La Grande Danse @ Scene Berri/Ontario - August 3, 2008

DJs: Alain Jackinsky, Danny Torrence, Jester, Isaac Escalante and Nicola Torriero.Guest Singers: Marleen Menard, Yan Lavoie et Patsy Gallant

La Grande Dance is one of the most expected T-Dance during the Divers/Cité week, and it looks like the T-dance on Saturday has become as big as the one on Sunday.

I know there are lots of people wondering how come there was no Parade this year, and the answer is simple, Divers/Cité decided to spin off the Parade to another organization and now this event will only occur 2 weeks later.

In other words, Montréal is so gay that we decided to declared the whole month of August as our Pride month, plus we love confusing people from out of town. I wonder how many people will show up in two weeks thinking it is the actual Divers/Cité week.

I arrived at the T-dance at around 6:30pm or so, Isaac Escalante was just finishing his set, and it is too bad because I really wanted to hear this guy. I went down with my friends from New York City, and for one of them it was his first Grande Danse.

It is almost impossible to find your friends in the middle of thousand of shirtless men, and dressed women. Even if you talk to your friends via cell phone, it is impossible to hear them or find them, so instead of worrying about where they are, you just have to enjoy the party and eventually you will find them.

There are people from all over the place, and it is all about having a good time, and dancing to good music. Once again I apologize because I did not hear who was spinning after Isaac Escalante, I think it was Nicola Torriero, but I might be wrong.

Marleen Menard and company did a great performance during this time, and once the DJ started to play again, I was not impressed by the chosen music. Once again, if you are playing to an outdoor party, the music must be happy, not the one we are used to hearing at 5:00am in certain afterhours.

Heard lots of build ups but with no end, which kind of ended up leaving me frustrated. Never mind the music, I was there to enjoy the company of my friends and all those thousand of people from all over the place. Got to see everyone except my 2 best friends, which is a first by the way, we just kept missing each other.

Anyway, I only stayed for 3 hours or so, wanted to return home and rest a bit before the Divers/Cité Ball. The weather only helped until later in the afternoon, before that it was rainy and dark, which probably kept a lot of people away from this party.

I wished I had seen Danny Torrence performing during this party, but I think he was on before the Mexican guy.

If you have never experienced one of these T-Dance, make sure to write it down in your books as something to do next year, it is a lot of fun and you won’t regret going.

I won’t bored you anymore with my writing and instead just keep looking at the pictures.

Pictures courtesy of my friend Tim