How Igloofest shapes Montreal’s music scene, in conversation with No Police & Mathieu Constance
“It’s going to be one for the books,” says Mathieu Constance, programming director of Igloofest, about the festival to the Daily. “Everybody’s very, very excited.”
The open-air winter music festival, held at Place Jacques-Cartier in quite literally freezing weather, has been anticipated with ever-increasing fervour every January and February for almost two decades. Premiering in Montreal this year on January 15, the 19th edition of Igloofest promises to bring heat and adrenaline to the deep Montreal freeze.
According to numbers provided to the Daily by the Igloofest team, Igloofest attendance is on an exponentially upward trend, with ballpark numbers leaping from 85,000 attendees in 2023 to over 118,000 in 2024. Evidently, the novelty of the festival’s trademark outdoor format, especially in the winter season, lends itself to great interest of both locals and tourists alike. But why would one, or thousands, subject themselves to a night out in temperatures akin to those of Antarctica?
The answer to this, besides the promise of being able to drink copious amounts of alcohol with the excuse of keeping oneself warm, lies in the line-up of artists that Igloofest promises. Each artist promises a night of music that leaves no person stiff and awkward on the dance floor. This year is no different: opening with Disco Lines (of “No Broke Boys” notoriety), peppered with global household names including DJ Snake (2016 summer, anyone?), Sofi Tukker and Hamza, then closing with Max Styler, there is truly something for everybody.
Constance told the Daily that Igloofest contacts performers anywhere from a year to a few months in advance. While artists’ availability and schedules are constantly in flux, one indisputable element among them is their interest in performing at Igloofest. “One of the big pluses of organizing Igloofest is that it’s so unique,” notes Constance. “When we approach artists, they’re mesmerized by the fact that anybody is producing this kind of event, and generally really intrigued in participating.”
That being said, Igloofest is all about bringing in the most exciting names in dance and electronic music. This includes not just big international names, but also up-and-coming artists who are breaking into the industry. As live dance music genres have seen a surge in popularity in the last few years, Constance emphasizes the importance of appealing to as many generational and music demographics as possible to keep festivals like Igloofest relevant.“Being able to foster the new generation of Montreal talent and give them an opportunity to play at an event of this scale has been one of Igloofest’s primary objectives since the beginning.”
At the forefront of this is No Police, a techno and trance DJ who is also part of T.I.T.S. Collective, a rising all-female DJ collective based here in Montreal. No Police performed on Igloofest’s Videotron stage on January 16 alongside her fellow collective member Cori. Igloofest, she writes in correspondence with the Daily, is her “favourite festival ever” and one that she has attended regularly over the last 12 years. Hence, the opportunity to attend from the other side of the stage was exhilarating. “I love being able to experiment and play new sub-genres of music that I’ve never played before,” she writes. “Having that platform is extremely important as a female artist, and I’m really grateful.”
While I wouldn’t call myself a rave or techno expert, I can say with conviction that No Police’s Igloofest set was absolutely electrifying. The Videotron stage, accessible through a side entrance, is not one to be underestimated. While smaller than the Sapporo stage and bereft of its SFX screens and psychedelic visuals, it provided the perfect platform for a distraction-free immersion into No Police’s set, which featured strong basslines and hard-hitting kicks that brought an infectious dynamism to the dancefloor. Accompanied by flashing blue lights and complete with songs dedicated to her family, who were also on the dance floor, No Police’s three-deck performance was certainly not something to be missed. The energy only continued as she passed the decks along to Cori, who played her own effusive, entrancing set into the wee hours of the morning.
Amid concerns of Montreal’s dying nightlife despite an ever-growing demand for new configurations of live performance and music by way of experiential formats, Igloofest’s large-scale occupies a limbo-like position. While the noise restrictions specific to Igloofest are confidential, Constance remarks that they are nonetheless a concern, and stresses the need for open dialogue and discourse between all involved actors, and not just those with the loudest voices. “With venues closing and certain laws changing or not changing, the city is definitely hitting a turning point,” he voices. “I think that the key is to be able to listen, and dedicate certain spaces to things that will be tolerated or allowed.”
The Montreal nightlife crowd, evidently, is not one to be dismissed or stifled. No Police describes this demographic as “very open minded [and] receptive,” with their vocal feedback after impactful moments in the set being one of most special contributions to shows. Given how the attendees continue to show up year after year in larger groups in spite of Canada’s frigid winter, Igloofest is a testament to the durability and enthusiasm of Montreal’s thriving nightlife community. Constance believes that anyone who attends, no matter their age, familiarity with the artists, or experience with music festivals, can discover something new.
“It’s really important to come and to leave with the most open mind possible,” he states, “whether that’s musically, because you don’t know what you’re getting into; or just discovering new relationships with new people and new music… I think that’s probably [how you have] the most fun that you can have at these kinds of events. When we go back to the history of clubbing culture, that’s where [the fun] comes from, so being able to continue and respect that [is crucial].”
Igloofest is a cultural fixture that is undoubtedly here to stay. Since its initial conception in Montreal, Igloofest has expanded into Quebec City, Gatineau, and this year, marking its first foray into Western Canada: Edmonton. Anecdotally, I saw far too many people I knew on the nights I was there, and know for a fact that more of them will be in attendance at upcoming sets, which I will also be present at. At minus twenty degrees Celsius (let’s not even talk about the “feels like” figures), it seems that the heat is only just starting to build.