The Mana Bar's first ever patrons
A new cocktail bar set up especially to play video games, the Mana Bar, opened in Fortitude Valley at midday today. I was there at the opening to interview guests and some of the owners.
When I got there at about 11.45am, there were more than 50 people lined up waiting to get in - this photo gives you some idea of the crowd:
I did five interviews while I was waiting to get in: click "play" on each player below the photo captions to hear each interview.
Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Wario, Luigi and Mario cosplayers from the Mario series of games.
El Fuerte (Street Fighter IV) cosplayer
Pras Moorthy, co-owner (centre)
Yug Blomberg, co-owner (front)
Yahtzee Croshaw, co-owner
You can become a fan of the Mana Bar on Facebook, or follow their Twitter account. The Mana Bar's opening day goes on until midnight tonight.
The Mana Bar is at 420 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley, in the same building as the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts. The Mana Bar's door faces the street, you don't have to go into the Judith Wright Centre to get to the bar. The best way to get there by public transport is to catch a 196 or 199 bus to stop 5 on Brunswick St, or catch a train to the Fortitude Valley station and walk up Brunswick St - click here for a Google Map. If you need to look up bus or train timetables, click here to use Translink's journey planner.
Guitar Heroes
This guy on the best. stilts. ever. was outside when I was waiting in line.
3 of the 5 video game screens
Tending Bar
Guests playing Raskulls, a soon-to-be-released game made by Brisbane game studio Halfbrick. This YouTube vid shows the official trailer:
UPDATE: Click here to see all 36 photos from the opening, on Flickr.
2 comments:
Good interviews and a very fast turnaround considering it only opened a couple of hours ago.
Thanks very much. Yep, I wanted to get the story out while the opening was still happening and it was early enough that people would still read it, so I jumped straight on the computer when I got home and edited and uploaded the photos and interviews, and wrote the story.
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