Justin Timberlake
Singer Justin Timberlake performs during the 13th Mawazine Rhythms of the World music festival in Rabat May 30, 2014. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal

Justin Timberlake wasn’t allowed inside his own party in Sydney. He was reportedly set to make an appearance at the Miind nightclub in Oxford St on Friday morning, but he was denied entry to the club when he arrived late.

The U.S. actor/singer is in the Australian leg of his “20/20 Experience” world tour. After a successful show at the Allphones Arena, he was reported to be making an appearance at the club for his after-party. His official tour DJ Freestyle Steve was playing there.

However, Miind Nightclub owner Kunal Singh said that Timberlake and his 50-plus entourage were denied entry to the club after they arrived 15 minutes after the lockout time, which is 1:30 am in Sydney CBD. But apparently, the singer’s management thought that the nightclub just didn’t want the entourage inside; hence, they cut the DJ’s set short.

“They got the sh—because we couldn’t let everyone in,” the owner was quoted by the In The Mix as saying. “It was pretty crazy and all because of lockouts. It’s really disappointing because to have an international guest like that in the club is massive… if it wasn’t for the lockout laws we would have had everyone in.”

http://m.inthemix.com.au/news/59123/Exclusive_Sydney_lockouts_deny_Justin_Timberlake_entry_into_his_own_afterparty

When DJ Freestyle Steve’s set was cut, the club had to close down early at 2:30 am instead of 4 am.

Timberlake, however, laughed off the report, claiming he wasn’t even in the area. DJ Freestyle Steve, on the other hand, was “pissed,” claiming in a now-deleted Facebook post that Timberlake was “never, never coming” to the club.

“@freestylesteve: Excuse The Grammar Errors But Im Pissed...” All this hoopla and I wasn't even there... I hope somebody had fun. Hahaha!

— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) October 3, 2014

Miind cleared the issue on its Facebook page, explaining that they were told by the tour management that Timberlake was on the way to the nightclub at the time his entourage was denied entry. They had no way of knowing if that was really the case, but that’s the information that they got from Timberlake’s camp so they assumed that he was really supposed to come.

“The tour managers emphasised that the group that had just arrived were Justin Timberlake’s entourage and that Justin was ‘on his way.’ MIIND Nightclub Management were then told that if the whole group was refused entry, they would make sure Justin would not attend the venue; and that their management would also pull DJ Freestyle Steve from the venue, effectively ‘ending the party,’” a note on the page reads.

https://www.facebook.com/miindnightclub

“MIIND Nightclub has no way of verifying whether or not Justin Timberlake was in fact on his way to the venue, we were simply acting on the information that was provided to us by management of the tour/DJ Freestyle Steve. At the time of the incident, considering DJ Freestyle Steve’s close affiliation with Justin Timberlake and the 20/20 tour, MIIND Nightclub had no reason to believe that any information provided to us by persons of authority was incorrect. It is in fact a very common occurrence that big artists arrive at an after party to support their tour DJ’s when they are booked at clubs.

The lockout laws state that alcohol-serving licensed venues may not allow entry to patrons coming in after 1:30 am around CBD and Kings Cross to reduce violence. Venues that fail to comply may have their licenses revoked, as well as face fines up to $11,000.