Sappho’s Garden Party

Saturday, April 14, 1984
The Concert Hall

In December 1983, organizers decided that one of the dances in 1984 would be “named for lesbians as an incentive to attract more women to the GCDC dances.” That dance became Sappho’s Garden Party, held in April 1984.

Efforts to recruit more women to GCDC dances were recognized as successful, with Sappho’s Garden Party netting $4,668.52 in profits. A June 1984 Xtra! article stated: “Getting more women to attend the dances has also been a goal of the [GCDC] organisers. At first those who did come seemed to disappear like so many Cinderellas as the midnight hour approaches, but lately the effort is paying off, with more women coming and more staying.” 

Nevertheless, the issue of lesbian participation at GCDC dances continued to be discussed at meetings. Some lesbian organizers protested splitting the budget between the upstairs and downstairs dance floors, since the smaller downstairs dance floor frequented by women was consistently given less funds for records, sound, and lighting. For example, the upstairs dance floor for Sappho’s Garden Party had a sound and lighting budget of $2,600 whereas the downstairs dance floor had a budget of only $827.

Sappho’s Garden Party was also memorable for its decorations, as organiser Chris Lea recalls:

"Sappho’s Garden Party had this incredible décor, we made hundreds and hundreds of paper flowers using crêpe paper, but we made them like they were from Mars. They were these wild concoctions, we did it as a big party at somebody’s house on Dupont. We put hundreds of these paper flowers all around the balcony, then we connected Christmas lights around these big classical columns I rented from the CBC. We varied the themes. We tried to appeal to women and then we tried to appeal to men. Sometimes the dances worked and there would be a huge crowd and other times, not so much. Especially because there were really alternatives, there were these two big clubs, Mystique and Stages. Sappho’s Garden Party, that was definitely designed for more women to show up."