Sydney’s nightlife set for a shake-up

City of Sydney’s consultation into expanding and improving the city’s night time economy is in full swing.

Suzie Matthews, the Manager of the Late Night Economy for City of Sydney said that it was essential for cities like Sydney to have a thriving late night scene.

“A night time economy is more than just bars and clubs,” she said. “Examples like Jurassic Lounge at the Australian Museum are a brilliant example of what makes a really great city nightlife.

“Great cities of the night have diversity and I think this is a wonderful opportunity that Sydney has in front of it now to open itself up to these innovative uses of traditional spaces that we really associate with daytime use.”

To investigate what kind of late night activities Sydneysiders should expect to emerge from the consultation, City News hit the streets in search of some unique nightlife events which already call Sydney home.

The Art House Hotel on Pitt Street is what some would call the beating heart of late night art in the CBD, featuring architecture from 1836, the heritage listed building is home to a variety of art and entertainment events including cabaret, life drawing and photography workshops.

Ben McBeath General Manager of the Art House Hotel said that having a variety of artistic events gave the Hotel “a different artistic context” every night.

“Everyone needs more than just a late-night drinking hole now,” Alissa Angell, Marketing Manager and Art Curator for the Hotel said. “People are looking for something a bit different.”

Monday nights from 5:30 over 130 people regularly pack the Art House’s Dome for life drawing classes. The event has been running for almost ten years and is the most consistently popular event on the Art House’s schedule.

Ms Angell said she thought the idea of breathing life into the late night economy was a wonderful one.

“Especially because of all the scrutiny that late night venues have got going on at the moment, a lot of businesses are really suffering at the moment from restrictions. The Art House has been lucky to have all the different spaces and different events keeping us afloat and these are the things that keep people interested in our venue.”

Dr Sketchy’s is one of the other popular events put on by the Art House. Held fortnightly on Tuesday’s it is described as “what happens when cabaret meets art school”.

“Sketchy’s is more party than Life Drawing, it’s a fun environment to draw and there are activities to make people interested and give them a reason to come out on a Tuesday night,” Ms Angell said.

“I think the city needs lots of things like this and lots of places are going that way.”

Jurassic Lounge is an event at the Australian Museum featuring art, live music, dance, film and drinks. The event ran from February to April in an attempt to attract an over 18 audience to the Australian Museum after dark. The event ran on Tuesday nights from 5:30pm to 9:30pm and proved so popular that a new season is due to be announced soon.

“It was great, it kept getting bigger and bigger,” a spokesperson for the Australian Museum said.

Matt Ravier is Artistic Director of Jurassic Lounge, he said the event started as an experiment to “see if we could bring people of the 18-35 age group back into the Australian Museum”.

“We introduced a live band, DJ’s, a disco, live performances, live art and of course a pop-up bar and people just started coming.”

“It’s this blend of entertainment, infotainment, information and education that works really well,” Director of the Australian Museum Frank Howarth said. “People have really got a buzz out of the whole thing.”

For your say on the night time economy go to http://sydneyyoursay.com.au/.