A student cafeteria protest in 1967 produced one of Montreal's most durable nightlife institutions. Cafe Campus was born on 17 February 1967 when Universite de Montreal students, angered by the closure of their cafeterias, opened their own cafe on Chemin Queen-Mary - which promptly grew a discotheque, a self-management philosophy and a mandate to guarantee student jobs and gender equity. The workers bought the business from the student association in 1981, formalising the workers' cooperative that still runs the operation, roughly forty employees strong, through the peak years when 400,000 people a year passed through the Queen-Mary rooms. Noise battles with the neighbourhood forced the move that defined the modern era: on 22 June 1993 Cafe Campus reopened at 57 Rue Prince-Arthur Est on the pedestrian strip off Boulevard Saint-Laurent, taking over the former Chez Swann premises. The tri-level building houses two rooms - the 550-capacity main Cafe Campus hall (250 seated cabaret-style) and the 300-capacity Petit Campus upstairs (150 in cabaret format) - which together host more than 300 shows a year plus the weekly dance nights that remain a rite of passage for the city's students. The booking runs the full width of Montreal nightlife: Quebecois chanson and franco-rock, touring indie acts like Sloan and Kate Bollinger, hip-hop, metal, comedy and festival programming for a half-dozen events including Pop Montreal and M pour Montreal. The retro dance parties - Tuesdays' legendary francophone hits night above all - fill the floors between concerts, and nightly attendance across the building runs from 500 to 1,000. Nearly sixty years from the cafeteria revolt, the cooperative structure remains the venue's quiet radicalism: no owner, no chain, profits recycled into the operation, and a Prince-Arthur address a short walk from the Sherbrooke and Saint-Laurent metro stops that has introduced generations of Montrealers to their first pit, first slow dance and first 3 AM poutine.

Type: NightClub

Address: 57 Rue Prince-Arthur Est, Montreal, Canada, H2X 1B4

Website: https://cafecampus.com

Minimum Age: 18

Capacity: 550

Opening Date: 17/02/1967