An “immersive cocktail experience” in Melbourne is being dragged online for theming its entire concept around prison being a fun place to be, actually. Melbourne create a bar that isn’t ludicrously fucked up challenge failed yet again.
The “San Quentin Immersive Prison Cocktail Experience” which is hosted at a “secret” location (it’s at The District Docklands) was promoted on the City of Melbourne‘s website for $47 a head.
“Will you spend your time behind bars smuggling goods or buddying up with the crooked guards?” read the event description.
“Will you keep your head down or be the prison boss? You decide how you want to do your time.”
Needless to say, the idea of prison being “fun” and perfect for a girl’s night is all kinds of fucked.
Images from the event’s page are no better, showing a bunch of Aussies in handcuffs, orange jumpsuits and wielding guns.
“Melbourne’s ability to create truly fucked themed bars remains unmatched,” wrote one commenter on Twitter.
“Cultural capital of Australia!!! Where else could you see a laneway or have an espresso martini in a prison cell?” wrote another.
“Australia’s insistence that jail is fun, actually never ceases to amaze me,” wrote a third.
Now let’s talk about why this is all kinds of fucked up.
Firstly, we shouldn’t be joking about how “fun” it is to go to prison when our country has an absolutely shocking history with Indigenous prison rates and deaths in custody.
There have been more than 516 deaths in custody in the 32 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the most incarcerated on Earth. They represent 3 per cent of the Australian population and more than 32 per cent of our prison population.
First Nations kids are 26 times more likely to be imprisoned than their classmates.
These statistics are more than just numbers for First Nations peoples, it’s a lived reality. It’s absolutely shocking that we offer up a paid prison experience to people for fun.
On top of this, San Quentin, the American prison this is all named after, is so poorly looked after that many of its prisoners died in 2020 once COVID hit.
You would think Melbourne learnt its lesson after that fucked up Vietnam War-themed bar, but it doesn’t look like it has.
Bar owners stop begging for your chance to cosplay as an oppressed person, please.
Pedestrian.TV has reached out to the City of Melbourne and Hidden (who run the event) but have not received comment.
