To celebrate going pokies-free, the Lansdowne is teaming up with party people, Bad Deep, to throw an epic live music mini-fest - and we’re all invited.
Blow-Up is a free event that kicks off at 2pm on Sunday 10 September, and the bumper line-up features Ribongia, Ziggy Ramo, CLYPSO and Left., plus DJ sets from Ariane, Anno, Nes and Flex Mami.
All of it’s to champion the Proudly Pokies Free movement, which promotes a nightlife culture in Sydney that’s powered by live music, food and the arts over gambling profiteering. We will take pepperoni slices and throwing shapes on the DF over losing all your money and social dysfunction anyday.
The Lansdowne ditched 30 poker machines when they reopened in June, a move which the owners estimate will cost them up to $300,000 in profits a year.
In an interview with Time Out earlier this year, co-owner Jake Smyth said poker machines were “taking over our city and killing our venues”, calling them “hyper addictive, hyper isolation units”.
Blow-Up is an official stop on the 2017 King Street Crawl, an annual one-day live music and art festival that links up a score of venues holding events throughout the day.
Tom Lawrence, director of Proudly Pokies Free, says the event is ”about showing that you can not only survive [without pokies] but thrive without them.” We can all raise a glass and boogie to that.