The best clubs in Montreal, from the Limelight to Stereo

Cabarets and Prohibition.

Wikipedia's history of Montreal cabarets starts with Prohibition. Driven by it, the city's cabarets booked artists from the United States and France, and Montreal quickly became known as a party town, drawing large numbers of American tourists.

In 1930 Texas Guinan, New York's leading cabaret star, arrived to open the Cabaret Frolics and caused a sensation on the Main, as Saint-Laurent Boulevard is known. Television and a campaign of repression led by Mayor Jean Drapeau in the late 1950s wore the cabarets down, and by the early 1970s they had disappeared.

Limelight and Montreal disco.

The Limelight opened on 7 September 1973 at 1254 Stanley Street. It was founded by Yvon Lafrance and named after the Charlie Chaplin film. Robert Ouimet was its resident DJ from 1973 to 1981, and Wikipedia, citing Tourisme Montréal, notes that Rolling Stone named him the best DJ in North America in 1976 and Billboard made him DJ of the year in 1977.

The crowd was mixed, and the guests included Grace Jones, James Brown, David Bowie, Gloria Gaynor and Iggy Pop.

Les Foufounes Électriques and the 1990s.

Les Foufounes Électriques opened in 1983 at 87 Sainte-Catherine Street East, in the Quartier Latin. Norman Boileau, François Gourd and Bernard Paquet started it as a punk and goth room, and the name translates as "the electric buttocks". Tourisme Montréal still lists the Foufs, as everyone calls it, for its two stages.

Tiga, born in 1974, was throwing parties in Montreal from 1990. In 1994 he bought DNA Records, and in 1996 he helped open SONA, a club.

His 2001 single "Sunglasses at Night" reached No. 23 in the UK, and his album Sexor later won a Juno Award.

Stereo.

Stereo was founded in 1998 by Angel Moraes, a DJ and producer from Brooklyn whose "Heaven Knows" had reached No. 25 on Billboard's dance chart in 1995. His live album Back From Stereo came out in 2000. Moraes died in February 2021. The club's owner is Tommy Piscardelli.

Stereo is an after-hours club for house and techno, known for its sound system. It has two floors: the after-hours room upstairs and Stereobar downstairs, which keeps legal hours. Tourisme Montréal calls it an internationally acclaimed after-hours club with marathon DJ sessions, and notes that it does not serve alcohol. Wikipedia records a zero-tolerance policy on GHB.

The club has been through two arson attacks. It closed in 2008, and the second fire delayed its reopening, which came on 4 September 2009. In 2023 6AM put Stereo Montreal at No. 28 of the 40 best house and techno clubs in North America, between Coda in Toronto and Montreal's Beachclub, and called it "pure dance floor ecstasy".

The best clubs in Montreal now.

Time Out ranked 21 Montreal clubs in October 2024, and Cult MTL readers voted on the best nightclub in November 2026. The table keeps to the Montreal nightclubs where the dance floor is the point.

Newspeak Montreal sits at the top of Time Out's list. It is on the second floor of the I Love Neon building in the Village, named after the language in Orwell's 1984, and plays techno, minimal and deep house, which makes it the nearest thing to a straight answer for the best dance club in Montreal.

Club Unity Montreal, in the Village, has two floors and a rooftop, with techno and house in its small room.

Salon Daomé moved from Mont-Royal Avenue to Saint-Laurent and is open Tuesday to Sunday for house and techno. Bar Datcha, in Mile End, is where Time Out points to DJs such as Thomas Von Party, RYAN Playground and Poirier and the Multi Culti nights. Stereobar, under Stereo, runs until 3am.

New City Gas is the big one. It opened in 2012 in Griffintown in an 1859 gaslight plant, has 40,000 square feet, and books EDM headliners such as Tiësto. Tourisme Montréal describes it as industrial-scale.

Cult MTL's 2026 readers put Club DD's on Saint-Laurent first, then Stereo, Système on Plaza St-Hubert, Sans Soleil on Saint-Urbain and Cabaret Berlin. Velvet Speakeasy, in Old Montreal, plays house and techno and hosts Igloofest afterparties.

Montreal techno and house music.

For Montreal techno, start at Newspeak and Stereo. For Montreal house music, Salon Daomé, Bar Datcha and Stereobar. Tourisme Montréal adds the Société des arts technologiques, the SAT, in the Quartier des Spectacles, under its domed roof.

The SAT is MUTEK's main venue. MUTEK was founded in 2000 by Alain Mongeau and runs for six days in late August. Since 2003 it has had an edition in Mexico City too.

The after hour clubs Montreal is known for come down to one name: Stereo, which opens at 2am and runs into the morning.

Gay Village and LGBTQ+ clubs.

The Gay Village runs along Sainte-Catherine Street East, between the Beaudry and Papineau metro stations. Wikipedia calls it the largest gay village in North America by area, and records Moise Tellier's shop, in 1869, as the first known gay establishment on the continent.

For a gay club in Montreal, Time Out names Le Belmont, home of the Mec Plus Ultra nights. Complexe Sky is also in the Village. Cabaret Berlin, on Sainte-Catherine East, mixes minimal techno, queer goth nights and Italo disco.

The biggest date in gay nightlife Montreal has is a festival. Bad Boy Club Montréal was founded in 1991 as an HIV/AIDS charity, and its Black & Blue party grew from 800 people at the first edition to between 60,000 and 75,000. It has given more than $1.4 million.

Montreal festivals: Piknic, Igloofest and MUTEK.

The two biggest dance floors in Montreal are outdoors. Piknic Électronik has run on Sundays in summer since 2003 at Parc Jean-Drapeau, from 2pm to 9:30pm, with a view of the Saint Lawrence.

It began with house and minimal techno, and has moved towards EDM. It drew 129,243 people in 2018, more than a million across its first 16 seasons, and minors are allowed in.

Igloofest is its winter counterpart, in the Old Port, co-produced by Piknic Électronik and the Quays of the Old Port. It started on 19 January 2007 and runs a contest for the best one-piece snowsuit.

Its bookings have included Josh Wink, Tiga, Carl Cox, Nina Kraviz and Kaytranada.

For the festivals in the rest of the country, see the Canadian EDM festivals guide, and for Igloofest alongside other cold-weather parties, the winter festivals guide.

Hear Montreal before you go.