Black Tie & Tutu

Tuesday, December 31, 1985
The Concert Hall

The planning for the 1985 New Year’s Eve dance began almost a full year in advance. A special committee was created in January 1985 to organise the December 31st Black Tie and Tutu dance. By September 1985, nearly 250 advanced tickets had already been sold.

Tickets for this dance were double the usual price: $15.00 advance (instead of $7.50) and $17.00 at the door (instead of $8.50), with the discounted $5.00 ticket price starting at 2:30AM instead of the usual 1:30AM. Ticket prices included complimentary champagne that was handed out at midnight. All volunteers who worked a set number of shift hours had their full ticket price refunded, with volunteers who worked a short shift receiving a partial refund.

Despite a shortage of volunteers and beer, as well as logistical problems with food and champagne, the Black Tie and Tutu dance was a success. The dance had a total attendance of 1,922 people, with over $10,000 in bar sales and a gross revenue of $36,000. The net profit for distribution among member groups was $8,540.61. At the first meeting in January of 1986, GCDC organisers decided to book the Masonic Concert Hall for another New Year’s Eve dance that coming year.

"New Year’s Eve events were probably the biggest parties we did. We went all out for those New Year’s Eve events with the decorating and we had a higher ticket price and everything, and they were sold out completely. When it was in its hay day, all the tickets would sell out way in advance, there were no more tickets available whatsoever. We had a limit of how many people could be inside the room at one point so we would sell to, I think the liquor licence was up to 1:00AM and then you had to clear the tables. After 1:30, the liquor licence was no longer in effect and, at that point, you could have as many people as you wanted. We had these huge numbers of people lining up on all the streets outside waiting for that time when they could get in. And there would be a lot of people, the drinkers, the heavy drinkers, they would be leaving around that time too so two different things: the party dance crowd outside waiting to get in and you have the heavy-duty drinkers that were leaving. We would easily have 2500 inside at one point, around the 1:30 time. Tons and tons of people."

- Rob Stout, GCDC Organiser