If you're looking for the mega-club trance-and-lasers experience, waterfront fixture the Guvernment is still going all night. The maze-like complex holds a tremendous number of people and has multiple rooms and a huge rooftop patio. Fridays are for the mainstream hiphop crowd, Saturdays for the mainstream dance scene. System Soundbar goes late on weekends, and has more of a post-rave vibe than the Guv. One big room with pounding progressive and house, two small rooms with other sounds, like deep house, drum 'n' bass, breaks, hiphop and hard house.

Film Lounge is kind of like a smaller, more intimate System Soundbar, with some of the crowd from the Guvernment. Some call it "the Comfort Zone with a dress code," but the Zone (see below) is an entity unto itself.

The Comfort Zone is unlike any other club. It's most infamous for its Sunday after-party, which starts at sunrise and is rocking by mid-morning, wrapping up at around 3 am Monday. The liquor licence has been suspended, but midway through the day the Silver Dollar opens upstairs, so partiers can enjoy a beverage there. The Zone also opens late Thursday night and goes until sunrise, and generally has something going on most of the weekend.

Newcomer Boa-Redux also has no alcohol for sale, but that doesn't seem to scare anyone off. It opens at around 1 am, gets busy around 2:30 am and goes past sunrise. The main room's sound system's been getting much praise, and the crowd is a mix of gays and straights in proportions that vary depending on the event.

Also new to Chinatown is Glam Boutique , which, like Boa-Redux, is not quite gay but not very straight either. Lots of couches to lounge on and pounding trance music to dance to.

Pulse Nightclub is relatively new and just around the corner from System Soundbar. There's throbbing progressive and house late at night, top 40 and hiphop during bar hours and an all-night thing on Sundays if you really need something after the Comfort Zone.

Fly goes late every Saturday and also has occasional Friday nights that end at more reasonable hours. If you watch Queer As Folk, you'll recognize it as Babylon. Expect big gay tribal on Saturdays till 7 am.

Lust has just opened and seems to be trying for the same gay party crowd as Fly. It's run by the guys behind It's A Boys' Life, in the space most recently known as Lotus.

The longest-running after-hours in Toronto (and possibly the world), late-night country music bar the Matador has been open for more than 35 years. It's strange, but if you've never been you're definitely missing out.

If you want to drink, there are always a few booze cans operating every weekend. Most are one-offs, but a few regular spots manage to continue because they keep it low-key. Frankly, this isn't a great year for illegal parties; most are sketchier than you really want to deal with just to get an overpriced can of beer.