COMMUNITY CONSULTATION
FANTOM’s first survey closed February 28, 2023, with 106 participants giving detailed responses as part of our strategy to assess to needs of queer, trans, and BIPOC nightlife artists, organizers, and workers in Montreal’s underground.
We presented intitial results of the survey at the 2023 MTL Sommet de Nuit, highlighting common themes from all of the input we've received from those who took a moment to share their dreams and concerns with us.
A full report will be published in the coming months.
We are currently establishing open working groups centred around the key themes identified by the survey. The outcomes of these conversations will form the basis for our guidebook and all of our advocacy work.
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We presented intitial results of the survey at the 2023 MTL Sommet de Nuit, highlighting common themes from all of the input we've received from those who took a moment to share their dreams and concerns with us.
A full report will be published in the coming months.
We are currently establishing open working groups centred around the key themes identified by the survey. The outcomes of these conversations will form the basis for our guidebook and all of our advocacy work.
→ PRELIMINARY RESULTS
At the survey deadline, 106 respondents had given thoughtful, detailed, context-rich, often quite lengthy answers, which FANTOM researchers manually coded into 38 categories.
Queer, trans, and BIPOC respondants shared the same top two concerns:
1. Access to safe venues and event spaces
The most frequently mentioned need across all demographic groups was the access to safe venues and event spaces, with 61% of queer and trans, 58% of BIPOC, and 48% of non-QTBIPOC respondents bringing up this issue when asked in an open question to talk about the challenges they face in Montreal nightlife.
Answers often specified that by “safe” spaces they meant sensitive security, respectful crowds, good dancefloor safety policies. Many of these respondants mentioned experiences of physical harassment and other unpleasant or dangerous experiences with crowds.
2. Greater diversity of events
Queer, trans, and BIPOC groups also shared the same second top concern : greater diversity of events in terms of music genre, lineup diversity, and types of artists featured.
Lack of event diversity was brought up (unprompted) by 43% of BIPOC respondants and 29% of queer or trans respondants. By contrast, for those who did not identify as QTBIPOC, this was only the 8th most frequently stated issue, with only 13% of this group mentioning a need for great diversity of events.
The 3rd highest concern for queer and trans respondants was access to after-hours venues.
For BIPOC respondants, financial accessbility of events was the 3rd highst concern. This was also one of the top concerns for queer and trans people, but very few non-QTBIPOC respondants mentioned financial accessibility.
Concerns about fair compensation for workers and artists, as well as more resources for harm reduction, were other top challenges brought up by queer, trans, and BIPOC groups. Both of these issues did not figure in the top subjects mentioned by non-QTBIPOC respondants.
Survey questions were open-ended, avoiding mentioning any specific issues or concerns to elicit the most candid and diverse answers possible.
As there were no pre-set categories to choose from, if a respondant did not mention a topic, it doesn't necessarily indicate they don't share a certain need or priority, they just did not actively mention it.
︎ A number of direct quotes from the hundreds of open responses are shared anonymously in a highlight on our Instagram page.