Parquette Proves How Nightlife Can Work on Borrowed Time

On Bellechasse street in La Petite-Patrie stands a building that appears long forgotten at first glance. Step beyond its threshold, and you’ll find an ever-changing space that reinvents itself with every gathering that takes place.

Parquette emerged in response to growing calls for accessible gathering space for queer and BIPOC communities in the face of shrinking nightlife infrastructure.

Opened last year by Oliver Anthony, co-founder of the nightlife non-profit FANTOM (Fédération Pour Les Arts Nocturnes), Colin Rothfels (once of 820 Plaza), and a number of close collaborators, Parquette was imagined as Montreal's answer to the queer-friendly, grassroots club spaces that anchor nightlife in cities like New York and Detroit.

The project came at a time when Montreal’s nightlife stood at a crossroads. One venue after another had fallen like dominoes under the pressure of noise complaints, exorbitant rents, and layers of red tape that made continuing to operate untenable.