Manacle celebrates officially

Manacle will officially relaunch with a week-long program of fetish events starting this Tuesday and culminating in a free party on Friday 29 August, to welcome new and old patrons alike into the refurbished premises of the Clarence Hotel.

Three months after opening its doors, Manacle is set to tell the world it’s back -” chain spider web and all -” to satisfy the needs of the fetish crowd while branching out into new areas of entertainment.

Co-owner Stuart Fraser said in the months since the unofficial opening public response to the new premises has been overwhelming, with numbers exceeding all expectations.

We’ve seen people coming through in fetish that we’ve never seen before, Fraser told Sydney Star Observer.

Obviously for us the move has mainly been about going where our demographic is, and the numbers have shown us that 70 percent of our crowd comes from the inner west.

Obviously there are going to be people who aren’t happy with the move, but that’s fine and, for us, are we missing Oxford St? Not really.

So far we’ve seen a number of our regulars coming through and others that used to come that we haven’t seen in a while, but you have to keep in mind that we’ve been able to get those numbers without advertising since we moved, and during the winter months, so we’re not too worried about how it’s going to go.

For Fraser and his partner Andrew Clarke the move away from Oxford St was about more than escaping escalating violence and straight influences along the strip, with the pair taking the opportunity to launch a range of new initiatives to cater to a wider range of patrons including: monthly wine tastings, a social group, live music and theatre and even a Clarence community fund to assist worthy groups like the Rangers Football Club, Sydney Jets and the Sydney Pop Choir.

This isn’t going to be a one night a week operation, it will be an all-week affair, Fraser said.

It means just as much to us to have Manacle running five nights a week as it does to give space to social groups, which is what this space will allow us to do.

I suppose coming from where we have, with 20 years of involvement with the fetish community, we were just at a point where we thought, -˜There has to be more to offer than just parties.’

It is an ethos which shines through the range of events planned over the next week for the opening celebration, including wine tasting, male jelly wrestling, MANouvres, the official party on Friday night and the return of Bent on Sunday.

For information on next week’s events or to stay in touch with upcoming developments at the Clarence, head to www.clarencehotel.com.au.