Black & Blue is all about creating a space that is filled with positive energy, respect, fun and even love. The main event will take place Sunday, October 7 and, like the past 21 editions, will feature the best local and international DJ’s like the UK’s Gareth Emery, Holland’s Sander van Doorn, David Morales from the United States, and Montreal’s own Stephan Grondin. The Black & Blue main event boasts three rooms: The Black Room, The Blue Room and the Chill Lounge. For a full list of DJ’s spinning in each room click here.

Black & Blue continues to evolve with the addition of a brand new event on Saturday (October 6) at 3PM called “De-Light” and is completely free with live music, DJ’s and lots of entertainment. Shows to look forward to include Debbie Tebbs, The Easton Ellises, Donzelle et El Negro and Footprintz. For a full list of shows during De-Light click here.

Black & Blue Festival is an entire weekend of pre-parties, parties, pre-recovery parties and recovery parties. Kickstarting the whole thing will be a Launch Cocktail at Club 737 Lounge Panoramique. That’s the club on the roof of Montreal’s famed Place Ville-Marie, for directions look up at the sky and head towards the giant spinning spotlights. Tickets are $15 at the door and include two drinks, but is free for anyone with a Black & Blue VIP pass.

Along with the main Black & Blue, there will be the annual Jock Ball, Leather Ball and HardBall. For Jock Ball (Oct 4, Circus, 11PM) get your best sports wear and game face ready. Leather Ball (Oct 5, Club Soda, 10PM) will have a dress code of obviously leather, but I’ll probably be wearing lace because I’m a rebel. HardBall (Oct 6, Club Soda, 10 PM) will feature a special presentation by Montreal Fetish Weekend and tickets are $40 at the door.

Ready to get your black, blue and leather on? Before you start making plans remember that Black & Blue is a safe space and prevention is very important to the BBCM. Party wise, play safe and have a blast!

THE DETAILS

Black & Blue Festival, October 3-9, 2012

The post BLACK & BLUE FESTIVAL 2012: EVOLUTION appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

In the cold of January Montreal’s premier English-speaking theatre heats things up with their Wildside Festival, a program of risqué and out-there theatre productions culled from the best of the festivals that have graced the city’s theatres over the past year. My personal favourite of these is Neon Nightz, a tour-de-force cabaret show that both titillated and moved me when I saw it at the Edgy Women Festival last summer.

Written by Sasha Van Bon Bon, Montreal’s most admired and beloved sex columnist for almost two decades [read her column in the alt-weekly Mirror], it’s an account of her years as a riot-grrl stripper in Montreal clubs in the early ‘90s, when the laws were laxer and the music was all Afghan Whigs and Nirvana.

Told in a series of dance numbers like you’d see in a real dance club, Sasha combines some truly athletic pole-dancing moves by her alter ego, Kitty Neptune (a well-known fixture on the Toronto burlesque scene) with erudite monologues about the experiences she had and the people she met while she was a dancer.

These range form the sublime (a piece about a couple who were her regulars and were rediscovering sex in their late middle age) and the awesomely ridiculous (prosthetic cleavage! Bud bikinis! Towering heels!), Sasha leads us by the hand towards the show’s stunning conclusion, a piece about the meaning of sex, the uses of anonymity, and the chorus of shame and pleasure, saints and sinners, we all become in the dark. Montrealers will welcome a chance to get to know Sasha better, in the flesh as it were. But for visitors, Sasha’s passionate, sentient work is also an opportunity to get to know the city’s history and pathos better: Where were you during the great ice storm of 1997? For a full programme of the Centaur’s Wildside Festival, see the schedule here.  Other recommended shows include the burlesque murder mystery Miss Sugarpuss Must Die! and Uncalled For, Montreal’s most out-there comedy troupe.

Guest blogger: Melora Koepke

The post SEXY STAGE SHOWS AT LE CENTAUR appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.