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Reaching out,
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by JACK OATMON Mark Vincente, a DJ originally from Montreal and recently returned after years in New York, is one of the organizers of the group Party for a Purpose. This boxing Day, they’ll be launching Be Brilliant, a new charity fundraising event which they hope to do seasonally. Vincente’s inspiration to start the project came from what he sees as the increasingly commercial and impersonal nature of the electronic music scene. “Originally I was a dancer but also I was part of the raving party scene,” explains Vincente. “I ended up becoming a DJ and what I realized when I started wanting to create my own parties was that suddenly, everything had become business and VIP and table service and all of that kind of stuff. When I started raving, that wasn’t the purpose of going clubbing. It was about building a community, having fun with friends and being inspired by the music and dancing.” Vincente decided to devise a way of instilling his lost sense of community into club events by combining them with worthy community-based charities. “I noticed while living in New York that these places make a lot of money and we spend a lot of money going out and having a good time. So I figured, why can’t we give back some of that money? To something good or to something that means something to me, whether it’s the environment or an AIDS cause or whatever. We go out clubbing and we buy all this booze and dress up and all that money’s just going to the promoters and the clubs. So I figured it would be great to start an organization to put that money towards something.” The gay community has long been an absolutely essential pillar of club culture, from the days of disco on through house and raving right up to the post-millennial electro boom, making it a natural candidate for such an event. “The Canadian Association of Education and Outreach came to mind because I’m gay and I wanted to support the gay community. They do amazing work in Montreal. They’ve been here for over 30 years. They get no funding from the government or the province of Quebec. It’s basically a gay help phone line. People can call in if they have any questions or problems, or if they want to be referred to someone who can help them out. And they have another project they just started where they do outreach in the community. So they go to high schools or to senior homes and they’ve also opened an online service.” Vincente also says that supporting the gay community goes along with helping the larger music community as well. “Even any new pop songs or anything like that, now—you’re gonna have to remix your song and really start catering to people who do go to clubs. A lot of those people who are going to want to buy your albums or hear them in the club are going to be gay people.” WITH DANCE TROUPE BLUEPRINT AT |
