{"id":599081,"date":"2026-09-13T12:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T12:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599081\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T12:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T12:40:12","slug":"wellington-nightlife-spot-to-close-after-almost-nine-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599081\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellington nightlife spot to close after almost nine years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  [&amp;_p]:tit-sub-xl tit-sub-xl md:[&amp;_p]:d-tit-sub-xl md:d-tit-sub-xl mb-[1.3rem]\">A popular Wellington nightlife spot known for its arcade games, free popcorn and inclusive vibe is calling last drinks for good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">Circus Bar, on Te Aro&#8217;s Allen St between Courtenay Place and Wakefield St, announced its sudden closure on social media last night, revealing it will shut its doors for the final time on September 19.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;The word is out. Circus is packing and leaving town,&#8221; the bar wrote. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been an honour hosting y&#8217;all for almost nine years, but all good things must come to an end.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">The announcement came with an edited neon sign, styled after the Five Nights at Freddy&#8217;s movie poster, reading: &#8220;Four nights at Circus Bar till we close forever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">It was unclear why the bar was closing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">News of the closure sparked an outpouring of nostalgia online, with past and present patrons sharing their memories in the comments. <\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">One called it &#8220;a true, tragic loss for Wellington,&#8221; while another wrote: &#8220;NO OMG so many memories and a broken finger.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-paragraph articleLinkText  lg mb-4\">&#8220;This will always be the place I had my first kiss. RIP,&#8221; a third person said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular Wellington nightlife spot known for its arcade games, free popcorn and inclusive vibe is calling last&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20784,138,111,43,139,69,52],"class_list":["post-599081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-alcohol","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}