Code / Door Policy: Collared shirts are expected with a tidy appearance. Girls are very neat and beautiful. Guys are similarly dressed very well in here. You probably would call this place pretentious.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $20 flat entry charge. On guestlist, it is $15 before 11PM
Guestlist: rsvp@pureivy.com.au, guestlist@pureivy.com
Inside: Line up at the back lane entrance behind George St. Two ways to enter, via the stairs to Level 1 or via the Elevators to the level 2 area. If going up via the stairs, you walk up to be presented with the bar on the left, restaurant and lounges on the right. In the middle of the courtyard is the dancing area for about 70-80 people with DJ above the water feature in front. Garden plants are spotted around the open area. Lounges and second bar in the far right corner. Walk up the spiral staircase to a bar, and more lounges in a one way walkway pattern around the perimeter of the building. From Level 2 you can peer down the middle to the bottom level. The decor is of someone’s clean backyard with colours of white and yellow throughout
Cloak Room: No cloak room services
Bar Prices: I didn’t drink tonight, but I overheard from a girl buying drinks that upstairs is more expensive than downstairs. Friend bought two drinks which cost him around $26 downstairs. This place is not cheap.
DJs: Resident night – Minx, Tass
Music Style: Popular songs mixed in a electro house/ house manner. The tempo is not too fast, and the DJ has a saxophone player and bongo drum player for support. It’s pretty similar to what one gets at Cargo Bar or Bungalow 8. It’s a safe music style.
Crowd: Mostly Caucasian here. Mostly older crowd of 20’s and above. There were a few spots of Asians and blacks here. Normal folk would call this crowd pretentious, and I guess in some ways they are, but I just see it as they don’t want to get all dirty and sweaty as in a normal club. Well, maybe that is pretentious. I found that the crowd was seemingly friendly. Perhaps it was the dancing types that are friendly, and not the normal bar types who don’t dance at all who give the pretentious perception for the rest of these well dressed guys.
Entertainment: The DJ has a live saxophone and bongo drum player. There are also for periods of time, 2 dancers dressed in white whom dance in the center garden piece.
Atmosphere: Pretty airy, pretty cool, thanks to the open ceiling. Inside the dancefloor, people are just bobbing about. It’s too squishy in here to be able to properly dance without hitting other people. You could really only raise your hand in the air and wave it around when a favourable song begins to play. Seeing as the bar was of an open air design, people are free to smoke as they please anywhere in the middle courtyard.
Video: Walkthrough Level 2 and Level 1
Video: 360 of the dance area
Main courtyard dance area taken from the back
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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
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 
Video: Fast Walkthrough 
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Random photo of me and Pikachu - Beauty and the Geek theme
I already did Sanctuary Hotel last week – I do try to avoid going to the same venue twice in a row – you risk getting bored easily. The problem was that I made a promise to a friend I would come here tonight. Well, apparently it would be even more busier than last week – lets find out shall we!
The views expressed below are those of the author and NOT of Phat Entertainment
Funky @ Sanctuary Hotel (EDIT 16TH SEPTEMBER 2010: THIS EVENT IS NO LONGER RUNNING)
Assessment Time: 9:00PM – 02:00AM
Opening Hours: 10:00PM – 03:00AM (?)
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.funkybuddha.com.au, http://www.phatentertainment.com.au
Address: 545 Kent St – Corner of Liverpool and Kent St, Sydney. Behind 3 wise monkeys.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Tonight, the theme is Beauty and the Geek! Casual OK. Hats allowed. Guys are wearing a mix of casual and smart casual. Girls are mostly in dresses. I saw someone walk in with a Pikachu outfit.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 Standard Entry, $20 on guestlist. Free before 10:30PM. The only slight hope you could get in before 10:30 was to be on a birthday guestlist, and line up in the birthday guestlist line at 9PM. If you got there 9:30PM, you wouldn’t make it. We were on a standard non-birthday guestlist. We got there 9PM AT THE VERY FRONT, and we only managed to get in after 10:30PM! We just stood there as we saw birthday guest after birthday guest walk in. We even stood there watching hopelessly as people off the street just cut the line! Amazing that bouncers could not be more strict on this or have a more foolproof way of being fair on people who actually lined up. Usually lining up 9PM gets you in before 10:30 but the organisers have actually done the right thing, and let the birthday lists have priority. This is how it is meant to be, unlike other venues where it is first come first serve, with birthday people not given priority at all. Well at least cut us normal people some slack. 90 minutes in the cold – give me my $5 discount!!!
Guestlist: info@phatentertainment.com.au
Occurence: Every Saturday
Inside: The entrance is not at the normal Sanctuary Hotel entrance. It is via the TAB area further along on Kent St. The room upon entry is where people can have a chat and chill out without actually going outside. Walk in further to the main area, and the large carpeted room has been converted to a dancefloor. DJ on the wall, and a 3 tier podium smack in the middle, dividing the room into two halves. Bar along the far back wall.
Cloak Room: Cloak services are located in the entry room. Standard rip off prices for the event. I think it was $4 for small bags, and $8 for large bags, possibly $5/$10. Who knows. I avoided the cloak room and placed my stuff behind the ATM on the dancefloor. It held up the whole night.
Bar: I didn’t buy any drinks tonight. Waiting time 3-4 minutes or less.
DJs: Sefu, etc etc.
Music: Mostly Contemporary RnB / Pop, with the occasional house mashup.
Crowd: Mostly Asian, and mostly teenagers
Entertainment: Last week the podium was a three tiered podium. This week it is 3 separate podiums. One podium was rectangular to hold upto 5 or 6 people, while the other two were solo podiums which could hold upto 3 people. This freed up some dance room to walk around. Also an MC to keep things up.
Atmosphere: It got pretty busy quite quickly, then it got immensely packed on the dancefloor. Lounge areas – most seats are taken.
Video: Walking around the dancefloor
[Video removed on request by Phat Entertainment]
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Me with one of the fans in the attempt to keep the temperature cool
It’s my birthday weekend, but I really didn’t plan anything for Saturday. A friend has invited me to Sanctuary Hotel – The last time I walked in, the air con wasn’t working correctly for large crowds and it became stuffy and overheated. Since then I have been assured things were ‘fixed’. So let’s check it out – here we go!
The views expressed below are those of the author and NOT of Phat Entertainment
Funky (Buddha) @ Sanctuary Hotel (edit 16TH sept: THIS EVENT IS NO LONGER RUNNING)
Assessment Time: 12:15AM to 02:45AM
Opening Hours: 10:30 – Unknown
Lockout: None
Website: http://www.funkybuddha.com.au, http://www.phatentertainment.com.au
Address: 545 Kent St – Corner of Liverpool and Kent St, Sydney. Behind 3 wise monkeys.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. Hats allowed.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 standard. $20 on guestlist before midnight.
Guestlist: info@phatentertainment.com.au
Occurence: Every Saturday Night.
Inside: The entrance is not at the normal Sanctuary Hotel entrance. It is via the TAB area further along on Kent St. The room upon entry is where people can have a chat and chill out without actually going outside. Walk in further to the main area, and the large carpeted room has been converted to a dancefloor. DJ on the wall, and a 3 tier podium smack in the middle, dividing the room into two halves. Bar along the far back wall.
Cloak Room: Cloak room is located upon entry. Not utilized tonight but I would imagine it to be the same rip off pricing as of previous nights at the previous Verandah Bar venue.
Bar: Did not utilize tonight, but the wait was a bit longer than usual. Line was 2 or 3 deep. Bar closed altogether at 2:30AM, in a safe assumption that too many fights spoil the bar.
Music: RnB, Pop and some House mashup
Crowd: Mostly Asian. Mostly teenagers or early 20’s. You can tell via the baby faces and hair styles. I fit right in.
Entertainment: Podium dancers throughout the night. It’s good enough.
Atmosphere: It’s setup to encourage lots of dancing, which is good. The humidity of the last time I was here is gone – Fans are installed and air con is setup just right for a danceable experience. People are not as friendly but what else do you expect from 18 year olds. Carpeted area gives the place a more friendly vibe as well as the second room to allow people a breather is also good. It’s also pretty busy on the dancefloor itself, enough to have your own dance, but not sardine packed.
Fights: I saw two fights break out tonight. One you may see typically at a club, but two in one night is bad. Ha. Teenage angst and alcohol.
Videos:
Walkthrough of the dancefloor area.
[Video removed on request by Phat Entertainment]
360 View
[Video removed on request by Phat Entertainment]
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Looking for a place to go. Lowenbrau was too packed in the dance floor area, and nobody wanted to go to The Orient, as the crowd seemed a bit too old, and plus there was a $5 charge (we are asian) so off we go to the Argyle – here we go!
Saturdays @ The Argyle
Address: The Rocks, Sydney, http://www.theargylerocks.com
Dress Code / Door Policy: Strictly smart. Collared shirts for guys, dresses for girls, or nice pants. Casual is frowned upon and you are unlikely to get in if you are wearing such material.
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Free
Guestlist: None
Occurence: Every week
Inside: The bar is two levels, but dancing only occurs upstairs, where the DJ is.
Cloak Room: Free Upon entry. It is compulsory to use the cloak room. (?)
Bar: Three bars to serve the entire place.
Music: House (I don’t remember)
Crowd: Mostly Aussie and Euro. There are also asians and Indians.
Entertainment: No extra entertainment
Atmosphere: It seemed a bit more dead than usual tonight. Blame it on the very cold weather tonight. However the place was still busy for most of the night, just not as busy as you expect Argyle to be.
Video: 360 of the top dancing level
Timeline:
We just danced, but not that much. There wasn’t much room to dance so when there was suddenly a 2×2 metre spot that opened, I took it and belted out the moves. Everyone is staring. M joins in, and everybody loves us. It’s fun, but I think we only danced for 20 or so minutes tonight.
Also, I met a girl dancing guessed her name was Cherie. She said it was Sherry. Close enough. I am pretty awesome.
Arrivederci
Left as the place was quickly dying. I think it was 02:30AM.
Recommendation
Not a place for pure dancing. The Argyle is a place for drinking and dancing if you want. Recently renovated it looks pretty good as well. Check it out for a drink if anything else. No rating as this place doesn’t qualify.