Ark is a new nightclub tucked down a Melbourne CBD laneway, cracking its doors open every Saturday night.
Sitting at 2 Geddes Lane in the heart of naarm, ark keeps things refreshingly lean: one room, one night each week, entry from $15 and a 10pm start that pushes til late. There’s a members’ list, a birthday list and a group chat for the people who keep turning up, plus a low-key nudge for first-timers to scope out the lane before they rock up.
ark
- Where: ark, 2 Geddes Lane, Melbourne
- When: weekly, 10pm til late
- Tickets: from $15
- 19 September – Claire O’Brien, Human Movement, Prizefight, Tangerine, Afrodisiac
- 26 September – Cotto, Luke Hovey, Papa Nugs, Black Dave, Eva
- 3 October – TWIENA, Mikalah Watego
- 31 October – Guy Contact, DJ Luv You
- 7 November – Crÿbaby, MASSI., Harry Connell
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The history
- Basement
- Section One
- Skyline
- Helm
The bluestone building on Geddes Lane dates to the 1850s and has cycled through several lives, most famously as the Grainstore Tavern, a live music institution that ran through the 80s and into the 90s. Tina Arena, INXS, Daryl Braithwaite and Little River Band all worked the stage there, and it’s the spot where John Farnham launched Whispering Jack, with the Chain Reaction clip shot on site.
From there the room swung in a very different direction, spending years as adult venue Showgirls Bar 20 before chef Shannon Bennett and developer Lorenz Grollo took it over in 2018 and relaunched it as live music space Geddes Lane Ballroom. ark is the newest chapter, handing the same walls over to a weekly club night.
The program
The bookings spread across the coming months, mixing local names with a few flown in from further afield. ark has already locked in Papa Nugs from the UK and TWIENA out of the Netherlands, sitting them alongside a rotating cast of homegrown DJs. Its booking policy is charmingly blunt too, inviting artists to send three links with the promise that the people behind the decks read every single one. A couple of upcoming bills are still sitting under question marks, which only adds to the after-dark intrigue.
The opening run is already stacked. 19 September brings Claire O’Brien, Human Movement, Prizefight, Tangerine and Afrodisiac across the venue, with a separate basement programme rounding out the night. The week after, Cotto, Luke Hovey, Papa Nugs, Black Dave and Eva take the reins on 26 September.
October keeps the pressure on. TWIENA and Mikalah Watego land on 3 October, before a fully mystery bill on 24 October that ark is holding back for now. Guy Contact and DJ Luv You then see out the month on 31 October, closing a busy stretch of programming.
Looking a little further down the track, 7 November pairs Crÿbaby, MASSI. and Harry Connell with one more name still to be revealed. With a fresh lineup each week and the calendar already stretching into November, ark is quietly adding another destination to Melbourne’s late-night map.
For more information, head here.
