I just moved into a new area, well in area that I used to live in and I remembered how lame it is. Most shops close at like 9:00 or 10:00. No nightlife to speak of, super family friendly and squeaky clean. Picturesque suburbs but I feel like I’m honestly trapped. But then it occurred to me. There might actually be something I can do about it, I mean there must be some reason why this village in particular closes super early and all the surrounding ones have normal times right? It’s a smallish town, I must be able to do something, right? Anybody have any idea where I can start? Start to maybe bring some nightlife into this place, maybe some culture that isn’t just aimed at upper middle class families with young children? Please let me know if you have any ideas, I’ve never done something like this before
I don’t really have any ideas, but I want to warn you, you might be about to get into a fight you can’t win. The town is probably so picturesque as the result of tradition and liberal application of ordinances. Don’t let that discourage you, I’m just saying to keep that in mind when making plans.
Good to know, maybe I can… I dunno, start by going to a city hall meeting? I think I have some business casual wear I can throw on to be taken a little more seriously
The greater good
Off the top of my head:
- Start researching your local ordinances and bylaws. Like someone mentioned here, there might be a reason your town dies after 2200.
- Think about the kind of things you want to see in terms of nightlife. Does that mean live music? Block parties? Techno night at the clurb? Kink stuff (seriously)? Theatrical performances? Hash and coffee socials (sort of a joke, but thinking through the logistics of such a thing has been my daydream du jour recently)? Etc.
- Find others who would be interested in the kind of stuff you’d like for nightlife activities. Start talking $ and logistics - are there any grants you could try and apply for? Fundraising activities? Where are you going to do this stuff? What do you need in terms of insurance? Do you need to address any pesky bylaws, and can start working with your local government to try and tackle that? And so on.
- Make a plan and act.
The big starting point is really just defining one or two things you want to see, and working to get to the point where you see them. In the course of this you might be surprised by what you find (someone mentioned good ol’ Ottawa, ON as an image of the place you’re describing - but there’s actually a decent amount of stuff, both above- and underground, you can find when you start poking around).
I know a dude who moved to the town I live in. He couldn’t find a place where people like him hang out. So he created one. It grew into a bar. A lot of people loved that place. He just recently closed it after 13 years.
9 and 10 are early ?
I mean, having been to NY, where there was stuff open all night, I was surprised the SF closed down at night. I just expected big cities to be like NY. Nope. Only gas stations and maybe Denny’s until 2-3am.
How close are these surrounding towns? What’s the population, particularly for the demographics you would appeal to?
Often, it’s not worthwhile to bring your favorite culture to your home. Just go to the culture where it already exists. Often, these quiet, boring places are populated by people that WANT to live in a place that’s quiet and boring. It doesn’t make much sense for anyone to move there if they don’t.
Bring neighbours together. One step at a time.
The problem with a lot of small projects in towns is that they cater to a certain crowd - but there are often not enough people to sustain that momentum for a longer period of time. And it’s sometimes used to keep people away. (Aka the soccer fans go to their club, the old folks to bingo, the Christians to their “clubhouse”, the D&D to theirs. And in the end small bubbles form)
So organise something that caters to “basically everyone”.
I once lived in a neighbourhood that suffered from exactly this problem until a few people (one had actually a research background in this matters) started a small initiative which did exactly this: bring the neighbours together with some things people hardly can be opposed to. First they rented a proper Pizza oven and did a “pizza festival”. They “sold” the dough,tomato sauce and baked the pizza, but you had to bring your own toppings (saved them from the ongoing debate about that). Someone volunteered to get the older folks to the location (a cul de sac). Proceedings did not go to any cause beside the festival itself, they only covered their cost.
Next time they organised a outdoor movie night with a -intentionally non-confrontational- movie from the 80ies.
Etc. Etc. Other neighbourhood followed with similar concepts.
Now multiple neighbourhood bought a mobile pizza oven together and gifted it to the city so that it can be used by every neighbourhood. Etc.
But this was their way to bring people together beyond their interests/hobbies.
And it worked.
Grow mushrooms and give them away
Sounds ultra white. Make a bunch of not white friends and bring them there. That’ll make things pretty interesting
Three words:
Bizarre public art!
Walk around in a bigfoot costume at night.
Let me know when your karaoke/trivia night is?
Also, welcome to Ottawa.
What up, fellow Ottawan?
Trying to dive into the local music scene was my approach - mostly because I suck at trivia.
Oh man if you OP is trying to make Ottawa fun they can just forget about it. I lived there for over 10 years and I’m convinced the city doesn’t want to improve or be more fun. I left that place.
Naw, screw that - we need more people trying to make this place fun. If by some chance it is Ottawa, I’m sure they’d find receptive folks at The Dom/House of Targ/Arts Court/The Mayfair/Rainbow/AskAPunk/Tuesday Club/PROBE/One of the festival committees (except poutine and rib)/Spectrasonic/Awesome Ottawa/Canada Council for the Arts/White Rabbit/SPAO/One of the Zine collectives/Gladstone Theatre/Ottawa Little Theatre/Brass Monkey, for some reason/T’s Pub/Swizzles/Enriched Bread/Absolute Comedy/Cafe Dekcuf/that one house in Barrhaven (iykyk)/probably quite a few others I’m not aware of. Heck, you could bug the Night Mayor, what exactly is he up to these days?
It all really comes down to what you consider fun. Are you going to have the same degree of options as you would in Montreal and Toronto? No. But if you want fun, there’s things to do, places to check out, people to meet and a not-insignificant number of folks who want more of these.
Do you feel making friends is hard because your lifestyle is not common there? I can’t quite tell what you’re saying OP.
If you can manage to get some space somewhere or get people to contribute space, you could have artists in residence. Often artists want to get away and just have a chill place to focus for while, like a week. They can show what they made in a small personal exposition.
I live in a small city of like 33k, and basically, why is it a snooze fest? Because the population is mostly 9-5 and with families or older people. There is stuff to do, but it isn’t centered around the 20 somethings. That kind of thing is for the bigger cities or college towns.
I can tell ya that for someone like myself, the bar scene doesn’t fit who I am today. It fit me back in my 20s, but that’s because I wasn’t super healthy, mentally. Something to think about
