Nick Bond interviews CLOSET founders Anna Whitelaw and Mason Browne for Issue #64 of Southern Star,  a Melbourne gay and lesbian newspaper and community voice.

“Meeting Closet organisers Mason Browne and Anna Whitelaw for a coffee in the city on a sunny summer day, it’s immediately clear the pair have the easy, affectionate rapport of old friends. Surprisingly, Browneand Whitelaw have known each other for little more than a year — only a touch longer than the Closet parties themselves have been running.

Browne, 27, is a Sydneysider who moved to Melbourne in October 2008 and soon grew restless with the scene down south.

“When I arrived, I was reluctant to go out to anything, because at that time there really wasn’t a lot that interested me,” said Browne, dapperly dressed in a bow tie and check shirt.

“I didn’t know the scene that well, and I mentioned to a few friends that I wanted to investigate doing a party — one that would bring characters out of the woodwork, with different theming for each event.”

“Then a mutual friend introduced us on Facebook and said, ‘You want to do a party, hewants to do a party… so do a party!’ ” continued Whitelaw, 25.

“So we met up and went on a few trashy nights out just to make sure we were on the same page,” laughed Browne. While Browne, a self-confessed voracious networker, had already helped organise a few events in his home town, Whitelaw had no experience putting together a club night.

“I had never thrown anything bigger than a housewarming. It was a steep learning curve. I threw it out to my friends at first. ‘Hey, we’re throwing a party for you, what do you want it to be like?’ ”

Their method worked. Closet quickly found its niche amongst Melbourne’s queer onenighters this year: not as out-there as Gay Shame, but less sexed-up than John. Browne has fond memories of Closet’s debut, or Coming Out party, on February 27. Anyone who attended will remember the sense of organised chaos on the night.

“I remember the number we expected was 450, tops. We had the top level of the venue open and ready for 450 people. We had this freakout a week before — which we do beforeevery event — where we think, oh my God, no one’s coming. In the end, about 1100-1200 people turned up,” Browne said.

“There was this moment where we were running around trying to find each other, pushing through sweaty bodies, and I was screaming at Anna ‘The venue wants to openanother level, we need to get DJs!’. We ended up throwing our friends on deck to entertain people downstairs.”

Whitelaw laughed as she recalled the madness of the night. “My brother played the opening set and then went out for a ciggie. He went down three flights of stairs that were packed with people, then walked outside and there were still another 300 lined up in the street! It was incredible.”

Since then, the pair have held parties every few months, each one with a distinct theme to encourage people to get into the spirit of the night.

“The themes have been great,” Whitelaw said. “We had a lot of ’90s beachwear for Gaywatch, then a lot of ’80s high school gear for Ferris Bueller’s Gay Off. Then there was my favourite, Full Metal Faggot. Even the DJs came in camouflage gear.

“But for our New Year’s party, there isn’t really a theme, because we wanted it to just be ‘come as you are’ — you can come after a house party, or before a New Year’s Day festival.”

While the parties have attracted a diverse crowd since their inception, Whitelaw said they’d maintained a queer mix.

“It’s a very gay party, actually. You often get these fashionable gay parties that have a whole lot of trendy straight people in them. We have a few straighties, but not a huge amount. We get a good mix of lesbians and gay guys — it’s very inclusive.”

Browne agreed.

“I think it helps that it’s a male and a female organising it. I often think Anna’s a gay man in a lesbian’s body, but she’s very good at bringing both the lesbian crowd and gay men along.”

“I have lots of gay male friends. I got sick of going to lesbian parties where they wouldn’t feel very welcome, and I was tired of going to their parties and being the token lesbian in the place,” Whitelaw said.

“There can be a lot of segregation, with boys and girls nights going to VCAT and getting exemptions to be able to keep the other sex out. I wanted to create something more inclusive.

“And we’ve made sure to cater for everyone with the New Year’s party —we’ve got a house room for the boys with pumping music they can dance to and take their tops off. Then we’ve got a girls room with a bunch of great lesbian DJs playing.”

So inclusivity is in, as is great music — the pair have scored a few coups this year, including sets from Scissor Sisters’ tour DJ Sammy Jo and Van She Tech.

“We’re pretty serious about our music, which I think has helped. We get pretty serious about investigating good acts and DJs. They don’t even necessarily have to be DJs in the gay scene, they just have to be good,” Whitelaw said.

“It helps to make each event great. When we had Van She Tech come down,and the room was just, I can’t describe it, there was nothing like it. It was electric. There were boys there who had no idea who Van She Tech were, or Van She for that matter, but it went off. They finished their set and they wanted to play more, they loved it so much.”

With the New Year’s Eve party taking over Roxanne Parlour for a seven-hourmix of 12 house, electro, hiphop and disco DJs, the duo will be ringing in a very busy 2010.

“We’ve got the Sam Sparro party coming up on January 9. We’ve moved venues to Roxanne Parlour, which has been a big change, but we’re very happy with it. The venue really fits with Closet well, I think,” Whitelaw said.

Browne said there was more in the pipeline. “The next one after New Year’s is the Australia Day party, on Friday January 22, as part of Midsumma. And we’ve got a plan for a party in March which hopefully will get people talking, with a big headliner in the works, which we can’t reveal just yet.“Let’s just say there’s a lotplanned for next year.”