Black and Blue puts the sex in sexy

Men from around the world have been breaking the rules and having sex at Montreal’s famed Black and Blue circuit party for almost a quarter century. First organized by Bad Boy Club Montreal in 1991, Black and Blue marks its 24th anniversary this year. Thousands of revellers are expected to arrive on Oct 12 for the Main Event, in Montreal’s Palais des Congrès.

“I had sex at the 1994 edition of Black and Blue at Olympic Stadium with this stranger,” says Brock, a veteran Black and Blue partygoer. “We crouched down next to the dancefloor for a wildly passionate interlude of about 15 minutes. After finishing — yes, we finished — no words were exchanged except for our names and hometowns. It had been so erotic and lustful that I submitted a classified ad to Xtra, and, ’lo and behold, the handsome stranger recognized himself in my description and we arranged to hook up at his guesthouse the next time he travelled to Montreal. We did, it was boring and we were never in touch again. It was more fun at Black and Blue.”

Anecdotes like Brock’s are legion, but few are as memorable as the time Caroline Rousse, longtime Black and Blue committee member and BBCM media relations director, got cum all over her hand at the Main Event in 1996.

“We went over the regulations and told BBCM committee members and security, ‘If you see people [having sex] on the dancefloor, warn them that they cannot do that here,’” Rousse recalls. “So, of course, I’m walking on the dancefloor and I see a group of people circling around two guys, one who was sucking the other. I was like, ‘Excuse me, you can’t do that here!’ When they stood up one of them came all over my hand! I didn’t react — I just wanted to make sure these guys were okay. I told them, ‘Go to the bar and have a cranberry juice.’ Then I ran to the washroom and washed my hands.”

Then there was the sex party at one of Black and Blue’s Leather Balls.

“The BBCM committee members and dancers had a special private room upstairs, and from this room there was a staircase that went up to the attic, which was full of huge beams and dark corners,” says Robert Vezina, Black and Blue co-founder and BBCM president. “The attic had traps that looked over the dancefloor. I went up for some reason, and there was one of our committee members — a beautiful, muscular man who shall remain nameless — who had brought his friends from New York upstairs, where they were having a party. They were dressed in leather and leaning on the beams and it was straight out of a porn movie. I told them to stop it and return downstairs.”

Vezina points out that sex on the Black and Blue premises is a rarity and not permitted. “Starting with our performers, we don’t allow frontal nudity, mainly because the venues where we hold our events don’t have nudity licences,” he says. “There is cruising and heavy petting on the dancefloor, but sex on the premises is very rare. You’d have to find a dark corner.”

This year’s Black and Blue Festival runs Oct 8 to 12. Highlights include the Jock Ball (Oct 9 at Apollon Bar) and the Leather Ball (Oct 10 at the avant-garde Usine C venue). The Main Event (Oct 12 at the Palais des Congrès) will feature DJs Pascal B, Philip White, Stephan Grondin, Bent Collective, Pagano, Tom Stephan and COYU.

This year’s theme is Metropolis. “It’s a wink to the film but also to Montreal because the city is booming again,” Vezina says. “You can see the cranes downtown; the city is becoming a big metropolis again. It also offers great opportunities for décor and projections.”

Even as they’re nailing down final preparations for Oct 8, the BBCM is preparing for next year’s massive 25th anniversary bash. “It will be retrospective and looking towards the future, with key DJs and performers invited back for a special showcase,” Vezina says. “We’re also trying to convince the [Harper] government to restore our funding from recent years.”

But in the meantime, expect thousands of revellers at this year’s Black and Blue. “We get the most beautiful men from around the world in Montreal that weekend. Our reputation as a fun, sexually charged event started in 1991, when we invited only good-looking people to our very first party. That’s how we got our bad-boy reputation. It was obnoxious, but it worked.”

The Black and Blue Festival runs Oct 8–14 at various Montreal venues.
Main Event admission $95 plus service charges / VIP $120 plus service charges.
bbcm.org/en