Hellfire Club Burns Out
Sydney’s Hellfire Club, one of the longest running fetish party nights since 1993, has closed its doors after 26 years and 10 months, with the venue blaming the closure on the city’s lockout laws.
Hellfire Club opened for more than 20 years ago, as a refuge for those who originally didn’t fit in with mainstream society and those who felt alienated by mainstream society. For some it was dressing up, for some it was BDSM. There were also people with bizarre fetishes, or those just looking to spice up their love life.
“We run underground events where you usually knew somebody or heard about or joined via a group. It was often a starting point for people to begin to explore their fetish, ” said Jackie, Hellfire promoter. The venue had seen appearances from Madonna and trained Richard Roxburgh for his role in Passion, which involved a story of a man who was into BDSM.
The crowd on the final night was seen to have evolved to people from all over Australia and from the whole rainbow of sexualities too – gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people.
Sadly though the venue ultimately decided it was time to take a rest and recuperate, as “in the last two years, we moved the club five times. The lockout laws have decimated venues that run parties of our size,” Jackie explained, “We got hit with a $20,000 bar minimum and a small fetish club can’t make that… it’s impossible.”
As it currently stands there are no future plans to revive Hellfire Club.
By Kirsta Cheung.
