THE queue outside the nightclub snakes 20m long with about 50 people eager to get their party started.
The place: Popular Mandarin-pop club Dragonfly at St James Power Station.
The time: 3.45am on a Saturday when Life! was there.
Dragonfly closes at 6am and it is among up to 10 clubs here which are keeping such hours.
These hotspots include Asian fusion club Lunar in Clarke Quay, lounge bar The Living Room in the Singapore Marriott Hotel and the revamped danceclub Thumper in Goodwood Park Hotel.
'Three years ago, when people left a club at 2am, they considered that late,' says Mr Dennis Foo, chief executive of St James Power Station. 'Today, if you leave at 2am, you are an early bird.'
In addition to revellers who are in no hurry to go home, 'freshies' turn up promptly in the wee hours of the morning to join in the fun.
Indeed, a check at 5.45am last Saturday showed that Dragonfly, which has a capacity of 700 people, was still almost full.
It had more than 300 people when Life! showed up at 3.30am on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
At 4am on Sunday morning, between 200 and 300 people were partying away in Lunar, which can accommodate 1,800 people.
And over at the 500-capacity Thumper, more than 70 people were calling it a night only at 6am that same morning.
Employees who finish work late, such as restaurant staff, stockbrokers monitoring the London or New York markets, nightclub hostesses and staff from other clubs that close earlier, make up another wave of patrons after 3am.
Take the case of Ms Serene Pang, 24, a nightclub hostess in Orchard Plaza who works from 9.30pm to 3am. She heads to Dragonfly and stays till 6am almost every day with her clients and friends.
Another reveller, Ms Jennifer Tan, 21, works in a pub in Boat Quay from 9pm to 2 or 3am, and then goes to Dragonfly, six days a week, to whoop it up till it closes.
Mr Foo observes: 'People in the nightlife industry and those doing shift work need to party too. They have their 'Happy Hours' at 4.30am.'
Ms Kelly Tan, marketing manager for Thumper, agrees: 'There is a demand; that is why we have extended our operations till 6am on weekends.'
More fun
IN OCTOBER 2003, the Public Entertainment Licensing Unit, which is part of the police, gave the green light for nightspots in three areas - Collyer Quay, Marina Centre and Sentosa - to operate round the clock.
Other areas such as Clarke Quay, Boat Quay, Orchard Road and East Coast Park were added the following year.
Ms Lynette Pang, director of cluster development, Singapore Tourism Board, says that the extended operating hours, coupled with the opening of new nightspots, have certainly created a more vibrant nightlife scene here.
The clubs had to meet certain conditions - they must not be sited close to residential developments and those located in hotels cannot have doors that open to the street.
An entertainment licence to operate till 6am costs $1,200 a year compared to $960 for one to stay open till 4am.
Clubs have not been slow to take up such licences in a move which has found favour with customers. Most of the patrons Life! spoke to say that the party mood gets better after 3am.
'The patrons have drunk more, the beat of the music has gone up and so the entire vibe is more fun,' notes Ms Amanda Ng, marketing manager of Attica Too.
The club, which sits within sister-club Attica in Clarke Quay, is open only on weekends and eve of public holidays, and closes at 5.30am.
The extra hours can give the bottomline a big boost.
At Lunar, about a third of customers - between 1,500 and 2,000 on a weekend and up to 1,000 on a weekday - drop in after 3am.
At Dragonfly, up to 200 people show up after 3am on a weekday, and that figure rises to about 500 on weekends.
More drinks, more buzz after 3am
While some costs like transport and wages (for clubs which pay on a monthly basis) remain unchanged whether it closes at 3 or 6am, the bill for other items like electricity goes up with the longer operating hours.
Mr Calvin Sio, assistant vice-president of marketing for LifeBrandz which runs Lunar, says costs increase by about 15 per cent to keep the place open for an extra three hours.
While he cannot reveal sales figures, he lets on that a third of daily revenue is earned after 3am.
'The fresh crowd who comes in late will tend to buy more drinks than those who come from other clubs and have been drinking earlier. The latter group will buy just one or two drinks,' he says.
Ministry of Sound, which is also under LifeBrandz, sometimes opens till 6am but this is only if it is still crowded. On other days, its last song will be played between 4 and 6am.
Two weeks ago, The Living Room extended its hours till 6am daily, instead of just from Wednesdays to Saturdays.
The key incentive for that decision was that the three additional hours on those nights had made up half of its monthly revenue, says its managing director, Mr Marco De Miranda. He also declines to give figures.
Mr Foo reveals that Dragonfly rings in five-figure sales between 3 and 6am, accounting for a third of the $30,000 it collects on a weekday night. On weekends, the figure triples.
Compare that with his estimated extra cost of $800 an hour for staff and entertainment to run the place after 3am and it's not hard to see the benefits.
The longer hours do not necessarily give rise to a rowdy crowd, say those running Attica Too, Lunar and Thumper.
But Mr Foo notes: 'It's natural for clubs to have some disturbances. Most of these occur after 3am when the patrons have more alcohol in their system.'
Mr De Miranda agrees, saying: 'A lot of people are intoxicated and it's harder to manage. Fights can break out easily under those circumstances.'
While the going seems good for clubs that stretch their hours to 6am, not every player is keen to do so.
Zouk, which has a 24-hour licence, closes at around 5am. Its marketing manager Tracy Phillips does not foresee this changing any time soon.
'Sales after 4am are not a huge income driver but we are open because the crowd simply refuses to go home. It's tough on the staff to open till so late,' she explains.
Mr Mohan Mulani, CEO of Harry's Holdings, supports that notion: 'Towards the tail-end, business drops, so from a business point of view, it doesn't make sense to open till 6am. Furthermore, Harry's outlets are generally bars, not clubs, so there's no need to open till so late.'
Out of the 25 outlets under the group, the four-month-old Rupee Room in Clarke Quay closes the latest at 4am.
But as long as there are people like account executive Setrina Tan, 30, looking for a late-late-nightlife buzz, you can expect more clubs to jump on the 6am bandwagon.
'At 3am, it's still too early to go home; my mind is still active and I won't be able to sleep,'' says Ms Tan, who was happily drinking with friends in Lunar at 4am on Sunday.
