A summer nightclub and event series that transformed Montreal’s historic Rialto Theatre into a major party venue. As co-founder, I led the development and operation of an experience built around music, atmosphere, and the people who came together there.
From organizing parties to building a venue
I started DJing and organizing parties at fifteen, when I was in charge of student events at my high school. I continued organizing parties and gatherings with friends as we grew up.
While running Comtel and later Kafeïn, I also promoted nightclub events with partners and organized parties in Kafeïn’s downstairs lounge. Those events became a successful business in their own right.
One of the partners I used to throw parties with approached me about co-founding Beggars Banquet at the Rialto Theatre, one of Montreal’s most distinguished historic venues.
Transforming the Rialto
The owner was working toward turning the theatre into a restaurant, a long-term project that was still underway. He had already removed the seats, leaving an open floor beneath the ornate balconies and ceilings.
We convinced him to rent us the space for a series of consecutive Saturday nights over the summer. It gave us the opportunity to create a nightclub experience on a large scale, with the theatre itself at the heart of the concept.
We scouted the city for vintage Victorian sofas, old Persian rugs, lighting, and furniture. We even salvaged fifteen doors from a construction site and had a carpenter fit them with timber legs to turn them into tables. Together, these pieces gave Beggars Banquet its character within the historic theatre.
My partner brought the creative direction, and I led the work of making the concept happen, from assembling the space to putting the operation together.
Setting the tone before the doors opened
The name Beggars Banquet set the tone for the experience. We used wedding-style paper and gold lettering for the invitations, delivering them personally to people across Montreal’s nightlife scene. Promotion happened offline, rather than through social media or online event groups. It gave the launch the feeling of an occasion before anyone entered the theatre.
Inside, the scale of the Rialto, the furniture, the music, and the crowd came together as one experience. It was a full nightclub event in a historic theatre.
A summer that grew beyond the original plan
What began as a planned run of nine Saturday nights extended to twelve sold-out events. I remember filling the venue to its 1,200-person capacity and turning away another 200 to 300 people each week. Beggars Banquet became a gathering place for Montreal’s nightlife crowd and remains a project people still bring up with me today.
It was a step from promoting parties to developing and operating a venue at a much larger scale. We later carried some of that experience, and some of the furniture, into the Maison Lyall mansion project.
The original wedding-style invitation for May 1, 2004.
