Where Istanbul actually goes out

Istanbul doesn't run out of things to do. In a single week there's a sold-out show on the Asian side, a derby that stops traffic on both, a festival pouring out of an old brewery, and a midnight screening nobody told the tourists about. Supply was never the problem here. Finding someone to go with was. That's the gap Kissbait is built to close, so here's the ground we're closing it on.

The derby that splits the city in half

Start with football, because it shows you the city quickly. The Intercontinental Derby, Galatasaray against Fenerbahçe, is the only big derby in the world played across two continents. Galatasaray's RAMS Park sits on the European side and packs in close to 54,000. Fenerbahçe's Şükrü Saracoğlu holds around 47,000 over in Kadıköy, on the Asian shore. Beşiktaş take the middle, at the Tüpraş Stadyumu by Dolmabahçe, a few steps from the water.

On a derby weekend the city really does split, and which half you're on says something about you. It also makes a strong first plan. There's a fixed time, a crowd that won't shut up, ninety minutes of built-in conversation, and a ferry home to argue about it.

Rooms for every kind of night

The concert scene runs the whole range, and the room shapes the night as much as the act does. At the big end, KüçükÇiftlik Park in Maçka is 9,000 square metres of open air for about 17,000 people, which is where summer headliners and festival days land. Zorlu PSM, inside the Zorlu Center on the European side, is the country's main indoor hall, its theatre seating around 2,242 for the nights you'd dress up for.

Then it gets small, which is where the city is at its best. Babylon has been going since 1999 and now lives in the old Bomonti brewery, about 550 people against bare brick for jazz, indie and electronica. Salon İKSV runs a tight, well-chosen season from autumn to spring. Nardis, tucked under the Galata Tower, has been a real jazz club since 2002, with small tables, a reservation you'll want to make, and music six nights a week.

The summer the festivals take over

From late spring the İKSV festivals turn the calendar into one long event. The Istanbul Music Festival runs through June, with orchestras and soloists in concert halls and old historic buildings around the city. Close behind it, the Istanbul Jazz Festival runs from late June into July, opening under the stars at the Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Open-Air Theatre before spreading into parks, onto boats, up to rooftops. For a few weeks the question stops being whether something's on tonight. It's which one, and who you're going with.

And the quieter nights

Not every good night is loud. The cinema, theatre and stand-up scenes carry the evenings that don't need thousands of people: a restored print at an arthouse, a play in Beyoğlu, a comedy set where the whole room is in on the joke. Good first plans, because there's always something happening, so neither of you has to fill the quiet on your own.

Why we start here, and only here

Starting in one dense city is on purpose. For something like this, liquidity is the whole game. There's no point matching you with someone three time zones away who'll never be at the same show. Istanbul is big enough, and goes out often enough, that there's always a real plan within reach on either side of the water.

We'll grow from here, to Ankara and İzmir and then further out. But the model has to work at home before it earns the trip. So we're starting at home.