WoofClub is an Australian idea.
Starting from one party in Melbourne in 2005 with less than 150 guys, WoofClub has now been held in 5 cities across Australia & the US and now has a membership list of 5000 worldwide.
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The idea came out of the Sydney dance scene around the time of the Gay Games (2002) but it wasn't until 2005 that it started first in Melbourne by taking the unprecendented step of becoming an independent dance party at Melbourne's leather cruise club: Club80.
After 2 parties at 80 and because of sound restrictions, WoofClub successfully made the move to other pubs and clubs such as The GlassHouse Hotel, The Opium Den (formerly Star Hotel), Tunnel Nightclub (where we held our biggest party in Melbourne yet entitled "Sniffer Dogs on the Door"), Royal Melbourne Hotel (the former Bourke Street West police Station), The Laird (Melbourne's leather & denim bar, now running for nearly 30 years) and ABODE (Melbourne's pan-sexual leather & fetish club in the former red-light neighbourhood known as St Kilda).
Then after quite a break, WoofClub came back to Club 80 in 2008, presenting one of the signature events for the inaugural/ revamped Melbourne Leather Pride in September of that year and then running a string of dance parties up to and including 2009's Melbourne Leather Pride.
In Melbourne, we're now also using The Wah Wah Lounge which apart from its old warehouse vibe has the largest (some might say psychedlic) wall/ceiling lighting feature of its kind in the world.
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After a 6 month search for a suitable & available venue, Sydney's WoofClub started about a year after Melbourne's at Kinsela's Middlebar; a glitzy cocktail lounge turned dark and sexy with substantial stagings of black pallets. Most of the events at MiddleBar were held on Sunday afternoons as Recovery parties to the large (and then hugely successful) dance parties such as Mardi Gras & Sydney Leather Pride's Inquisition.
With "competition" only from long-time successes such as Indulgence at The Midnight Shift (which ran in the night-time time-slot), WoofClub gained a steady following in Sydney before finally moving to the subterranean (and somewhat abandoned) Phoenix for Sleaze Ball Recovery in October 2006.
The night named "Dark Durty Hole" was such a success that it, along with "Action" (a night run by fellow gay community promoters/organisers) became the start of a new once-a-month format at that venue which later saw the addition of other promoters such as Mandy Rollins with her highly successful "Dirty" nights to become Sydney's only Saturday night gay nightclub operating weekly with non-commercial music in 2007.
In late 2007, Dark Durty Hole changed it's name to WoofClub's DogPound (a name originally used for WoofClub's Bar Night, upstairs at the now-defunct Newtown Hotel) and continued for a year or so until finally coming to an end in Dec 2008.
During this time however, the WoofClub dance party continued in Sydney at unlikely venues such as the high-tech arena ARQ: with lighting designed by Allan Parkinson. Large amounts of hanging black rubber were brought in especially for the party and this was then to form the decor backbone of subsequent WoofClubs at the Oxford Hotel, the Midnight Shift & The Gaelic Glub. (Interestingly, this rubber originally came from Melbourne's parties for which a whole new set was made.)
Sydney's 3rd birthday was held in Dec 2008 at the new Manacle (Sydney's leather bar formerly of Taylor Square - originally trading as The Barracks) and then again on various dates throughout 2009 (along with an appearance by the resurrected DogPound dance party which sometimes now makes an appearance in Melbourne too) until Manacle finally closed its doors in October 2009.
Our premier Sydney event is now held every year between February & March, during Sydney's Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras at the "sandstone bunker" on Oxford St formerly known as Rogues Nightclub (now called The Gaff - a british word for "secret").
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There have also now been 6 WoofClubs held in Perth, Western Australia, starting first at the now-defunct gay sauna; Beaufort 565 before successfully making the move to one of Perth's "underground" nightclubs in April of 2009: Bar Open.
WoofClub has also been running in the USA since early 2007 (starting first in LA at various underground clubs) and followed by San Francisco's launch party at Club 8 immediately following the Folsom St Fair in October 2007 with DJs Paul Goodyear and Phill Mezzatesta (Melbourne).
This culminated in WoofClub being chosen to be the Closing Party for 2008's world-reknowned "Lazy Bear Weekend" with DJs Ted Eiel (Chicago) & Jeff Lawrence (San Francisco) and then again in 2009 with Ted teaming up with Sydney's George Roussos.
The night, attended by 700 guys is our largest WoofClub to date.
