SYDNEY CLUBBERS TO HOLD ANTI-LOCKOUT PROTEST THIS WEEKEND

Australian lobbying group, Reclaim The Streets, will host a free festival and protest march this Sunday 13th September in the Sydney CBD.

Billed as a multi-stage mobile party, the march is the first organised public protest against Sydney's inner-city lockout laws, and will kick off at the Hyde Park fountain at 1pm.

The New South Wales lockout laws — that were brought in to tackle alcohol-related violence in January 2014 — have decreased footfall in Sydney's central nightlife district by 80 percent, reported the Sydney Morning Herald in July. 

Reclaim The Streets spokesperson, Jack London said, “The lockout laws haven’t reduced alcohol-related violence. 

"They’ve just moved the problem to Newtown and crippled our city’s night-time economy. We need smarter responses to this social and cultural problem than treating the entire state like children.”

Moving throughout Sydney's specified lockout zone over the course of the day, there'll be music from famed Australian selectors Magda Bytnerowicz and Simon Caldwell plus eight different stages set up en route. 

The RTS has been celebrating public partying in Australia since its first protest event back in the mid-'90s, organising regular “unrehearsed, informal, illegal ‘guerrilla’ street festivals” in Sydney's parks and laneways for almost two decades. 

For set times, meeting points and more information, head to the Reclaim The Streets Facebook page. Join DJ Mag's Save Our Clubs Facebook group here.

Read our recent feature on Australia's music and nightlife scene here. 

[Via Music Feeds]