A New Future for Sunset

Hello friend!

I am writing to share with you what’s up over here in the magical land of Sunset Room, and to invite you into a new future for this space that so many of us have co-created.

Earlier this spring I wrote you another letter – “My Vision For the Future of Sunset Room”. If you haven’t read it, take a peek – definitely shares much of how things have gone and what has been working & not working over recent years. I won’t rehash all that here, other than to share what I specifically expressed at that time as the key points of our vision!:

 
We also provided a list of ways people could get involved and support the project. Enough people came forward with some sort of involvement that the business had the space to continue evolving – thank you to all of you who stepped forward! At the end of September we closed our doors for a month to undergo a renovation – something we have done annually for some time (though usually in August). The mission for the reno was somewhat defined – and somewhat created as we go. We have now completed a lot of work in this wee space and are SO excited to re-introduce you to the Sunset Room – starting Oct 26 & 27th for Inner Dark and Dance of the Dead!
 

 
During this time of transformation & reinvention I have had many new insights about Sunset, and in particular the business model that we have been observing all these years. For the better part of a decade Sunset Room has been open every weekend as an electronica-centric dance space. For most of these years, that has worked well as a business model – and it has been a fit for me personally. In recent years, there have been fewer external promoters throwing electronica shows, and in order to be open every Friday & Saturday I have filled these spaces with events – in some instances personally producing and (in theory) promoting up to 8 shows a month. There’s a number of costs to this scenario. My team and I just get stretched too thin, many of the shows get under-serviced & under-promoted, and profits from the GREAT shows end up being eaten away by the weaker shows.

It’s time for a major change, and that change is really to return to Sunset’s roots – while maintaining on our overall vision!

When we opened, I was only producing a couple shows a month – each one was fabulously designed and delivered, and there was ample time for creativity, art installations and promotion between our events. I was designing beautiful & sophisticated events for the exact community I wanted to service, and they were almost always sold out before the doors opened – which ensured a quality of audience and vibe that was second to none. We still have been creating & hosting events like this ocassionally – including recent events like Cosmic Caravan, Erotica Electronica, Desert Dwellers, Season’s Advance, Living Room Experience, ReAwaken & Earthdance. These events inspired us to create & deliver, and inspired the community to attend and give us great feedback!

For all of these reasons and more, I have made this decision: Sunset Room will no longer (necessarily) be open every weekend as a dance-specific venue. With Sunset Labs I will produce 2 or perhaps 3 dance shows a month – and they will be AMAZING. They will give ME an experience of challenge, play, diversity and relevance. They will give YOU a festivalesque experience of innovation, musical genius, interactivity and community. All of the monthly series are now complete and move into our history – Nocturnal, Grime Machine, House Insurance and so on. It has been AMAZING to create these series with and for you.

Sunset’s future is as a special events venue – focusing on a broader diversity of events including live music events, film screenings, art shows, live streamed events, yoga & movement, private functions, workshops & classes, receptions and so on – LARGELY driven by other people creating events here. With this new direction in mind – we greatly and on the fly evolved our plans for our renovation, and with lots of new energy and new possibilities for the space swirling around we added lots of new technology & infrastruture for live performances & bands, film screenings & installations, workshops & classes. The upgrades are bountiful, some of which you will notice, others are operational and behind the scenes. We’ll be hosting an open house in November sometime to show off the new space – watch the LabsList newsletter for more details. 🙂

Myself, Kristin, our performance partners and the whole Sunset team are SUPER stoked about this new evolution. When I read my own vision (as described in the bullets above) I see that this shift will greatly empower this vision to come to life – and should in the process allow MORE operational revenue (through consistently awesome events) and MORE time (because we’re making fewer internal events). Sounds AMAZING to us.

As far as our public events go, it will remain super simple for the dance community to find out what’s up at Sunset on a given night via www.SunsetLabs.ca and also our Facebook Fanpage. Given this change, there are now lots of Friday and Saturday nights available to rent at Sunset Room – and I hope you will explore creating something here of your own, and letting others in the community know about these changes.

We remain very open to your support as well – and our development and offerings will always arise in parallel to your interest and support. If you want to explore how you can get behind this project, you can find a fit for your contribution here. Thank you thank you thank you… our community inspires us so much, and it is with you in mind, heart & hand that we remain committed to having this space evolve and serve the community for many years to come. We hope you will join us for a dance at Halloween or in November – or find some other way to get involved or create something of your own at Sunset Room.

I welcome thoughts & questions & discussions – and encourage you to do so here in the comments section below – which will allow the community to read each other’s feedback. If you wish to reach me personally you can do so at jason@sunsetlabs.ca.

Thanks for letting me share with you!
Here’s to a decade ahead of art, culture & community!

Much love

Jason & the Sunset crew.