Carnival in Rio

Saturday, November 14, 1981
The Concert Hall

Meeting minutes from 1981 show that GCDC organisers wanted to plan a Halloween-themed dance in October, but that the Masonic Hall was fully booked that month. They settled for a November dance and decided on the theme Carnival in Rio.

GCDC organisers increased their music budget  for this dance, allocating $250 to purchase disco records for the upstairs dance floor and $100 to purchase records for the downstairs dance floor. The Carnival in Rio dance was the first to include a generous door prize: two free tickets to Key West, accommodation included, sponsored by Encore Travel. 

“We had great door prizes. The door prizes started to inform where I would spend my money in the city, based on the places that would support the GCDC and places that wouldn’t. Businesses from the Village and all over the city would donate stuff. To this day, I’ve never gone back to the places that didn’t support us.”

- Philip Share, GCDC Organiser and Volunteer

Ken Tomilson, GCDC Secretary and a representative from Toronto Area Gays (TAG), conducted an advertising survey of 110 attendees at the Carnival in Rio dance. He found that 60% had heard about the dance through word of mouth. Of the 40% (44) who had heard about the dance through advertising, most learned about the event from leaflets and posters, with some attendees having learned about the dance through the advertisements in The Body Politic and on the 923-GAYS phoneline recording. The findings of this survey informed how the GCDC promoted future dances, with organisers’ focusing their advertising efforts on the design and distribution of leaflets and posters. The net profit from Carnival in Rio was $2,823.