Three McGill students will be celebrating their birthdays and the end of the school term with a metro party tomorrow night. Guests are asked to bring “friends and costumes and instruments” — but no alcohol, markers or cigarettes, because anyone who breaks the STM’s rules could result in the whole party being shut down by the metro cops.
Three metro parties were held last year, each to varying degrees of success. The first, organized in late March by Toronto’s newmindspace, was attended by 107 people, including Steve Faguy, who covered it for the Gazette. Metro police allowed it to continue, but it was eventually shut down by the city police, who kicked all of the partiers off the train. Another, much smaller party held in May was similarly evicted, but a Halloween metro party seemed more successful.
Tomorrow’s party should hopefully be fun. I’ll be attending and so will my fellow contributor Chris Erb. (Oh, and in the interests of full disclosure: I’m friends with the organizers.) Things will get rolling at the end of the platform at Henri-Bourassa metro at 9pm. Check out the event’s Facebook page for more information.
Photo by Paul Frigon
3 comments
I ended up missing the train by mere minutes. We left a little too late. How did it go?
It went pretty well. The turnout wasn’t bad, about 40 people at the peak, and it was fun to watch. It felt there wasn’t enough interaction with ordinary metro passengers, though — except for a few people who joined the party, most avoided our car altogether. One person even ran away from us!
There’s also something really self-conscious about metro parties. There were half as many cameras as people.
Chris, I find it curious that you describe it as “fun to watch”. But was it a fun party? Was there music? dancing? food? Or were people just taking pictures of each other.