Venue Stories - Parc Des Princes

Ok, I’m jumping back into the frey of the Venue Stories column by hearkening back to the first time we did a fashion Mess, back in September 2007. This show was a co-production with a local friperie called Wa’ou, whose owner was launching her first full line of recycled designs and showing off her ideas for custom Halloween costumes. Wa’ou booked the venue, Parc Des Princes, and then asked me to drop in to negotiate any technical details, book some musical acts to accompany the other great performers she had already communicated with, generally put a lineup together that would work with what was available at the venue.

Parc des Princes was ideal for Wa’ou’s purposes - just a block down the street from the store, capacity about 100 with seating and a front balcony for smokers, a mixed crowd, and a supportive attitude towards the arts community. The venue doesn’t charge artists to perform and doesn’t intend to, and in addition really allowed Wa’ou to configure the space to the needs of a fashion show.

The venue has small but powerful speakers throughout the room, and a small mixing board. We rented a few direct input boxes and mics so we could get the acoustic guitars plugged in, and the keyboards, and beyond that they had what we needed. Parc Des Prices also has a large screen tv, and another screen connected to a digital projector, which were great for the films and VJ we wanted to showcase. There were technical brainteasers involved in using these facilities at that time because time and money had been spent to wire the system into a special cable line so the venue could show some special sports event which went way over my head. The owner was very very trepidations about any jimmyrigging which might endanger his ability to screen that event, and anxieties were increased, I think, by a bit of a language barrier, he’s primarily francophone and the sound person I brought with me, the kind James Finnerty, largely anglo. But, as usual, I find if we can stay really calm during the technical complexity and just keep talking it out we find there’s a simple solution right in front of us that saves the day right on time and everyone highfives.

Parc Des Princes is a squareish room with a few risers for a stage, and the bar and mixing board are at the back of the room, beside the stage area. What made it good for a fashion show was the fairly spacious back room where the models could prep and make a nice entrance straight onto the stage.

I found the owner, Fred, quite easy to negotiate with. I’m pretty flexible, and I totally get that as a resto-bar owner with a ‘pub’ license, giving up his space for free, he needs to try and make profit in other areas and follow the regulations of his license by asking everyone to order food with their drinks. I don’t remember exactly how many free pitchers he gave us, but I remember he gave us a decent price on whatever we ordered beyond the free ones and it seemed there was just enough to go around. I definitely got the impression this was a space that celebrated all the eccentricities of artists as well as sports fans, which is a pretty fun combo.

I think this space is suited to acoustic acts, singer songwriters, folk musicians of different flavours; also, stand up comedy could work well here, as could casual film screenings. This place is officially dubbed a ‘Bistro Francais’ but is fully open-armed, so if you’re an anglo or allophone performer looking to build bridges to new audiences this might be a great place to start. My only advice, here as elsewhere, is to listen really carefully when planning for anything that sounds like “of course of course, everything will be fine” and to make sure you have a back up plan. It’s not a venue owner’s job to think of every detail of your show and figure out the potential sticking points, it’s their job to bookit, and to think of all the things you don’t worry about, like having enough beer and paying the hydro bills. As long as you appreciate this, and keep your eye on all the details that matter to you, you should be able to pull off a show anywhere, including the lovely bright room called Parc des Princes. Fingers crossed for you!

Parc Des Princes
5293 avenue du Parc
Montréal H2V 4G9
Québec - Canada
Tél: 514-678-5727
princes@leparcdesprinces.ca