Tag: Rave

Categories
Arts and Culture Exhibit

Step back in time: Immersive VR experience recreates rave culture at Centre PHI

Photo by Maya Ruel.

Experience the thrill, music, and underground atmosphere of 1980s illegal raves within the confines of virtual reality.

How did it feel to attend a rave with thousands of other people in the United Kingdom during the 1980s? Such a unique experience is unparalleled, but artist Darren Emerson has recreated its essence in his interactive VR experience In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats, which is currently open to the public at Centre PHI. 

In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats is both a documentary and an immersive experience. The player embarks on an adventure that brings them back to 1989, when illegal raves were regularly organized throughout the country in uncanny locations, such as abandoned warehouses.  About 40 minutes long, the VR experience is both informative and entertaining. The player is provided a headset, headphones, and a sort of backpack that vibrates to the rhythm of the soundtrack.

The playroom is located on the second floor of the museum. Adorned with blacklights, the room is divided into six sections where players can move around during their experience. Once the headset and headphones are on, though, it is impossible to tell that there are other people in the room. It is an individual adventure and the VR setup makes the player feel cut off from reality completely. 

The graphics are breathtaking. At the beginning, the player sits in the car with ravers, watching the road roll by in the darkness of the night. Then, the player hangs out with these same ravers in a bedroom with walls covered in posters of 80s bands before getting sucked into the radio and surrounded by colors, vibrations and music. After visiting the police precinct and learning about the investigations that illegal raves led to at the time, the player enters a warehouse and experiences a rave in the fashion of 1989. Throughout these different scenes are scattered testimonials from important actors of the rave scene in the 80s. 
Interested? This VR experience is featured at Centre PHI from Feb. 7 to April 28. Centre PHI is known for the diversity and uniqueness of its exhibitions and displays. It showcases art pieces from underground artists and allows the public to experiment with all types of mediums and technology. Colored: The Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin is another VR experience currently featured that will be open to the public until April 28.

Categories
Interview Music

PermaCulture: Diversifying the City’s Nightlife

A raver at the PermaCulture Halloween afterparty in 2023. PHOTOS BY ANTHONY DUBÉ @anthonydube__ // THE CONCORDIAN

PermaCulture founder discusses rave and nightlife in Montreal.

Montreal is a city that prides itself on its nightlife. Adrien Orlowski has been an organizer of the nightlife scene for the past ten years. He has watched the scene change and evolve and has worked to cultivate a more diverse environment in Montreal’s underground.

“For so long, the rave scene has been considered a juvenile activity, something that is not serious, that doesn’t bring anything to society,” he explained in an interview with The Concordian. Orlowski founded PermaCulture, a non-profit that organizes events and conferences geared towards fostering a more diverse and inclusive environment. Orlowski and his organization want rave to be taken more seriously—he sees it as an escape from the pressures of life.

“We live in a world today that is not easy at all. There’s war everywhere, there’s famine, there are so many issues,” he said. “I think rave can be a solution to that, people get on well. People are at peace, everyone is chill.”

Orlowski talked about how the scene had all these communities that would run their own events, but they were segmented. The afro, arab, and queer scenes all stuck to themselves, and PermaCulture was created to combine the communities under one roof. “I felt like it’s been the same for decades where we only had the same type of DJs, promoters, and people coming to our events. I think in the past years, we’ve started to see a change,” Orlowski said. 

Orlowski and PermaCulture are deeply passionate about the nightlife in Montreal, but of course, there are hurdles to organizing a festival like theirs. Orlowski says the main factor is funding—before you can do anything, you need money. They look for grants mostly through the city and some sponsorships from the private sector for things like alcohol sales. However, the relationship can be adversarial at times, according to Orlowski.

Recently, the city cut funding to the nightlife advocacy group MTL 24/24, which has led to the organization having to lay off staff and cancel its annual Montreal Night Summit.

“This is a lack of consideration for all the work we have accomplished over the past three years,” said Mathieu Grondin, director of MTL 24/24, in an interview with Resident Advisor. Members of the nightlife scene view the funding cut as a way to silence the organization, which has historically been critical of the city and the Plante administration. 

A Facebook post by rave organization Homegrown Harvest reads: “They’ve completely gutted the funding of MTL 24/24, an amazing night culture advocacy group that has been publicly critical of the city’s approach (coincidence??), and are attacking the funding of great institutions like the SAT—all while juicing up the police budget yet again.” 

The Plante administration said that MTL 24/24 can refile its application. Luc Rabouin, executive committee chair for the city, added that Montreal doesn’t fund organizations, it funds events—MTL 24/24 simply didn’t meet the requirements.

The city proposed two large pieces of legislation on Dec. 19, 2023. The first is the creation of 24-hour zones, which would enable businesses within the zone to sell alcohol and stay open throughout the night, whereas previously alcohol sales would end at 3:00 a.m. The other piece is an investment package of $1 billion that is dedicated to revitalize downtown Montreal over the next 10 years. 

All of this should make it easier for organizations like PermaCulture to host events, but there is still no news on an updated nightlife policy. Organizations like Homegrown Harvest ask why the Plante administration doesn’t simply make it easier to get 24-hour licenses, as many of the venues the nightlife relies on are outside of this crucial zone.

Categories
Student Life

I woke up like this: ‘raving your way into the day’

Morning Gloryville sober early morning raves will make sure you get up on the right side of the bed

There have been plenty of times when I’ve stumbled home from a night out at 6:30 a.m., watching the sunrise through bleary eyes as I hopped on the first metro of the morning. Never, however—or rather, never until last Thursday—have I woken up at 6:30 a.m. to watch the sunrise through bleary eyes as I hop on the first metro of the morning to go out to a rave. A sober, early morning rave.

Over the last 18 months, Morning Gloryville has started an international “raveolution,” beckoning people of all ages to welcome the morning with dancing, yoga, breakfast, and all-around positive vibes. The raves take place every first Wednesday of the month from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., all around the world, from Bangalore to Barcelona, from Melbourne now to Montreal.

“The purpose of the event is to infuse well-being into cities around the world,” said Justin Smith, co-founder and Glory Agent of Morning Gloryville Montreal. “We just want to awaken our community to be present, not to just live, but to awaken to life with every fibre of their being.”

Last week (held one time only on a Thursday) Montreal’s chapter of Morning Gloryville took her maiden voyage.

“Montreal is really open to new things,” said Smith. “It’s a home of self-expression, it’s creative and open-minded, and I think this is really up that alley.”

Peeling away from the first tricklings of early-morning commuters, my friend and I stepped into the lobby of the Loft Hotel, and into another world. The incessant beeping of snowplows was replaced by soothing, upbeat music, and the smell of coffee—free coffee—felt like a hug to my still half-asleep body. Throngs of people in neon, spandex, onesies and dreadlocks flocked inside the space where, in addition to the free coffee, baked goods and snacks were available for purchase. Multi-coloured streamers were suspended from the ceiling like at a child’s birthday party. Two signs near coat check proclaimed “free hugs.”

Further inside, we followed construction paper posters that promised “more fun this way.” In my early-morning state, I felt like I was following the white rabbit down into Wonderland.

DJs Don Mescal and Sidi Khalil pumped energetic beats into the air as ravers of all ages—from toddlers to senior citizens—waved their arms and spun in circles, jumping and dancing and swaying. Essentially, it was a rave like any other, but the definitive vibe was happy and airy, as opposed to the usual dingy, hazy raves of the nighttime crowd.

“We’re trying to take the word [rave] back. Raving is a four-letter word, where people go to do a lot of drugs. They’re dark and nasty,” said Smith. “Conscious clubbing is kind of a trend that we’re starting. We want to create a safe space where people can let go and be ridiculous and engage in self-expression without the mask of alcohol or drugs.”

That space was definitely created. One woman in a tulle skirt hula-hooped on stilts. Face painting was offered in one corner of the dancefloor, yoga in another. Upstairs, massage therapists gave free massages to eagerly waiting queues of people. At the back, a photo booth was set up with props (flower leis, feather boas, bunny ears etc.) and a professional photographer was ready to immortalize everybody’s “I woke up like this” face.

Rise Kombucha, who sponsored the event, manned a bar of free-flowing drinks, served in mason jars (of course) to quench the thirst of all these early-morning movers and shakers. As I swayed along the dancefloor, I realized how few times I’d actually danced so uninhibitedly, completely sober.

Everybody was there because they wanted to be, and somehow by osmosis I started to feel the undiluted joy and harmonious good vibes that I’d scoffed at as hippy nonsense just a few hours earlier.

All in all, definitely worth getting out of bed for.

Morning Gloryville early morning raves take place every first Wednesday of the month (next time March 11), from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. locations to be announced. Early bird tickets cost $16.62 and increase in price closer to the event.
For more information visit morninggloryville.com

Exit mobile version