WE STARTED IN AUSTRALIA

Our inspiration was Sydney Leather Pride's "Inquisition" party of 1994.

The idea took shape around the time of the Gay Games in Sydney in 2002.

And we started first in Melbourne in 2005 at a durty leather cruise club called Club 80.

From one party with less than 150 invited guests, Melbourne supported it so wholeheartedly that it expanded to Sydney later the same year. With Melbourne's continued support, it's success was established within a year.

Because of the success of these two cities, WoofClub was invited to LA, has now been held in 6 cities across Australia & the US and now has a membership list of 5000 worldwide.

In Sydney where we have a long history of durty dogs dancing with durty bitches, we also produce an event called DogPound.

MELBOURNE

Our first party took the unprecendented step of becoming an independent dance party at Melbourne's leather cruise club: Club80. 

After 2 parties and because of sound restrictions, WoofClub successfully made the move to other pubs and clubs such as The GlassHouse Hotel, The Opium Den (formerly Star Hotel), Tunnel Nightclub (our biggest party in Melbourne yet entitled "Sniffer Dogs on the Door"), Royal Melbourne Hotel (the former Bourke Street West police Station), The Laird (Melbourne's leather & denim bar, now running for nearly 30 years) and ABODE (Melbourne's pan-sexual leather & fetish club in St Kilda).

Then after quite a break, WoofClub came back to Club 80 in 2008, presenting one of the signature events for the inaugural/ revamped Melbourne Leather Pride in September of that year and then running a string of dance parties up to and including 2009's Melbourne Leather Pride.

 In Melbourne, we've also used the psychedelic Wah Wah Lounge and The Goodhead Bar in leather Melbourne's heartland where we ran our 6th Birthday (a sell-out).

SYDNEY

After a 6 month search for a suitable & available venue, Sydney's WoofClub started about a year after Melbourne's at Kinsela's Middlebar; a glitzy cocktail lounge turned dark and sexy with substantial stagings of black pallets. Most of the events at MiddleBar were held on Sunday afternoons as Recovery parties to the large (and then hugely successful) dance parties such as Sydney's Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras & Sydney Leather Pride's Inquisition. 

With "competition" only from long-time successes such as Indulgence at The Midnight Shift (which ran in the night-time time-slot), WoofClub gained a steady following in Sydney before finally moving to the subterranean (and somewhat abandoned) Phoenix for Sleaze Ball Recovery in October 2006.

The night named "Dark Durty Hole" was such a success that it, along with "Action" (a night run by fellow gay community promoters/organisers) became the start of a new once-a-month format at that venue which later saw the addition of other promoters such as the late Mandy Rollins with her highly successful "Dirty" nights as well as DJ Feisy (aka Mel Fitzpatrick) to become Sydney's only Saturday night gay nightclub operating weekly with non-commercial music in 2007.

In late 2007, Dark Durty Hole changed it's name to DogPound (a name originally used for WoofClub's Bar Night, upstairs at the now-defunct Newtown Hotel). We continue to run DogPound as special events at which we welcome our durty bitch mates in the gay community. 

During this time, the WoofClub dance party continued in Sydney at unlikely venues such as the high-tech arena: ARQ. Large amounts of hanging black rubber were brought in especially for the party and this was then to form the decor backbone of subsequent WoofClubs at the Oxford Hotel, the Midnight Shift & The Gaelic Glub. 

Sydney's 3rd birthday was held in Dec 2008 at the new Manacle (Sydney's leather bar formerly of Taylor Square - originally trading as The Barracks) and then again on various dates throughout 2009 (along with an appearance by the resurrected DogPound dance party) until Manacle finally closed its doors in October 2009.

Our premier Sydney event called CATACOMB is now held every year between February & March, during Sydney's Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

PERTH & ADELAIDE

There has also been one WoofClub in Adelaide and six in Perth, Western Australia, starting first at the now-defunct gay sauna; Beaufort 565 before successfully making the move to one of Perth's "underground" nightclubs in April of 2009: Bar Open.

LA & SAN FRANCISCO

WoofClub has also been running in the USA since early 2007 (starting first in LA at various underground clubs) and followed by San Francisco's launch party at Club 8 immediately following the Folsom St Fair in October 2007 with DJs Paul Goodyear and Phill Mezzatesta (Melbourne). 

LAZY BEAR WEEKEND

This culminated in WoofClub being chosen to be the Closing Party for 2008's world-reknowned "Lazy Bear Weekend" with DJs Ted Eiel (Chicago) & Jeff Lawrence (San Francisco) and then again in 2009 with Ted teaming up with Sydney's George Roussos. The night, attended by 700 guys is our largest party to date.