The best free nightlife in Sydney

Best night to visit: Friday

This subterranean club has had a few leases on life – it was once a favoured haunt of the city’s goth and fetish community and it then went on to serve as a destination for club kids across the city. Now, it's back with a total redux – there's kitschy interiors, big ass booths, snacks till late and DJs on every night. Free entry is a go from Monday to Friday, meaning you can jazz up your week with some fresh tunes and low-budget partying that is bound to thrill any fiscally-responsible dancing feet. 

Best night to visit: Sunday.

The Inner West’s famous queer pub is an opulent party hive. Sashay away to ‘I Will Survive’ with drag queens in the front bar, get down to intoxicating ’00s tunes in the sweaty-but-sexy basment, or take that dancefloor grind buddy on an impromptu dinner date at Priscillas. Boogie in every cranny of the beloved venue for ‘Explore Yourself Sunday’, with free entry, DJs, drag performances, live shows and audience lip sync battles. You’ll also get into the underground Friday party for free most weeks, but we're always keen to stack up cash for their paid events, too.

Best night to visit: Thursdays

They sure know how to fill a week here. There’s a colourful adventure from Monday-Saturday which you can normally join for free or $10 after 10pm ($15 if you arrive in your pumpkin coach after midnight). Wednesdays are $1 wings affairs,  Thursdays are themed nights (ABBA comes along reasonably often), and over the weekend they bring in live musicians and DJs to get you grooving. 

When it comes to our best and brightest bars, who also cost nothing to enter? We've gotta hand it to you, Sydney. You didn't make this easy. Our town is awash with great places to grab a drink and for that, we will be forever grateful. We’ve whittled this update down to focus on what really matters most to us in a bar – what it is, why we love it and whatever hot tips we think will make your visit even better. The bottom line, however, is still the same: if it's on this list, we think it's a winner – and we hope that you do, too.

Best night to visit: Friday

Sydney might be struggling to keep the late-night vibes pumping, but there’s a rebel force of party people and most weekends they are congregating at the Lord Gladstone. The ability to squash so many Sydney scenes inside a modest space is one of this pub’s most impressive attributes. The Gladstone has come to the rescue of the casual party – not the dress-to-the-nines style night out, but the kind of after-work hangs that see two wines become six, or an afternoon session that ends up kicking on until the wee small hours. You don’t need to plan it – just show up and have a good time. 

Best night to visit: Friday

Jacoby's is a cocktail bar unlike any other. With free entry, you'll come in chuffed and rich (yes). Inside, you'll find a motley crew of people who are there to have a good time, a solid chat, and will remember your name while still shaking up a perfect Daiquiri. It’s very easy to have a good time here, and even easier to leave them in possession of all your money, because with a smashable wine list that leans natural, juicy and exciting you won’t be able to stop at just one glass. And neither can anyone else, which is why the whole bar will end up singing along to George Michael’s ‘Faith’. You won’t want to leave.

Best night to visit: Thursday

Ivy Thursdays is one of Sydney's longest running weeknight parties, known for it's backpacker crowd and pumping pop ballad dance offs. This iconic Sydney venue is normally pretty pricey when it comes to entry, but, if you head down on Thursdays before 10pm, you'll find that entry is totally, totally free. If you don't make it between their opening at 9pm and the zero-dollar cut off at 10pm, you'll just have to hand over a nifty $10 and be on your merry way. Not too shabby. 

Best night to visit: Saturday

Rather than shaking its fist at the youth and going the way of the dinosaur, famous old Marrickville boozer Vic on the Park has reinvented itself as a new community hub. These days it embraces music, art and weird sports with the same ferocity that it once gave to Tooheys and the ’Tahs (actually, it still does that too), and the joint’s enthusiasm is proving infectious.

Best night to visit: Saturday

This corner pub, just a stroll from the Enmore Theatre, has long been the unofficial pre-drink (or post, given that it stays open until the wee hours on weekends) location for every gig, serving a different crowd each night: indie kids, crusty punks, comedy fans, theatresports aficionados, old rockers, metalheads and hoodies. The Duke has had a spruce up, but a respectful one - and they've pretty much left the excellent sheltered beer garden right as it always was, just cleaner.