A Blast From The Past in Downtown Invercargill

A series of ILT pubs and establishments around Invercargill are teleporting back into their past lives - being recreated for a night to give the community a taste of nostalgia.

And judging by the comments on social media, the initiative has gone viral, with some Facebook posts already getting up to 120,000 hits.

Marketing and Innovation executive Angee Shand said she was blown away with the response to their promotion - Waxy’s will be transforming back into The Kiln on September 13, The Speights Ale House will become the Frog n Firkin for its Throwback Party on September 27, The Lone Star will host Bring Back Barluca on October 11, Mollys even will be back on level one of the Kelvin on October 25, and there's a big halloween bash in the inner city on October 31.

The Finale Party will be held on November 8 with a real classic inner city establishment being transformed to its past life on November 8 -  details are still under wraps.

“The whole city is talking about them,” Angee said.

Everyone has a memory of partying in one of the iconic establishments - for me it was the Frog n Firkin days where smoking was still a thing inside, and your Dr Martens stuck to the floor from all of the spilt drinks (probably trying to avoid being stabbed by someone with a cigarette while dancing).

Opening in 1994, the Frog n Firkin was named after the old English word for a container holding liquid - it closed in 2010. And the next big thing was The Kiln that opened in April 2009, with some prominent NZ musicians performing - Tiki Taane in 2018, Ladi6 in 2013.

Barluca came along in 2010, taking over the old DEKA building on Dee Street, and was a trendy, upmarket late night spot - known for its pizzas, DJs and late night music.

Savage came and played in 2015, as did DJ Sir-Vere, who teamed up with Che Fu, and K+Lab from Australia came south in 2016.

It closed in 2018 and along with sister bar The Kiln was part of the demolition for the construction of the Langlands Hotel.

And everybody remembers Molly O’Grady’s don’t they?  It’s where all the grown ups went - people who had jobs, and it was modelled on the Irish bar on the ground floor at the Langham in Auckland.