Montreal night life
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[edit] Night life
During the period of Prohibition in the United States, Montreal became well-known as one of North America's "sin cities" with unparalleled nightlife, a reputation it still holds today. In part, its bustling nightlife is attributed to its relatively late "last call" (3 a.m.), and its many restaurants and afterhours clubs that stay open well on into the morning. The large university population, the drinking age of 18, and the excellent public transportation system combine with other aspects of the Montreal culture to make the city's night life unique.
[edit] Crescent
Crescent Street is "party central" for Montreal's Anglophone population, lying at the edge of the Concordia University campus. Throughout the summer, it features street fairs and festivals. The Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix unofficially starts off Montreal's non-stop festival season in the summer. Crescent Street also features many clubs and bars. The clientele of Crescent nightclubs and bars are mostly students, tourists and in general a younger crowd looking for exhilaration and excitement. Most venues will play Top 40, rap and hip hop music. The nearest subway stops are Peel and Guy-Concordia.
[edit] Saint-Denis
Saint Denis Street is the heart of the Latin Quarter of Montreal (Quartier latin), just south of the Plateau, and filled with clubs, bars, and street festivals. The principal east-west axis of this district are Saint Catherine Street and Boulevard de Maisonneuve, with Saint Denis Street as its north-south axis. The mood is bohemian, and the language is mainly French.
[edit] "The Main"
Boulevard Saint-Laurent (Saint Laurent Boulevard, known locally as "The Main") is one of the best places to find nightlife, with many bars and nightclubs and a wide range of restaurants. Saint-Laurent street night spots are often less mainstream than those on Crescent street, with a great variety; from Top 40 and urban music to electronica and techno, from underground and alternative rock to live bands. South of Prince Arthur Street, towards Sherbrooke Street, one is likely to encounter a "posher" clientele. From Prince Arthur Street north (to Mount Royal avenue & beyond), one should expect to rub shoulders with an "edgier" crowd. The nearest subway stop is Saint-Laurent.
[edit] Sainte-Catherine Street West
Another highly notable nightlife area is Sainte-Catherine Street West between Mackay St. and Peel St. where many nightclubs, bars, restaurants, movie theaters, shopping, and strip joints are located.
[edit] Sainte-Catherine Street East
Another notable nightlife spot is Ste-Catherine Street between St-Hubert and Papineau, where many gay nightclubs are concentrated. See Gay Village, Montreal.
[edit] Afterhour clubs
Montreal nightlife is also rated fourth in the world at www.askmen.com for its after-hours life (3 to 11 a.m.). One can often see world-famous deejays such as Tiësto, Deep Dish and Armin van Buuren featured in Montreal's clubs and after-hours. It's not rare to see local DJs like XL and DJ Lafleche performing with those international DJs at festivals and raves.
[edit] Raves
Montreal is becoming increasingly known for the large-scale, mainstream rave festivals held in the city every year. The most notable being the Black and Blue festival, held every year during Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in the arena of the Montreal Olympic Stadium, it caters mainly to the LGBT community and is considered to be the biggest gay circuit party, it is, however, also popular in the community in general. The Bal en Blanc held evey Easter Sunday is another notable rave festival, attracting over 15,000 attendees, both gay and straight.
[edit] Strip-clubs
Montreal is known in some circles as the strip club capital of Canada. The city has over thirty male and female strip clubs in the downtown area alone. Strip clubs in Montreal are unique in that the majority offer full-contact lap dances. Full-contact lap dances have been legal in the province of Québec as of 2001. Strip clubs in Montreal are either categorized as full-contact or non-contact. Exotic dancers are mostly independent workers, not house dancers. Dancers are thus free to work at a variety of strip clubs, and often do, retaining the revenues from their performances; gratuity is not expected. Though this trend was started by 'Viron's Tsontopolion' or 'Viron's Porno-shack'(in English) the city's french community has made the strip club scene the envy of many other Canadian cities, such as Toronto and Ottawa. The freedom that customers have in Montreal strip clubs is unrivaled by any other Canadian city.
