No Hordern for Sleaze
Sleaze Ball will not include the Hordern Pavilion this year.
A Mardi Gras email to members this afternoon stated the decision not to engage the Hordern Pavilion was twofold: it would allow New Mardi Gras “to fundraise and to keep our high production standards”, plus the venue’s owners had taken a dance party booking for the following night.
“It also allows us to lower prices across all ticket types, and to reintroduce our policy of two tickets per member,” the email stated.
“Despite the long-standing booking with the Hordern and a history of having several days either side to produce Sleaze, the owners accepted a rival production taking place the following night in the same venue.”
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New Mardi Gras co-chair Nick Parker described the change as ‘unfortunate’.
“The issue of leaving the Hordern this year was unfortunate, but we found ourselves in the position of having to make a choice,” he said.
“Faced with the options of a restricted and more expensive party, or a shift to a different part of our usual footprint that allowed us to raise more funds, increase accessibility for our communities through lower pricing and put more into the event creatively – the decision was clear.
“In the end we remain on the same general footprint as every year, except we can now lower prices, enjoy multiple venues and explore innovative ways to produce the high quality event Sleaze Ball deserves to be. Our booking at the Hordern remains in place for next year, at which point we can re-evaluate.
New Mardi Gras CEO Michael Rolik said the upside of being unable to use the Hordern Pavilion at this year’s Sleaze Ball was that ticket prices for the party would be less.
“As with all our events, quality and experience of our members and patrons are first and foremost,” he said.
“We want to be able to provide a choice of venues to our partygoers, and for them to be packed with exciting DJs, performers and to experience an outstanding party atmosphere. Now you can expect a reinvigorated Sleaze, and you’ll spend less.
“In the coming weeks we’ll announce a very sexy theme along with our exciting line-up and other surprises. We hope lower prices will encourage
more partygoers to return to this community event. We are determined to arrest Sleaze’s shrinking of recent years, and grow numbers this year. This
format allows us to do that.”
info: Sleaze Ball will be held on October 2.
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It’s a bit disappointing, but I reckon let’s wait and see before getting in a tizz.
In other news – Argentina legalises same-sex marriage, GLBT rights progress in Peru, and suicide is higher than ever in our community.
Yet judging from the abundance of comments here, most of us are more concerned about which venues are being used at our next dance party!
Although I am still giggling at Peter’s comment.
RIP Mardi Gras
RIP Sleaze
Hope the board says sorry to 78ers for killing what they started.
Steph,
I don’t particularly care that the Hordern will not be used for Sleaze this year and I can understand that NMG may not want to enter into a co-production arrangement with the “rival party”, but you really have to cut the spin..
You say, “The fact is that we had a booking for the Hordern this year, and we have one for next year too!” and that not booking the Hordern “isn’t an “admin error” or forgetting to book a venue.”
So if that’s the case, why did NMG have to drop a venue cos they NEED to have time before/after the event to bump in/out? Why did NMG not BOOK THE VENUE FOR THE TIME NEEDED?
And to avoid this problem happening again, have you booked the Hordern next year for the time needed to bump in and out? Or are you going to hope that you are lucky next year that no “rival” parties will book the venue again on the next day?
A second year running where the NMG Board failed to book a venue for the time they needed!
This NMG Board is so incompetent..
I suggest all members join me to try vote this lot out and get a clean slate..
Sad to say but Sleaze is over.
Yep and there you are Michael quickly criticising yourself about peoples posts and about Sleaze.
Pot Kettle Black.
So all you complainers are going to run for the board… I bet not….. If you think you can do better, get of your behinds and get in there and help out.
People are quick to criticise – slow to offer help.
Sleaze would be better of moving from these venues and go back to being sleazy and not another boring show pony Sydney dance party….
Whats with the negative comments? these board members are volunteers for heavens sake! Support NMG, this is one of its biggest fundraisers and this kind of attitude from our community is disturbing and the reason ticket sales fall. Next you will want to be consulted on the colour of the tickets these events are printed on! Who cares what shape the building is? Get together with your community and celebrate, have fun and stop bitching, bitches!
Also, it does not take a rocket scientist to work out who made the 2010 errors last year – ask yourself who is not there now? and why?
Moving on!
Actually I disagree with Alex. This years Mardi Gras was a fabulous party. Yes the stuff up killed the numbers attending but the music, production and shows were the best in a long time… oh the memories of everyone in the RHI singing along with Kelly Rowland!
However, if Mardi Gras think downgrading Sleaze (yet again) to the dregs of the Entertainment Quarter venues is going to excite people then they are kidding themselves. They would have been better off moving to Luna Park or The Entertainment Centre.
Sure the ticket price might be cheaper and the “footprint” supposably the same, but when it comes down to it the venues that count are no bigger than Arq or the Shift. Big deal.
Thanks Steph for your lengthy explanation … I still predict that Sleaze will be considerably less successful this year, compared to last …
And please understand that when you begin your second sentance with “To be honest” you immediately alientate your readers … we haven’t forgotten that your Board made a calculated decision to lie to members last year in a ham fisted attempt to cover up the parade/party stuff up … presemably this mess is yet another example.
People complain that the big parties are boring and they like more intimate spaces so its time for a change !….the attendance in the big spaces dropped significantly from 22k to 9k….isn’t it just a fact that the scene has changed .What they are doing is changing with it !! Good on em for doing something rather than doing nothing. I will be there and so will all my mates having a great old time. If we don’t support our people who will ? All the na sayers and princesses get off your high horses and give em a break for god sake.
Why not tell us that in the beginning Steph ?
All this secrecy makes NMG look bad.
Now your post makes it sound better !
Tnank you.
So, let me get this straight.
The membership two years ago was kept “kept in the dark” by the board when the Parade Party split happened etc. You (the collective massses) cried for blood.
This year, there has been a huge level of transperancy, including why things are being changed (see the sleaze article), consultation around parade, and EGM’s and Member Consnultation that has not been seen in years.
Yet again – the huddled masses cry for blood.
You may not agree with some decisions, they may not be being done the way that you would, but how many of you here, posting on line, have the guts to get involved, and work with NMG to make the tough decisions?
Do you want to see our iconic events grow, change and become bigger and better, or stagnante and die, which, if you look at the annual reports over the years, Sleaze was going to do.
We do not have land rights or an ancestral claim to the Horden and the RHI. The are venues managed by a multionational who seem to look at Our Community as a cash cow, and sell them to the highest bidder! How do we change this, look at more cost effective ways to run events including new and fresh locations. Change the party, change the location, change the theme, you attract a new are old crowd back.
Please people – stop being short sighted and look at the Long Term of everything NMG, or else we dom ourselves to more mistake. And rather than all being “concerned of darlinghurst” – get in there and HELP.
And as for the attack on Steph. Yes there may be an election coming up, but c’mon, if no one had said anything you’d have accused the board or secrecy. Steph posts and you say its polictical grandstanding. You can’t have it both ways.
I for one would like a co-chair telling me what is going on.
it’s just all so much blah. why do so many people feel like they are owed one particular dance party experience? the hey-day of massive sell-outs and our pick of the venues are well and truly over. not just for MG but for pretty much EVERY nightclub/party operator. plenty of us would rather go to Sleaze and live with a reduced footprint, than not have the party at all. get into it or get over it.
Sleaze lost its mojo years ago – and last year’s dog raid has done nothing to help matters …
Did any of you bother to read the story …. the venue took another booking for the following night …
My guess is this means there wouldn’t be enough time to dismantle the Sleaze production material and allow the other booking (which by the looks of it is that FABULOUS God’s Kitchen party) time to set up etc ..
Sheeeessh – never let your cynicism get in the way of the facts guys …
Geee Steph – planning on standing for the board again next month I gather?
Ross I don’t agree that they should get Bev Lang back to run it, she’s got enough on her plate.
But pretty much anyone other than this mob should be able to do a better job. Bunch of incompetent liars.
Sands peppers everything she says with buzzwords – community, consultation, support, etc. How totally transparent. It’s pure political rhetoric. And the worst thing is, she obviously doesn’t mean anything she says. There’s been ample opportunity for “community consultation” on changing Sleaze but no, this board just like ones before them have just gone and made the changes with no consultation and are now trying to sell the concept ipso facto. Sands and Parker and this Mardi Gras Board treat the members and the community with total contempt.
As for her statement “I can promise you that the production ideas for the footprint are fabulous, and you will have an exceptional experience on the night”, call me cynical but wasnt that exactly what she was running around saying just before the Mardi Gras party this year. And that was the crappiest party ever.
Bring on the AGM.
Get Bev Lange to head them up again
I think it’s important that someone addresses these concerns before they blow out and become a point of fact. To be honest this change in Sleaze isn’t an “admin error” or forgetting to book a venue. The fact is that we had a booking for the Hordern this year, and we have one for next year too!
But there is a reality to the situation of Sleaze which the board needed to deal with – and that is that for many years, Sleaze as our main fundraiser has been failing to return a decent profit to make it workable in that space. This year, as with last season, the board has committed to investing in the quality of our events, and we are not prepared to compromise on that. When we looked at what Sleaze would have looked like as a co-production – we would have had to share everything and compromise on a lot of elements. We were offered a timeframe that honestly didn’t allow us to make this Party happen as we know it. Based on that, and looking at the economics from both scenarios – and the ability to lower tickets significantly – it was obvious that change was needed.
We are coming out of a season which was difficult, and we need to address how we move forward and do that with a steady hand. I can promise you that the production ideas for the footprint are fabulous, and you will have an exceptional experience on the night.
To those that will miss the Hordern – I understand, so will I this year, but I don’t want another party only in the Hordern, like in 2008. With a co-production on top of that – meaning we’d have to get rid of some of the best parts of Sleaze. I think we all want multiple spaces. And don’t forget that these venues are more than big enough for a sensational party!
This shift won’t make it a smaller party. In fact we are planning on it being a much bigger sleaze to last year! We fit over 10,000 people into pretty much the same space at Carnival this year – I think the last time Sleaze saw those kind of numbers was at the beginning of this decade.
Ultimately all those things we love about Sleaze – the theme and costumes and shows and performances and DJs, and of course the dark nooks and crannies – will all still be there and will continue to make it a one-of-a-kind event. I don’t think I get that exciting feeling of a night at Sleaze anywhere else, and I’m sure that’s not going to go away simply by moving to a different part of the complex.
And what is important to both Nick and I, and the board, is that we get to reduce the price of our tickets to make this event more accessible to all our communities, whilst increasing our potential profit on the party. Please support us in trying to raise funds for our iconic parade
This lot couldn’t run a bath.
First they screw up Mardi Gras, then they squander $150,000 on the nude photo, then they put on the most boring parade in history, then they announce they lost $500,000, and now they mess up Sleaze. And amongst that, they tell continuous lies and when they get caught they say, yeh sorry we lied.
Thank God the AGM is coming up. Get rid of them. Please.
Exactly Josh.
Something different from Oxford St and the chance to party in a big space.
All the clubs will have parties on and they will be cheaper than Sleaze.
Huge mistake ( in my opinion ).
I didn’t think it was possible but finally we have fond a group of people who manage to make the state Labor Government look efficient and professional.
NMG, maybe you have no memory of what Sleaze supposed to be: a big venue dance party. That’s what sets it apart from every other weekend. Obviously yet another NMG administrative/scheduling error? Haven’t they heard of forward planning, it’s not brain surgery!
Peter Cross, I am still laughing. What a classic comment! Cheers. :-)
Agree, Pride kept downsizing till it disappeared instead of re-inventing itself.
These halls are no bigger than the clubs on Oxford St but the ticket will be be 3 or 4 or 5 times more than the entrance fee to these Oxford St places. So what do you think people will choose ?
Why do those that attend the parties providing the biggest revenue stream have to be the ones to suffer the cuts ? they will go elsewhere and then NMG will truly have had it.
Disappointed.
The one revenue source NMG can rely on are the Party goers. Have been since it all began but they lose $’s on the MG debacle and its the Party goers who suffer.
Those venues are no different in size to what is available on Oxford St.
Big parties are what people look forward to with multi halls to choose from. The big lighting rigs. Something different for a change. Now its 2 pissy halls.
Who has the party in the Hordern on Sunday ? if its a gay one you can just bet where people will be going.
Are you kidding? First the Parade / Party split debacle and now they have just signed the death warrant for Sleaze. Its just another bad decision from the Mardi Gras Board without any consultation with members. Pride tried to do the same reduced footprint using the Dome and City Live and it FAILED.
What a lot of nonsense! Sleaze will have the same “footprint” … but just not the major party space, the Horden??? What sot of footprint is that? Another triumph brought to members by the same Mardi Gras Board which somehow lost us about half a million dollars due to thier almighty fu*k up last year!
Next year to accommodate the Sleaze Ball patrons the party will be held on the balconey of Kinsella’s Coctail Bar
Production values ? in the Dome and City Live ?
Puh-lease what could you possibly do with those venues.
Sleaze is a shrinking violet. What a shame.
Instead of letting a rival party take the Hordern on Sunday why doesnt NMG go head to head with these day parties ? that way you have 2 parties in which to recoup your costs.
Sleaze on Sat night then on Sunday a day party with the best trance DJ’s you can afford and blow your mind lasers.