The Not-So-Secret Diary Of A Vancouver Club Kid

The before times were really something, especially for those of us that liked to flail under flashing lights at 2 AM.

Hi friends! In a welcome break from my recent feelings journal entries, here’s a brief summary of what life was like in Vancouver during the height of my Club Kid era.

I’ve previously written on how much of an impact Bass Coast 2019 had on me, it undoubtedly was one of the major forces that led to me coming out as a transgender woman the following year. In terms of rave culture, though, there is definitely a divide between festies and the places we go to flail in where we happen to live most of the time.

Things were good after Bass Coast, having recently been promoted to Vice President and also still living that odd journey of cannabis micro-celebrity I was literally having the time of my life. I regret that it wasn’t as my true self, but it was also part of my coming out process (I’m slowly learning to resist the urge to pull at these loose threads of my tapestry, as Picard did in Tapestry).

If there was one event that rivalled Bass Coast, it was definitely the New Forms Music Festival. A multi venue event, it was rife with my cannabis people and I will always remember being on the top floor of the Japanese Hall, surrounded by friends and sitting on beanbag chairs. The view was beautiful, it was late at night so the crane lifting shipping containers had this odd majesty about it. An ironic symbol of work next to a very intentional event of play.

Overall the event had such an impact on me that I decided to join the New Forms board of directors last year. If I had to condense it down, it was just a really well run event with a lot of unique touches like a meditation zone and the aforementioned bean bag chair circle.

There were, of course, Vancouver’s mainstays. Fortune Sound Club, The Commodore, Paradise, and more. Paradise has a special place in my heart as it’s where my workplace at the time had a lot of events, and it was surreal to have a CBD information session there during the day and be dancing later on that night all the way until 3 or 4 AM. In the basement of a boxing club, to say it was a tight venue is an understatement but that definitely added to its charm.

Another memorable night was at the basement portion of Fortune Sound Club. I don’t exactly remember the DJ’s, only that a friend of mine had just broken up with her partner and asked me to go with her. I did, we had tons of fun, and at the end of the night someone came up to me and wanted to get a picture with me (even when male presenting my costumery game was fire).

Restricted Entertainment puts on some great events in Vancouver, my favourite definitely being Passion Portal. Billed as an ‘Enchanted Forest of Bass’, in function it’s both a rave and a kink-lite party and TONS of fun. Costumery was everywhere, it was a supremely chill environment heavily focused on consent, and I really look forward to it every year (it did make a somewhat limited comeback in 2021). If there was one event that felt most like a festival, it was definitely this one.

There’s a special quality to genuine raves that makes them far different from just going to a club, that being the diversity of people you can meet and how willing they are to make new friends. There was a woman I would see at just about every rave I went to in the before times (sadly I have not really seen her around since). She was an amazing dancer, and we just really vibed together when we were at an event. We never exchanged names, because we didn’t have to. Slightly like the relationship festie besties create, but more ethereal since you often don’t have that downtime during the day that you do at a traditional festival.

One of my wildest nights was when Sofi Tukker came to Vancouver, the party began at the Commodore and ended with the afterparty at Fortune Sound Club. Most of my cannabis people were there, the vibes were extremely high, and I would have happily stayed at Fortune until 8 or 9 AM if they had let us. There’s a beautiful ‘peak’ to a rave where you can feel the vibes at their high mark and most everyone there has this look of ineffable joy on their faces. That moment stretched out to a solid hour or two during our time with Sofi Tukker.

There are many other stories to tell, but this smattering captures the spectrum of my experiences well. I would be remiss, however, in concluding without mentioning those memorable times outside of a club. The walks home (luckily Kitsilano is just a 20-30 minute walk from most of the venues), trying to find an available Evo rideshare vehicle, and meeting even more new friends outside of the club and on the way home.

Above all else, this phase of my life really felt like it plugged a lot of holes that have been resident in my soul for a long time. Sometimes it did feel like we were all in high school again, except this time I was (mostly) free to be myself and commune with other like-minded humans. The vibe felt so special, and sacred to me, that it cemented the feeling of ‘home’ I get from being at a festival or at a rave.

I also cannot ignore the implications of all of this happening in the ‘before times’. Humans are desperately, and perhaps foolishly, trying to return to ‘normal’. Irrespective of that however, it will never be the same. I initially felt regret at only having a scant few months to fully embrace being a club kid, but now I just feel so grateful and look upon that time as so sacred. I almost feel like I was spiritually out of the closet at these events, if not physically. I think that’s really special.