Public opinion over the choice of venue for this years Sydney Bar Awards hosted by Time Out has reached boiling point after it was announced that it would be held at The Star Casino just a week ahead of the event.

The Time Out Bar Awards is an annual soiree that looks to “celebrate the places and people that make our city ace” with this years event expecting some 600 guests from within the industry.

Understandably there has been backlash over the selection process with The Star one of the few venues that has flouted the damaging lockout laws that has seen closures of many pubs, bars and clubs throughout Sydney since their inception.

Time Out editor Alyx Gorman responded to one such post on the official Time Out Sydney Bar Awards Facebook event page outlining their reasoning behind the choice;

The Time Out Bar Awards are judged to extremely stringent criteria, and if you check the nominees list, it’s very apparent that The Star’s stable of brands are not disproportionately represented.

We are throwing a 600 person event, during the day, and we wanted it to be near the centre of the Sydney. For our purposes, The Star made a lot of sense as a venue to host it.

For award ceremonies the size of the Time Out Bar Awards, there’s always going to be some contention over venues. If we had selected a venue hosted by another major player in the nightlife scene, exactly the same question would have arisen.
We are, and will always be, major supporters of Sydney’s small bar scene. However, the thing about small bars is you cannot fit 600 people in them.

This was met with criticism and various alternative options including Carraigeworks, Sofitel Sydney, Daltone House and even Ivy Ballroom suggested but it looks like due to time constraints that the awards will continue to be held at The Star on the 6th of December.

Although most of the nominees are small bars and venues and not necessarily clubs, an award devoted to ‘Party Starters’ names a number of local promoters including Astral People, Bad Deep, Motorik, One Day and Picnic that put on predominantly night time events.

The announce follows last nights ARIA awards that saw the music industry come together for their own annual event to celebrate Australian music that was also held at The Star.

Should Time Outs Small Bar Awards be held at The Star?

Alternatively those wanting to have their say can attend Reclaim The Streets protest December 12th with the last drawing over 1000 people looking to combat the current lockout laws.

Read: NSW has a serious gambling problem while our nightlife is strangled.