Zirca/ Rebel!

ZIRCA
Mystery. Awe. Drama. Your sensorial journey begins as you walk through the gates of ZIRCA Mega Club and get transported to a land of fantasy.

At ZIRCA, you can expect a brand new dance club that begs to differ. Get treated to an audio-visual spectacle every night with interactive and engaging live performances: exotic vignettes of performances consisting of aerialists flying gracefully overhead, contortionists morphing their bodies in impossibly challenging sequences, risqué Cabaret and Burlesque shows, death-defying stunts and poi jugglers synchronising to the club’s music, await you.

ZIRCA is set to push the boundaries of clubbing combining the best of Cirque, Cabaret and a modern-day dance club. These are all part of your nouveau, mind-blowing entertainment experience at ZIRCA.


REBEL
Immerse in the popular culture when you enter REBEL Boutique Club, an edgy boutique club with an attitude featuring hip hop, R&B and urban music, located next to ZIRCA. Enter this adult playground and be hit by life-sized toy collectibles on display to bring out the kid in everyone. Also, be engulfed in walls of street art specially customised by renowned Melbourne artist, Meggs, and get surrounded by essential dashes of bling in this club.

Three award winning resident DJs: Tang, Rattle & Will, and funky dancers will transform this space into one that will appeal to the unconventional and creative minds. 


THE BEST DEAL ABOUT IT? YOU CAN GAIN ACCESS TO REBEL AND ZIRCA IF YOU PURCHASE A TICKET FROM ANY OF THESE TWO CLUBS!!!! 

Butter Factory!

The club with the Mick-Jagger lips packs a mean punch, in more ways than one. The ‘Art Bar’ interior has walls filled with manga illustrations. Saved from any sense of pretentiousness, this artistic outlook furnished it with an urban culture that is fresh yet familiar. The harmonious blend of white ( though limited) chairs and a lighting that is unlike others, inculcates an invitation to embrace your inner child. And if you think the place is small ( like we did the first time we were there), well, chances are you did not notice the steel doors at the sides. That, our fellow esteemed readers, is where the party is.

This enclave is designed after a swimming pool, right down to the blue flooring, diving platform and the metal steps ( we’re not kidding and neither are they). The patio area has lounge chairs, exactly like those you will find at your condominiums. However, the VIP area stands out with its regal velvety interior. Sponsored by Moet & Chandon, it is somewhat reminiscent of a mini-Velvet Underground.

Who gets to that area we are unsure, but the young club sees its fair share of yuppies who are looking for a good night out. Not surprisingly, the crowd is fabulous on Fridays. (For some reason, all these young execs love to club after work.) From the funks of the media world to the digits-driven banking industry, they come here regularly, albeit its lack of advertising stints. However, when a club is already so solid in its foundation, word-of-mouth is more than enough to entice others.

Besides that, they get an attractive stream of ladies patronising their one-floor complex. The guys there however, do not seem to match up. It’s a phenomenon we are just as baffled about. With a strict dress code, the girls are dressed to impress with their slinky tops and tight jeans. As for the guys, as long as you’re not in sandals and shorts, you will cruise along just fine. However, when you can, please flip through a copy of GQ or something. At the very least, dress stylishly to give some credit to the girls.

Service there is up-to-par with what you will expect from most decent clubs. However, word has it that the bosses come down regularly to meet with their regular customers, though incognito. Set up by the unlikely combo of a lawyer and a hairdresser, their willingness not to snub their supporters explains why they are still able to hold a candle in an industry where crowds come and go. Admittedly, the club was started up with an intention of entertaining their friends. However, this has been alleviated by the fact that Butter Factory is known to be one of the trendiest clubs to be at, friends or otherwise. Especially if your taste of music is more street than house. With a ‘wicked’ soundtrack of hip and hop and r&b blasting through their speakers, we are glad to say that your weekly dosage doesn’t have to come from those clubs that line up the “wrong side” of Boat Quay.

With a menu that is not extensive as others, the drinks offered there come with some unique concoctions of their own. The Iced tea , a drink that consists of almost every liqueur you can think of, has a tangy taste that will hit you like a citrus explosion. But once you get onto this intoxicating lemonade, you will be left with a sweet after-taste similar to those sweets that have exploding heads on their wrappers. And if you’re more of a shots person, then you will love its ‘peanut butter’ served in shooters. If your breakfast serving come in that liquid form, maybe you will be more enticed to wake up for it. Do note that they are not in the war of drinks pricing after 9pm. So if you’re there in the hopes of one-for-ones, please take your budget somewhere else first. You can always return when you’re ready to party.

To give credit where credit is due, Butter Factory offers answers where others just seem to confuse. With a crowd that can be aesthetically pleasing , an interior that screams street chic, and music that is otherwise reserved for those in their baseball jerseys and baggies, you cannot deny that the place expresses a great vibe that is artsy yet not faux paux. It will be interesting to see how this relatively new club plays it up especially since they look poised to become an addiction for many. We have given you enough excuses to go check out the girls and everything else there anyways.

Zouk!

Zouk, it's THE club to visit in Singapore.

This club has been around for ages and I've always wanted to visit it. Thankfully, I got the chance to do so recently.

A bit of background information to begin with - Zouk began life in Singapore, before opening up a sister club in KL (have yet to visit the one in KL, but I've heard good things about it). Anyway, this review is for the one in Singapore, so here goes.

Zouk in Singapore comprises of four sections - the Wine Bar, Velvet Underground, Phuture and Zouk.

Wine Bar is located just outside the main complex. Found it to be a brilliant place to chill with your friends before heading in, and if I'm not wrong, the drinks are cheaper out here as well. Also, there's no need to pay cover charge to enter the Bar.

Didn't spend too much time in Velvet Underground when I was there but found it to be a pretty posh place, a nicely done up place. Just didn't like it though, might have been because of the crowd there - there's an older crowd at Velvet, as they have in place an over-23 rule for this club (only managed to get in in the first place because the bouncers are lax on that particular rule on Wednesday nights). Anyway, getting tickets into Velvet grant you access to Zouk as well, and I'm fairly sure it's the same price or just slightly more expensive.

Moving on, Phuture. This is a highly popular section with the younger crowd, and tickets for Phuture are hard to come by - they sell out fast, and I was told that some people actually come down as early as 8pm to get the tickets. Managed to get in the few times I was at the club - twice via Zouk after the bouncers manning the entrance left at around 3am and once because my friend had earlier reserved a table at Phuture. As one would expect, it gets really congested in there, you'll find people dancing all over the place and there's really not much room to move about. Found it to be a really awesome place, lots of cool people, and a generally hip place to hang out. Fyi, the times I was there they were playing hip-hop music, and also, tickets to Phuture grant you access to Zouk too.

And finally, Zouk. It's the biggest of the four sections and is particularly lively and enjoyable on Wednesday nights when they have their weekly "Mambo night" - they play a lot of classic songs, from the 70s-90s, tracks such as "Grease Lightning", "Love in the First Degree" & "Mambo No. 5". Best part about Mambo nights are the dance moves that accompany the different songs, e.g. hand movements that complements the lyrics of the songs. As for the other nights (i.e. Fridays & Saturdays) they play mainly house & trance music. The club gets quite a number of top international DJs as well, and I was told that they get to strut their stuff at Zouk section. Before I forget, tickets to Zouk do NOT give you access to any where else in the complex, so probably a better idea to get either Phuture's or Velvet's tickets so to have more options and be able to jump from one section to another to find the right type of crowd/atmosphere/music.

Now, on the whole, I would definitely recommend checking the place out on Wednesdays for the Mambo nights. It's a really popular night in Singapore and it's great cause it attracts a younger and hip crowd and an unique experience in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it's great on weekends as well - expect lots of people on Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays.

And a good deal, like I mentioned a couple of paragraphs earlier, would be to get tickets to Phuture or Velvet so that you get the chance to hop around a bit between the different sections. It's about 25SGD for a ticket, and it comes with two free drinks. Drinks inside are pretty expensive inside though - it's always a good idea to share a jug (~ 60SGD) or even a bottle of Vodka/Chivas/etc (~ 220SGD) between friends.

As for how to get there, just get into any taxi and tell the driver "Zouk", he'd definitely know how to get you there. If you want to save a bit of cash, could get the MRT trains to the nearest station, which I believe is "Clarke Quay" and then get a cab from there.

In any case, do check out Zouk if you're ever in Singapore. It's THE club to go in Singapore. 

Advantages: Hip crowd; Mambo nights on Wednesdays; The best club in Singapore

Disadvantages: Tickets to Phuture sell out really quickly; Can get really congested

Halloween at Powerhouse/ Zouk

We all know Halloweens are full of people dressing up in costumes, but what about the clubs at Singapore? But what about those party animals? How much would their craziness extend? The pictures does all the talking! Everyone, if you're in singapore during Halloween, Zouk and Powerhouse is a place you definately dont want to miss!!!