It’s been some months since we completed the soft-launch and we wanted to take a moment and reflect on the previous event and what is to come.
The first Boogie Loft was born out of an idea that “coolness” in nightlife has become quite plastic – a manufactured, fake thing with no substance. To be a VIP, one simply needs to have money or, these days, a large social media following with a consumerist demographic. Ol Jack Nu Jack was born out of a desire to marry what has been with what should be. A mixture of the past and the future, built upon a base of respect, transparency, authenticity, and community.
The Boogie Loft concept is designed to elevate the art of dance within nightlife. Our goal is to be able to build a space not only where Montreal’s most passionate dancers are recognized as VIPs, but a space to bring a much closer, intimate, and symbiotic relationships between the music artist and the performing artists. How are we going to elevate dance?
- Dancers are the new VIP – we’re still learning who the great dancers are in Montreal, but we’re quick learners. They’ll be taken care of.
- We also want to work towards being able to fund and book dance performances that are integrated into the headlining music artists’ sets.
- People are entitled to more space – it is now standard for promoters to pack as many bodies as possible in an event. People need space to dance and we are working on learning the best ways to make sure that happens, starting with selling less tickets.
The first edition of Boogie Loft validated that Montreal has a large community of passionate dancers that will respond to nightlife events if promoters clearly communicate that they understand dancers’ needs. We also learned that to make this work in the long run, while we can’t be profit driven, we have to work very hard to balance the budget, especially since our concept leads us to stop selling tickets, even when there is “space” under the normal rules.
We’d like to thank everyone in the dance community, the awesome music talent, and the crew of “The Venue Above Bar Pamplemousse” for helping us pop off the first event. And a shout-out to our friends who helped with lighting, graphic design, ticketing, videography, photography, promotion, and event management. We felt a lot of love from the community and hope the community feels the love we have for them.
Building bridges with the dance community, buying music talent, finding and renting venues, loading in and out the sound lights and rigging, booking videographers, booking photographers, hiring and working with video editors, hiring and working with graphic designers, doing advertising and promotions … all of these things cost money and take time and we never are able to move as quickly as we like. We don’t yet have a date for our next event, but it won’t be too long until you hear from us again.
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