Iconic gay Sydney club Midnight Shift to close its doors
Image: Image: Ann-Marie Calilhanna.
Famous Sydney nightclub The Midnight Shift is set to close its doors after almost forty years.
The Oxford Street club will officially close on Sunday October 1, The Music has reported.
The Midnight Shift was one of the city’s biggest nightclubs in past decades, and was popular for its drag shows and trivia nights.
The Sydney Hellfire Club announced this week on Facebook that the nightclub’s closure may also mean the end of Hellfire.
“After 24 years of doing this, we are really bummed that we won’t get to celebrate The Sydney Hellfire Club’s 25th birthday in March,” The Sydney Hellfire Club posted.
“We were really looking forward to that milestone.
“That is, of course, unless some wonderfully appropriate venue offers us a lifeline to hold our Friday 27 October party… but given the ever-shrinking state of Sydney’s venues (thanks Mike Baird and the NSW Liberal Party), we’re not very optimistic about that happening.”
Social media users have shared their memories of The Midnight Shift and expressed their sadness that the venue is closing.
“So many good nights here when I lived in Sydney,” tweeted one person. “Sad, sad day!”
“Much mischief was made there over the years,” posted another.
Midnight Shift is closing, so many good nights here when I lived in Sydney. Sad, sad day!!
— Aidan Clarke (@noaid80) September 12, 2017
https://twitter.com/Richard_Carroll/status/907720657886109696
https://twitter.com/McMahonPhilly/status/907534259363205120
https://twitter.com/ThePunkRockShop/status/907197214568488960
Lockout laws, the cost of inner city living, the internet and apps, responsible service of alcohol laws, cheap recreational drugs….all contributing to the collapse of gay clubs, not only in Australia but all over western cities. A wonderful era lost forever.
It would really suck – no pun intended – to be an 18 yr old gay person nowadays. They’re so used to their phones they’ll never know how much more fun it was to dance and cruise in the clubs.