Sydney’s aggressive nightlife push is inspiring other countries

• In response to Sydney’s nightlife success, Scotland’s Night Time Industries Association has cited inspiration from New South Wales’ push for a similar role to our 24-Hour Economy Commissioner
• The world is clearly paying attention to what Sydney and the wider state has been doing to create a more vibrant and diverse social scene after dark.
• Cries of Sydney’s nightlife being dead fall short with the current wave of new openings proof that we’re on the right track.
• READ MORE: Sydney’s suburbs have dominated demand for more late-night eats in Australia.

Having a minister or specific body dedicated to nightlife (and only nightlife) is clearly the way forward for cities who want to build up their hugely important Night-Time Economy.

Taking inspiration from behemoth cities like New York and London, an aggressive push for a better and more seamless nightlife is starting to take on great importance for cities around the world, especially given the destructive knock-on effects from the pandemic. Now it looks like Sydney itself is becoming a bit of a muse for the night-time economies of other major countries.

Evidently, New South Wales has been at the forefront of this global push, and its position at the front of the pack puts us in a great spot for locals and visitors who downright demand a wider and more exciting nightlife. In the coming years, the entire state’s late-night offering and spread of clubs, restaurants, bars and live music venues will look completely different to what it did even one year ago.

Sydney speaks, Scotland listens

Some unexpected, but completely deserved, praise has been heaped onto New South Wales from Scotland’s Night Time Industries Association (NTIA). The industry body has come out this week to push for a healthier night-time economy, citing our success in overturning the nasty legacy of 2014’s widely-panned and completely misguided “lockout laws.”

As they say, pressure builds diamonds, and our aggressive push for a better nightlife could be linked to the widespread devastation of then-Premier Barry O’Farrell’s series of lockout laws.

The awful impact to Sydney businesses in particular has been discussed ad nauseam for years now. The laws dragged on for six years and were finally abolished in January 2020—just weeks before ‘you know what’ hit.

It’s this decimation that led to desperation, resulting in Michael Rodrigues being named 24-Hour Economy Commissioner in April 2021 (the first state-level role of its kind) and the formation of a focused, smart and uncompromising rally for a more vibrant, memorable post-sunset social scene. One that’s, importantly, safe for all.

“New South Wales has completely transformed the night-time economy over the past couple of years,” said Mike Grieves, who chairs Scotland’s NTIA and has been calling for a more focused plan to tackle the country’s dwindling nightlife. This seems to be particularly pointed in Glasgow, where Grieves seems to be trying to tackle the issue of transport at night.

“”In order to feel secure about coming into Glasgow, you need to feel secure about getting home—so that’s a problem.”

Transport is a big issue for them, as it still is for us. Take New York for example. The city simply couldn’t have such an impossibly vibrant and powerful night-time economy if it wasn’t for the round-the-clock subway system.

And this just adds more weight to what Sydney has been doing with its widely acclaimed Metro system. The rapid importance of completing the full Metro line (the next stage is Sydney Metro West) has been discussed many times over the past year, and with 90% of the required tunnelling now complete, the pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together.

Sydney’s new lease on life

Let’s be clear. Anyone who says “Sydney is dead” is now just saying so for the sake of it. That outdated cry is a stain on the great efforts taken to take us to the next level.

While there is still some ways to go, we are undoubtedly speeding down the right path. Just this week, a state-of-the-art nightclub is opening up in Bella Vista (Bella LIVE) and we know that Farfield Council are pursuing plans to turn Canley Vale into a nightlife destination.

The hospitality scenes in Parramatta, Blacktown and Liverpool are starting to heat up, and Arts Minister John Graham last month announced an ambitious three-year plan for western Sydney, which includes more funding to create a new major lifestyle festival focused entirely on western Sydney.

The offerings in and around Martin Place, now dubbed the MP District, have ramped up with popular venues like Caterpillar Club, Centro 86, and the 25 Martin Place dining precinct [which includes one of Sydney’s top restaurants, AALIA]. Also in the area is City Recital Hall, which has traditionally been reserved for classical music and artists like Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan but is now starting to take on more dance-adjacent events and more diverse programming, with more parties and upcoming gigs like dubstep legends Skream & Benga.

On the arts side, a new state-of-the-art theatre has just opened in  Leichhardt’s Italian Forum: the 300-seated Teatro, already steaming into its programming with Tony Award-nominated The Adams Family Musical starting early October and The Prom, another popular Broadway export, set for early next year.

With new nightlife-adjacent announcements rolling out quite regularly now, there’s rarely been a more exciting time to have Sydney on your radar.