Sydney door person Saxon Wilson warns more venues will shut if change doesn’t come

Saxon Wilson has been a beloved inner west door person since 1989. The 51-year-old warns Sydney “has given all the power over nightlife to developers, and will regret it when we lose it all.”

Saxon Wilson who, has been an Inner West door person since the 80s and 90s. Saxons says gentrification is strangling any culture and nightlife out of the area. Picture: Richard Dobson/The Daily Telegrah.

New developments and their noise complaints have got Sydney nightlife by the jugular, according to one of the inner west’s longest-serving door people, Saxon Wilson.

The 51-year-old started working as door security in 1989, “well before anyone proudly said they were from the inner west”, and currently contracts for 20 different event promoters.

You would be hard pressed to find a bathroom stall in a Marrickville or Newtown pub without ‘Saxon’ written on the walls.

“Making a door a safe and welcoming space has been my life since the 80s,” Wilson said. “The problem is, we’ve given all the power to people who complain and don’t want the city to be vibrant.”

“Making a venue door a safe and welcoming space has been my life since the 80s,” passionate nightlife advocate Saxon Wilson says. Picture: Richard Dobson/The Daily Telegraph.

“When I was 18, we’d go to an event on Friday night in Sydney, another event Saturday night, by Tuesday we were finishing up, and partying again on Wednesday. And guess what? We were fine. Pubs and clubs were in the middle of the city and near suburban houses and there wasn’t a problem,” Wilson said. “The industry regulated itself because we wanted to keep our spaces and we knew how important they were.”

Once-bustling, Sydney’s nightlife is far from what it used to be. In Circular Quay the area is often deserted. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Although Sydney weekend is nothing like it once was, Melbourne nightlife continues to thrive.

Victorian developers have been required to soundproof their new builds by law since 2014, and established venues are protected from new residents’ noise complaints.

“I don’t know why we still haven’t done what Melbourne did a decade ago,” Wilson said.

The $5 million State Government plan to soundproof NSW music venues announced last week, is “the opposite of what would have helped us”.

Saxon Wilson raised their two children in the “noisy, vibrant” Inner West and wants it to stay that way. “The last thing we need is another North Shore.” Picture: Richard Dobson/The Daily Telegraph.

This week, one mum who recently moved to Marrickville bemoaned a party at the Concordia club in a Facebook community group.

“She whined that the noise was vibrating through the whole neighbourhood,” Wilson, who also raised their two children in the area, said. “It was 1pm, and the event finished at 7pm.”

“I told her to go outside and have a little dance. You can’t bring up your kids in the inner west without noise. Secondly, your kids might rely on that industry for a job one day.”

New luxury apartment community Wicks Place is due to open in 2024, and promoters are worried it will sound the death knell on the area’s night-time economy.

“A lot of us are really worried about that one,” Wilson said.

The 272 apartment complex, on the intersection of Sydenham Road and Victoria Road, has The Red Rattler Theatre behind it.

L to R: Performers Andy Dexterity and Marlena Dali performed in the Bedlam Caberet , curated by Company of Rogues, at Marrickville’s Red Rattler Theatre. It will soon have more homes around it. Picture: John Appleyard

“There are six or seven warehouses within a really close distance from those apartments that are going to come under fire,” Wilson said.

“We all partied once. If you stopped, fair enough, but don’t move in next to venues that have been there for years, and complain it’s too loud. Community spaces like the Rattler are working on a shoestring budget with volunteers. They don’t have money to fight people in court like the Great Club have had to over complaints.”

Community events that might sell 150 tickets are more tightly policed than the Oxford Street nightclubs, according to the beloved “Door Daddy”.

Saxon Wilson was warned we will miss it when it is gone. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I had police come to one event three weeks in a row, and on the fourth the Council shut us down because they hadn’t processed their permits yet, although we met all the requirements and you couldn’t hear any noise from the street,” Wilson said.

“We want permits, we apply for permits, and the Council makes it almost impossible for people on a small budget to get them. Or they take so long that by the time we get them, the event is over.”

Most of the attendees going to warehouse parties are newly minted 18-year-olds, who Wilson will sit down in a designated chill out area if they’ve had too much to drink, and ask how they are getting home safely. “

“They need that stuff. You’ve got to remember that a lot of kids coming to these parties came up through Covid, so they have no reference point for even standing at a bar and getting a drink,” Wilson said.

“Instead of lining up along a bar, they form one line like it’s the school canteen. They won’t get that safety at the nightclubs, and that’s when we’ll start seeing more overdoses and more drug and alcohol related issues. People will say the underground parties have been getting it all wrong, but really we’ve been getting it all right with no support.”