Societe (CLOSED) – Retroclubbing in Dubai Marina

Update: Societe is now closed and the gastro bar The Hideout has opened instead.

For a long time, Societe in Marina Byblos has been on my to-do list, and Thursday night it finally happened. Societe is a retro club in Dubai Marina and most people I know, who’ve been there, are raving about it, so I was really looking forward to go.

We arrived a bit early, so we went for drinks at Amadeus, located at the ground floor in the hotel. It was a really cozy place with live jazz music, ad I would have loved to stay a little longer, but some in our party didn’t like jazz music, and some (ok, that was me) were worried that waiting too long to go upstairs would mean that we had to queue to get in, so around 23:30 we proceeded to Societe.

If you’re planning to visit Societe, don’t come before 11:30pm. The club was almost empty and the music was bad. The DJ apparently interpreted retro as strictly UK retro, and we didn’t know any of the songs played. We tried to convince him to play something else, but he didn’t know any of the songs or artists we suggested, except for Jay-Z, which he claimed wasn’t retro…ok, I can understand that, but I had to try:)

Though, after midnight, Societe went through a change of Cinderella-ish proportions. Suddenly, the club was packed, the music was good and my feet didn’t feel sore anymore. The rather small dance floor was full of people vogue-ing the night away and the atmosphere was friendly, at times ecstatic and awesome, and we had a fabulous time. Dubai needs more places like this.

My blog about nightlife and bars in Dubai