Divers/Cité

Divers/Cité was an LGBT multidisciplinary arts and music festival taking place each year in the heart of Montreal, since 1993. A week-long avant-garde event in the heart of downtown Montreal and in Montreal's Gay Village area held usually on the end of July and beginning of August every year, it was open to all audiences, gay and heterosexual, including many free events.

Divers/Cité
GenreElectronic music, multidisciplinary arts and music, jazz, pop, Latin, rock, house, R&B and electronica
Location(s)Montreal
Years active1993-2014

Organized in 1993 by Suzanne Girard and Puelo Deir, Divers/Cité served as a response to the Sex Garage raid of 1990.[1][2] The event formerly served as Montreal's primary LGBT pride festival.[3]

In 2006, that year's festival suffered a significant decline in attendance and revenues due to the city's contemporaneous hosting of the 2006 World Outgames;[4] the increased number of LGBT tourists in town for the Outgames had been expected to be a financial boon for Divers/Cité, but according to Divers/Cité director Suzanne Girard, "even if there were more people than usual, there were 10,000 more things to do."[4] As a result, later in the year the event dropped its Pride mandate and was repositioned as an LGBT arts and culture festival, leading to the creation of the new Fierté Montréal to manage the newly separate Pride parade.[3] As both events took place at different times during the summer, the split sometimes led to confusion among tourists visiting the city.[5]

Programming comprised contemporary dance, DJing, outdoor cinema, photo exhibitions, jazz, pop, Latin, rock, house, R&B and electronica concerts. Mostly outdoors and free, Divers/Cité's programming also featured many indoor dance events including Lesbomonde, an important Canadian lesbian happening. Another was La Grande Danse, a large, open-air house event featuring many internationally popular DJs.

In 2012, the event moved from Montreal's Gay Village to the Old Port.[6]

Following a long history of financial difficulties,[6] Divers/Cité filed for bankruptcy in May 2015.[7]

See also

References
  1. "Raid united city's LGBT community". Montreal Gazette, June 27, 2015.
  2. Burnett, Richard (March 4, 2015). "Has Montreal's founding gay Pride group Divers/Cité folded?". Xtra. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
  3. "Has Montreal’s founding gay Pride group Divers/Cité folded?". Daily Xtra, March 4, 2015.
  4. "Divers/Cite attendance plummets by 20%: Outgames 'weren't good for us financially'". Montreal Gazette, August 9, 2006.
  5. "Pride, but no parade; Divers/Cite. Rift means events are separate". Montreal Gazette, August 11, 2008.
  6. Richard Burnett, "Pop Tart: The day Divers/Cité died". Montreal Gazette, February 26, 2015.
  7. "Le festival LGBT Divers/Cité en faillite". Radio-Canada, May 20, 2015.

See also
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