The Scene: Gin Mill Social and Club Bizarre

Overview

For the duration of the Village Bizarre, The Rocks Square, to be dubbed 'The Scene', will act as the event's nerve centre. Open every Friday between 6.30pm and 10pm, the spot will present a chameleonic programme, shifting from a 1920s speakeasy bar named The Gin Mill Social Club, to a cabaret lounge known as Club Bizarre, to a fantastical cardboard city, to Aunties Blackfella Bingo Hall. There'll also be a massive one night party - zin's Party Mode - on December 13.

November 1, 8, 22 and 29 will see The Gin Mill Social Club. Pushing open a rusty corrugated iron gate, visitors will step nearly a century back in time - into the smoky, dimly-lit Prohibition Era, when drinking alcohol was a clandestine act and jazz provided the soundtrack to the goings-on of gangsters, mobsters and flappers. Time to dig out your feather boas, three-quarter length gloves, plumed headbands and cigarette holders, and brush up on your Charleston. The Jordan C Thomas Quartet will be providing beat jazz and jump swing, and there'll be live performers.

December 6 and 20 will see Club Bizarre between 8pm and 10pm. Cabaret artists Kiki and Pascal will take over The Square, lit by moonlight and informed by a daring, imaginative, quirky aesthetic. Expect juggling, contortion, magic, acrobatics, singing and assorted hilarity. There'll also be live music, with the Rusty Spring Syncopators playing 'crusty blue, rusty rags and manly-janky jazz' on December 6 and the Green Mohair Suits singing 'like angels in a dirty bar' on December 20.

To watch the teaser video, click here.