Fédération pour les Arts Nocturnes comprenant les Travailleur·euses et Organisateur·ices de Montréal
FANTOM is a non-profit collective created by and for queer/trans/BIPOC/ally underground nightlife and after-hours artists, workers, and organizers.
We foster inititatives that seek to meaningfully improve the material conditions of alternative cultural work in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal.
FANTOM relies on community input via surveys, meet-ups, and working groups in order to guide projects and set priorities.
We foster inititatives that seek to meaningfully improve the material conditions of alternative cultural work in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal.
FANTOM relies on community input via surveys, meet-ups, and working groups in order to guide projects and set priorities.
open until march 17
This survey focuses on issues surrounding access to space for alternative nightlife in Montreal.
Your input is essential for guiding advocacy work with the City, and our projects supporting alternative nightlife in Montreal.
︎︎︎take the survey
now underway
Uniting event producers, researchers, partners, and collaborators who share our values and vision, FANTOM is taking up the task of building a transparent and accountable not-for-profit event space
︎︎︎more
2025 SURVEY
This survey focuses on issues surrounding access to space for alternative nightlife in Montreal.
Your input is essential for guiding advocacy work with the City, and our projects supporting alternative nightlife in Montreal.
︎︎︎take the survey
now underway
SPACE INITIATIVE
Uniting event producers, researchers, partners, and collaborators who share our values and vision, FANTOM is taking up the task of building a transparent and accountable not-for-profit event space
︎︎︎more
BUILDING SPACE
Two years ago, FANTOM sprang into being in response to Montreal’s dire lack of transparent or accountable nightlife-ready spaces.
Montreal has suffered for years from major gaps in its cultural infrastructure. As a city renowned for arts and nightlife, we deserve a landmark space that reflects an emerging culture of diverse and participatory dance music scenes.
FANTOM is proud to be launching this new initiative, inspired by iconic institutions around the world whose visionary interweaving of bodies, sound, and space has helped define the social fabric of their surrounding cities.
︎︎︎ read the one-pager (PDF)
Uniting event producers, researchers, partners, and collaborators who share our values and vision, FANTOM is taking up the task of building a transparent and accountable not-for-profit event space.
Through the action of this extensive, engaged, and well-resourced network, our space project will open the door to artistic realisations and shared experiences not currently attainable.
Project coordinators:
Désirée Duchesne (philanthropy & partnership)
Oliver Philbin-Briscoe (technology & culture)
Lou Seltz (urban planning)
Montreal has suffered for years from major gaps in its cultural infrastructure. As a city renowned for arts and nightlife, we deserve a landmark space that reflects an emerging culture of diverse and participatory dance music scenes.
FANTOM is proud to be launching this new initiative, inspired by iconic institutions around the world whose visionary interweaving of bodies, sound, and space has helped define the social fabric of their surrounding cities.
︎︎︎ read the one-pager (PDF)
MORE
Uniting event producers, researchers, partners, and collaborators who share our values and vision, FANTOM is taking up the task of building a transparent and accountable not-for-profit event space.
Through the action of this extensive, engaged, and well-resourced network, our space project will open the door to artistic realisations and shared experiences not currently attainable.
Project coordinators:
Désirée Duchesne (philanthropy & partnership)
Oliver Philbin-Briscoe (technology & culture)
Lou Seltz (urban planning)
→ GET INVOLVED
Spearheaded by some of FANTOM’s founding members—together with a project-runner with a proven track record for completing community-focused real-estate projects of this scale—we are seeking collaborators who share this project’s foundational values to participate in defining an enduring vision for the space.
Reach us at space@fantomtl.ca
ABOUT US
MISSION
FANTOM aims to ensure the safety, sustainability, and solidarity of a thriving alternative nightlife culture.
WHAT WE DO
We create frameworks for collective action, policy analysis and advocacy, as well as the creation of tools for knowledge and resource sharing.
We foster inititatives that seek to meaningfully improve the material conditions of alternative cultural work in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal.
We foster inititatives that seek to meaningfully improve the material conditions of alternative cultural work in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal.
HOW WE WORK
FANTOM relies on community input via surveys, meet-ups, and working groups in order to guide projects and set priorities.
HISTORY
FANTOM was founded in 2022 in response to a groundswell of frustration among workers, performers, organizers, and other members of Montreal’s queer/trans/BIPOC/ally nightlife communities experiencing violence, harassment, exploitation, and misrepresentation. Taken together, these experiences were clear threats to the continued viability of underground and alternative nightlife in Montreal. Incorporating FANTOM as a not-for-profit organization in Quebec was the first step towards being able to better understand and respond to these threats through collective action.
PROJECTS
PAST & PRESENT︎︎︎
COMMUNITY-RUN EVENT SPACE
Uniting the foremost event producers, researchers, partners, and collaborators who share FANTOM’s values and vision, we are taking up the task of building a transparent and accountable not-for-profit event space.
→ more on FANTOM space project
COLLIDE : NIGHTLIFE BEFORE DARK
Collide is an all-evening event co-hosted by Studio ZX and FANTOM, intended to serve as a shared and open space for the many scenes that make up Montreal nightlife to meet, find common ground, and build lasting ties of solidarity—regardless of experience level or other barriers.
→ more on Collide
UNDERGROUND NIGHTLIFE SURVEY
→ more info here
AWAITING FUNDING ︎︎︎
GUIDEBOOK FOR ORGANIZERS
Compiling a guidebook of community-determined best practices for safe and accessible nightlife events, along with protocols for inclusivity, sensitivity, equitable compensation, and fair treatment of workers and artists.
→ add your voice
→ call for reference resources
ONLINE RESOURCE HUB
We know that there are so many resources and organizations that already do good work - we want to be able to share these via an online resource centre where new nightlife organizers/ workers/ DJs/ performers/ partygoers can find out about them.
→ call for resources
SERIES ON THE HISTORY OF MONTREAL UNDERGROUND NIGHTLIFE
Producing video and other documentary media that records the untold histories of underground nightlife in Montreal, helping contemporary communities situate themselves within a broader narrative and to understand the impacts of historical shifts in policy and socioeconomic displacement on their present context.
→ collaborate
APP FOR SAFER EVENT SPACES
Developing a web and mobile app to allow nightlife artists, organizers, workers, and community members to lookup, review, and share information about venues and other event spaces, with the goal of improving transparency and communication within an often exploited and marginalized community, as well as holding venue operators accountable with respect to standards of safety, accessibility, inclusivity, and equitable compensation. The app will be modelled around the needs of queer, trans, and BIPOC individuals and communities.
→ collaborate
CALL FOR RESOURCES
If you know of resources or organizations in Montreal or other cities/ countries, please send them our way so we can collaborate and build off existing work!
We want to hear about:
→ organizations that promote safety/ inclusivity within nightlife or beyond (like GRIP and PLURI)
→ books/ zines / guides about safer dancefloors, safer event design, intervention strategies, etc
→ unions or guilds for performers, pay scale recommendations, legal resources, etc
→ platforms that encourage accountability within a community or other network
→ any other resource we should include in an online directory for nightlife organizers, workers, and artists - even if from another city/ country/ sector
We want to hear about:
→ organizations that promote safety/ inclusivity within nightlife or beyond (like GRIP and PLURI)
→ books/ zines / guides about safer dancefloors, safer event design, intervention strategies, etc
→ unions or guilds for performers, pay scale recommendations, legal resources, etc
→ platforms that encourage accountability within a community or other network
→ any other resource we should include in an online directory for nightlife organizers, workers, and artists - even if from another city/ country/ sector