We’re building a joyful & social community, connected by music.
Public Disco is a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming unconventional urban spaces into dance floors, bringing people together through shared musical experiences. We create events that reimagine how public space can be used, making music and community-driven culture more visible and accessible in a city that’s often seen as a no-fun zone. By producing free and low-barrier ticketed events, we invite more people to engage with dance music—whether they’re deeply embedded in the scene or encountering it for the first time.
Our VALUES.
Honour the Roots of Disco.
To embrace the authentic spirit of disco by spotlighting Black, Latinx, Queer and other marginalized artists while creating safer public spaces for self-expression, joyful togetherness and feel-good music celebrations.
Promote Social Connection.
To combat social isolation by creating shared cultural experiences that transcend diverse audiences and foster a collective sense of belonging.
Enhance Access to Culture.
We provide a platform for local artists, DJs, and performers while creating low-barrier opportunities for the public to engage with music culture. By bringing underground sounds into public spaces, we connect new audiences to the local music scene and give artists more opportunities to be heard beyond niche spaces.
Reflect Diversity.
To actively curate and showcase programming that reflects the diversity of society, ensuring that our events and activities celebrate the rich tapestry of cultures, identities, and talents within our communities.
Exemplify Urban Innovation.
To leverage public events as a tool for positive urban transformation, contributing to a creative, dynamic, and safe public realm.
Our Ethos
A Tribute to Dance Music’s Legacy
Public Disco is inspired by the roots of dance music, by the underground spaces where Black and queer communities built something powerful: a culture of connection, self-expression, joy, and the freedom to be yourself. At the heart of these spaces was the music itself, a driving force that brought people together. DJs and artists weren’t just playing records; they were shaping culture and building community through music that resonated .
Our name is a tribute to that legacy. The word “disco” is more than a genre, it represents the spirit of the original discotheques, which were underground havens for marginalized communities, places of liberation through music and dance. While our events don’t feature just disco, we embrace the ethos of those early spaces, where dance floors were a tool for connection, culture, and social change.
Queer programming is a core pillar of our work. The roots of dance music are deeply intertwined with queer culture, and nightlife has always been a place where queer communities have found freedom, resistance, and joy. Public space hasn’t always been welcoming to queer communities, and in many places, it still isn’t. By bringing the ethos of the discotheque into the public realm, we hope to normalize queer expression and self-expression in general, making public space more inclusive for everyone.
Bridging Communities Through Music
Our events are about bringing music to the public in unexpected ways—across musical styles, backgrounds, and experiences. We celebrate the depth and variety of dance music, from its foundations to its evolving sounds, and create spaces where different scenes can mix in a way that feels natural and welcoming. We aim to be a bridge, connecting underground music and culture with a broader audience who may not typically engage with it.
Public Disco events are co-created with community, and we work to ensure that the artists we showcase represent different aspects of Vancouver’s music scene. Many subcultures exist in isolation, and we see value in creating spaces where they can intersect, where audiences and artists from different corners of the scene can share experiences and perspectives.
We make these spaces happen through collaboration. Our work is made possible by partnerships with curators, event workers, property owners, and government agencies who believe in this mission. That includes finding creative ways to fund free programming, ensuring that access to music and dance isn’t limited by financial barriers.
Celebrating Vancouver as a Music City
Vancouver has a vibrant history of underground music spaces—some long gone, some still fighting to survive. In the 1980s and 90s, clubs like Graceland brought the spirit of iconic venues like Paradise Garage to the West Coast, creating spaces where diverse communities came together on the dance floor. Before that, disco, house, and other forms of dance music thrived in underground clubs and gay bars in Yaletown and the West End, even after mainstream culture moved on from disco’s golden era.
Today, music venues in Vancouver continue to disappear, challenged by redevelopment, shifting city dynamics, and a lack of cultural infrastructure. As spaces shrink, we aim to find new ways to create space for music, activating unconventional urban locations, putting this often-hidden part of Vancouver on display, and giving people more opportunities to experience it.
Through Public Disco events, we want to highlight the scene we have, learn from its history, and grow a deeper sense of pride in the music culture that exists in Vancouver. We believe that by making dance music more visible in public spaces, we’re not just celebrating the present, we’re honouring the past and contributing to a future where music and community remain at the heart of city life.
OUR HISTORY
Public Disco is built by a team that has been shaping Vancouver’s music scene for over a decade. Before launching Public Disco, we founded Groundwerk, a listening party where music producers could showcase their work and build community. We also created Some Kind of Music Blog, a platform that highlighted emerging local and international electronic artists, threw underground pop-up parties, and helped share music events happening in the city.
Beyond our own events, we’ve helped produce stages and events for events such as New Forms Festival, Vancouver Mural Festival, Vancouver Pride, Granville Block Party, Lumière Festival, and more. These experiences have reinforced our belief in the power of partnerships, by working with organizations that share our vision, we’re able to keep music in public spaces, maintain free and low-cost programming, and ensure artists and industry professionals are supported.
Blanketing The City: Lighting The Way by Debra Sparrow for VMF Winter Arts Festival
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
At Public Disco Society, we recognize that our events and gatherings primarily take place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Additionally, we acknowledge that we are sometimes contracted to host events on Indigenous lands outside of these territories. We honor and respect the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded these lands for generations and continue to do so today.
We acknowledge that the land on which we operate, celebrate, and build community is stolen land. Our events and parties are held in public spaces that have been home to Indigenous Nations long before the arrival of settlers. As team members, it is our responsibility to tread softly on the land and respect it, always leaving the spaces we occupy better than how we found them. We encourage all members of our community to take this acknowledgment to heart, reflect on its significance, and actively engage in respectful and meaningful actions that support Indigenous sovereignty and rights.
Public Disco Society is dedicated to making this acknowledgment a living practice, ensuring that it informs and enriches all our activities and interactions.