Bugatti dancing club

Bugatti Dancing club is the only disco in wider region of Tolmin, and it is sutuated in an old warehouse, in the industrial part of Tolmin. It most famous years were right in my teenage years, and therefore it was also the first dancing club that I went to and lived my first real party.

First of all, before I start telling you other important things that you need to know about this place, I have to warn you that in Bugatti Dancing Club, you will not find parties every day. Not even every weekend! The dancing club is most active over winter season, and there is a couple of parties per month at that time. Summer is a different story. A couple of years ago, they occassionally did a summer open – air party, but nowadays, the club is closed down at the beginning of spring (last year, it was for Easter).

Where to go?

When you are driving (or walking) through Tolmin on the main road, you will definitely notice the building where Bugatti Dancing Club is. To help you orientate, it is situated right in front of the building of the Mercator shopping centre. So, if you are coming to Tolmin from the direction of either Nova Gorica or Bovec and Kobarid, you will see Bugatti dancing club on your left, right after the roundabout at the very beginning of Tolmin.

If you are coming from the opposite direction, which would be Ljubljana, Kranj or Idrija, you have to drive through all the city of Tolmin, and the Bugatti dancing club will be on your right, just before you will enter the one and only roundabout in Tolmin. If you would like to get to the club, you have to turn to the direction of Mercator Center (there is a sign, pointing there), and when you reach a junction after the Euro Spin shop, you have to turn on the right. During the day, there is nothing special about this place. Actually, the only thing that will tell you that you are at the right place, is a red round sign that says Bugatti Dancing Club.

But, the common practice there is not to head straight into the club. There is a bar, called Bar Črv, just before the roundabout where you turned to get to the club. People usually go there for a few drinks before going into the club. Mostly because the drinks are way cheaper there.

As I have previously mentioned, the exterior of the club is nothing very special. But the interior is a completely different story. Right at the entrance of the club, there are usually security guards, who will be checking your ID. You can not enter if you are below seventeen years old and they are very strict about that. They are also very strict about bringing any of your drinks inside. Once, there were two girls in front of us, who wanted to smuggle inside a big bottle of Jack Daniels, and they were very rude to the security guards, so they did not let them inside.

Once you enter the building, there is a small room, where you pay the entrance fee. This room is beautifully decorated in the style of Art Deco. There is also a cloakroom there, and if you would like to leave your things there, it will cost you one Euro and a half. But it always happens thet the people that work there, always lose a lot of things. So some people usually just take their jackets and other stuff with them into the club and just leave them lying everywhere around and many of the items get lost.

The interior of the dancing club is basically divided into three parts (the art deco room excluded): the dancefloor with the stage for musicians that are performing, the VIP lounge, where the bar is, which is on the right side and its floor is a bit higher, so there is a big step, and the balcony, which is definitely the most attractive part of this dancing club.

The dancefloor is quite big, and there are several stairs, that are leading to the stage. There are also some bar tables and chairs, but they are always occupied either with drunk people, who will sit there all night, or with various people's items, such as clothes and purses.

If you decide to spend your night at a VIP lounge (basically, the only thing that is good there, is, that you have guaranteed seating for all night), you will pay one hundred and fifty Euros for five persons, and this price includes a bottle of champaigne. Sometimes, when there are not many people on the VIP place, all of the visitors can go up there.

The bar looks really great. It is shaped as the Bugatti car (which is also the name of the club), and there are always very attractive barmans, serving drinks. There is another smaller bar at the entrance to the balcony, and another one on the balcony, but this one is closed most of the time.

The most famous drink in the club is the boom boom tequilla, and they say that you have to drink it at least once a night, while partying in this club. The nickname for this club is actually tequilla. I actually like the taste of it. The first time I tried it, was of course in this club. Me and my friend were just hanging around in the club, because it was only eleven o'clock (the real party in Bugatti starts after midnight, and of course, we did not know that before), and a random guy invited us to pay for our drink. We were a bit skeptical at the beginning, because parents were scaring us with stories about people, putting stuff in girls'drinks, so we decided to watch the barman carefully. At the end, we came to a conclusion that the guy was just a friendly random stranger, and we got to try our first boom boom tequilla.

Unlike at the most other nightclubs, Bugatti dancing club has no promotions for the drinks. Almost all of the other nightclubs that I know, have either happy hours, or buy one take two promotions. The drinks there are not as expensive as in the other nightclubs. Well, a small bottle of water will cost you three Euros, which is more expensive that almost any other drink. 2dl of boom boom tequila costs two Euros, 2dl of red wine costs one Euro and a half.

To get to the balcony, you have to climb thirty stairs, which are lit up with glowing stars. The bad thing is, that the balcony opens only when there is enough people. It is quite spacious, and there is plenty of room to dance. If you are dancing unter the balcony (on the ground floor), it can sometimes happen, that someone on the balcony will spill their drink on you. Actually, it happens quite often, so I guess that people are doing this on purpose. From what I know, so far, nobody was harmed from a falling bottle or something.

You are not allowed to smoke inside the dancng club (luckily), so there s a small exit behind the entrance to the balcony, which leads outside. The place is fenced, so people from outside cannot get in there without paying the entrance fee.

If you are going there for a party, there is always plenty of parking spaces in front of previously mentioned Mercator shopping centre.

The club has switched owners in 2012, and this move has, in my opinion, done only harm. The entrance fee has drastically increased, from just a few Euros, even for famous bands, to ten or more Euros. Another thing, that they did wrong, in my opinion, is that they have dropped the age restriction down to the fifteen years of age! So the people at the parties there nowadays look like this: a lot of half – naked fifteen year old girls, and the other kind of people are some horny old local men. So I guess you understand what I meant, when I said that the parties in this club nowadays are not like they were in the past.

There is no dress code to enter this dancing club, so basically almost everybody can get inside. However, in the past, there were some themed parties, and if you dressed as it was assigned, you got a free entrance to the club. For example, once it was pyjama party, halloween party and so on.

But nothing lasts forever, as many people say. Today, Bugatti Dancing Club is just a bad glimpse of what it once was. And by once, I do not mean ten or more years ago, but five years at most.

There were a few excellent parties in Bugatti Dancing Club, which I have attended, and the most memorable were definitely these ones:

Two slovenian bands, Kingstoni and Mambo Kings, always make the best parties. Four years ago, on my eighteenth birthday, which I was celebrating in Bugatti Dancing Club, both of these two bands were performing there and the party was unforgettable. Because it was my birthday, my friend did a very nice surprise to me. She somehow spoke to the lead singer and they invited me on the stage and sang a song to me. I was quite embarassed to dance in front of the club, full of people, but at the same time, the feeling was amazing. If you know, that the famous band is singing the song just for you, it really is great.

What I especially like about the band Kingstoni is, that they usually invite some people on stage to dance there. But you have to be really close to the stage if you want them to notice you.

The pyjama party used to happen several times. I was present at two of them. Once, the club was completely full, and some people were wearing the weirdest pyjamas ever, and there was a lot of laughter about that. There were also staff member with water guns, filled with various cocktails and other alcoholic drinks, and you could get a free shot from time to time. The second pyjama party was terrible, comparing to the first one. There was literally only fifteen people, and the club has closed at one in the morning! This was just after the club has switched owners. I do not know if this is connected, but I think that it is.

Darko Lazić party was my first party with balkan music, and I did not like it very much. The club was too crowded to dance, so me and my friend managed to get a seat and just sit there a few hours and we were both really sleepy. At the end of the party, there was a big fight, and even the police had to come there. It is very common that at parties with balkan artists, there is a fight.

Male strip – tease happened on valentine's day. The funny thing about it was, thet the number of male and female guests was almost the same. I was kind of expecting only girls. But probably, male guests were there to look for women. The event was nice, and after it, the party continued with a local DJ.

For the end of this entry, I will list some of the positive and some of the negative things about the Bugatti Dancing Club, which were not previously mentioned.

Positive things:

The club has an excellent ventilation. You probably know the feeling in some nightclubs, where you can hardly breathe. But not in Bugatti. Some fresh air also comes in, when people go out for a smoke and open the door. But if you are standing close to it, it will become very cold.

When I was still living with my parents, this was the closest nightclub to my home. In fact, the next one was an hour and a half of driving away. Yes, I used to live in a very remote place. Check out the entry Drežnica – Drežniške Ravne – Jezerca – Drežnica walking trail to get a glimpse of it.

The nightclub occassionally organizes a party for a good cause. For example, when there were some big floods in some regions of Slovenia a few years ago, they donated all of the money that they earned from the entrance fees, to those people.

Negative things:

Sometimes, I love to go to a party where I know nobody and dance like crazy. But, since this region is quite small, everybody knows everybody. So if you want some privacy and you are from this region, then Bugatti is definitely not a place for you.

The toilettes are in a terrible state. In fact, it is almost better to hold it in all night then going there. Why? First of all, most of the doors are broken and you can not lock them, so someone always has to be with you to stand in front of the door. Secondly, there is never any toilet paper and everything is so dirty. You can sometimes even find puke on the floor. In addition, the water in the sinks almost never works. And last, but not least, the guys are constantly coming there or waiting just behind the exit. And they are always drunk.