SMALL BAR TO CLUB FOR GAY XMAS

By Samuel Leighton-Dore

Once a proud fixture of Sydney’s queer nightlife, The Imperial Hotel in Erskineville has had a real shitty few years. The LGBTQI institution went from gracing international silver screens as one of the prime locations in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, to making local newspaper headlines for all the wrong reasons.

With Sydney’s late night industry under duress, The Imperial’s newly refurbished techno jaunt, The Spice Cellar, turned out to be the straw that broke the peaking camel’s back in 2015. Lockout laws, neighborhood noise complaints, and a growing reputation for readily available pingers and general raucousness all contributed to its eventual closure; leaving a giant hotel-shaped hole in our ever-thudding, party-loving hearts.

But all hope is not lost!

The hotel was recently bought (for $6.5 million) and reopened as a small cocktail bar, promising to deliver the warm, encouraging atmosphere of years past. Now in the capable hands of Scott Leach (owner of Ersko’s The Rose Hotel) and Fraser Shaw (founder of Sydney Collective), only time will tell whether the inner-west’s favourite gay drinking hole can be restored to it’s former glitter-fueled glory.

In the meantime, we’re pretty bloody stoked to have gained #exclusive permission to bring back the bad-ass beats for one night only in celebration of (Heaps) Gay Xmas 2016. We’re talking full venue. March 5th. Over 50 performers, artists, and musicians split across 3 rooms for a night of colour, music and total mayhem. Porcelain Alice bears all in her burlesque show, The Magda Szubanskis are back after their Vivid Sydney debut with a new show to blow you away. Jonny & Paul + The Tennis Boys have got your music covered. Bloody hell the list goes on.