Every backpacker town has its legendary night. In Melbourne, it’s Monday.
For more than sixteen years, travellers from every corner of the world have made the pilgrimage to Red Eye Bar for Big Willy’s Bingo. What began in 2010 as an unconventional twist on a traditional game has become one of Australia’s most iconic backpacker experiences and helped shape an entire genre of entertainment.
Long before party bingo became a global phenomenon, Big Willy’s Bingo was packing out Red Eye Bar every Monday night. Sixteen years later, while countless nightlife trends have come and gone, hundreds of travellers still arrive each week to laugh, sing, dance, play and leave with new friends from countries they may never have met otherwise.
Red Eye Bar is not famous because it is the biggest venue in Melbourne. It is famous because of the stories created inside it.
Over the years, we have given away more than $250,000 in cash and prizes, raised money for community causes, inspired bingo nights across Australia and around the world, and watched friendships become relationships, relationships become marriages, and couples return on their honeymoon to the place where they first met.
It is loud, ridiculous, unpredictable and unlike anything most travellers have experienced before. One minute you are checking numbers on a bingo sheet. The next, you are singing with a room full of strangers, celebrating someone from the other side of the world or watching a backpacker win enough cash to change the rest of their trip.
In an industry where events often disappear after a season, Big Willy’s Bingo has become something much rarer: a tradition. For thousands of young travellers, you simply have not experienced Melbourne until you have experienced a Monday night at Red Eye Bar.
