The Gangsters' Ball

Last year's Gangsters' Ball, the first of its kind in Sydney, was held at the Gaelic Theatre. It sold out four weeks in advance leaving hundreds of spruced-up gangsters and dolled-up molls queuing for hours outside the venue, hoping to snag one of the last 50 door spots.

This year, the Ball is moving to the Metro, and just as the size of the venue has expanded so too has the range and quantity of the entertainment on offer. So if you're tired of the same old Saturday night out in Sydney, keep reading, because 5 September will be the throwback to end all throwbacks.

Graham Coupland, organiser of the Gangsters' Ball and guitarist with the Velvet Set, explains the genesis of the event. "For the last couple of years we have been disappointed by some of the burlesque and cabaret events that have been on in Sydney and we wanted to do it bigger and better with greater value for money. We wanted people to just come and dress up and have a fabulous time from when they walk through the door to when they leave. Just a night of non-stop entertainment."

The evening's fun is headed by cabaret starlet Meow Meow and runs the gamut of burlesque beauties, kitsch cabaret artists, vaudeville and circus performers, all to the swinging soundscape of 10-piece big band all-stars the Velvet Set.

Coupland describes the headliner as "amazing. I think that is the word for Meow Meow: amazing. She is probably the best cabaret performer in the world at the moment. Her show is German and French-inspired vaudeville, but she is not performing her normal show – she will be the MC and guest performer. She will do about four songs throughout the night, some with the Velvet Set as her backing band, and there will also be a few surprises thrown in there as well."

He's enthusiastic about the other entertainments as well. "We have the best burlesque performers – Imogen Kelly and Lola the Vamp – and the best swing dancers in the country doing a really choreographed routine, showing people how amazing swing dancing can be. There will also be a cabaret performer called Mark Winmill who does hula hoops and aerial performance."

The icing on this retro cake is, of course, the band. The Velvet Set's expert fusion of jazz, old school swing and neo-swing shall ensure a crowd as diverse as the spectacle they have come to consume. Coupland describes the crowd the band draws in as "a mixed bag. We get people in their seventies and eighties dressing up like they did in the 30s and 40s and reliving their dancehall days. And because we also do what is called neo-swing, which is the more modern stuff, Royal Crown Revue and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, that newer, up-tempo swing, a lot of young rockabillies will come, a lot of Goths will come. The crowds have been fabulous - really varied. That is what we are trying to do with the Gangsters' Ball: trying to give enough entertainment across a number of genres so that whoever comes will have a fabulous night."

All these flappers, vixens, teddy boys, greasers, hipsters and zoot-suiters will be overthrowing both rooms of the Metro and reinventing it as Sydney's answer to the Savoy Ballroom. The Lair, the theatre's smaller room, is to be transformed into a smoky, sleazy gambler's den, complete with blackjack and poker tables, roulette wheels, mood lighting over the smoky haze, swing DJs and some of the more low-key burlesque artists. The rest of the burlesque artists will be seen sashaying and seducing with the Velvet Set and Meow Meow in the main room with patrons mincing about between cigarette girls, pin-up models and hair and make-up artists.

Last year's event was acclaimed as "the best event of its type ever held in Sydney" and this year's promises to be even bigger. But if you're planning to attend, take a word of wardrobe advice from Coupland: "Go crazy is my tip: guys in pinstripe suits, art deco ties and fedora hats and girls as twenties or thirties flappers and molls. Last year we even had Bonnie and Clyde. They came in carrying bags of cash and they put bullet holes all over themselves." Prizes awarded to the best dressed on the night. "It's a good opportunity for people to go crazy!"