Super Party: Dallegret’s alternative Expo 67 opening
Image: Poster for Dallegret’s Super Party at Place Bonaventure, April 27, 1967. François Dallegret, James McElheron (creators), copyright 1967. ARCMTL collection
Transcription (translated from original in French): SUPER PARTY / Expo is here! Let’s dance! Let’s celebrate! / The Blues Project / Lothar & The Hand People / Suzanne Verdal / Tiny Tim / Place Bonaventure / Thursday, April 27 / 10 P.M. to 4 A.M. / Entrance $2.00 per. / Limited number of tickets / The dress is not mandatory / Drinks & snacks à la carte / Benefiting the Fondation “Journées Expo 67 Days / Launched by Dallegret and the artists, architects, decorators, contractors, engineers, builders, filmmakers, writers, hairdressers, actors, the world of theater, of television, of radio, fashion and of the youth.
Credit: ARCMTL collection. Interview was conducted in Montreal on September 30, 2015 with François Dallegret by Louis Rastelli, Director of ARCMTL.
Duration: 1:35 min
Excerpt of an interview with François Dallegret, designer and architect, involved in the design of elements of Expo 67 as well as Le Drug and The New Penelope.
If François Dallegret was best known for his talents as a designer, he made a lot of noise for his organization of the memorable Super Party at Place Bonaventure in 1967. This underground opening party for the Expo 67 World’s Fair, an “Off-Expo 67 ” if you will, aimed to offer young people a more accessible and less formal event than the official opening of Expo 67 on Île Saint-Hélène. Being involved in the artistic and musical scene of the time, Dallegret succeeded in bringing in eccentric American groups such as Tiny Tim and Lothar and the Hand People. In the following excerpt, Dallegret tells ARCMTL how the idea for the Super Party came about.
Here is the English translation of the original interview conducted in French.
Transcription:
Louis Rastelli: That leads me to ask, it’s particularly impressive the concert that you managed to organize in spring 1967.
François Dallegret: Um, hum.
Louis Rastelli: It’s not just anyone—[you invited] Tiny Tim, Blues Project, Lothar and the Hand People. Anyway, firstly what motivated you to hold a party? I presume, were you excluded from the official party, even though you built— ?
François Dallegret: No, it’s not that. It’s that Expo 67 was opening and we felt that we had to do our OWN opening.
Louis Rastelli: By your OWN, you mean the young people, the young artists, the artists’ milieu ?
François Dallegret: For the young people, for those who worked at Expo 67, for those who were involved in this great adventure, etc.
Louis Rastelli: Ok, ok. So I suppose there were a lot of other young designers, architects…
François Dallegret: Ah, obviously, we didn’t want to participate in the “official” opening of Expo 67.
Louis Rastelli: With the tie and everything.
François Dallegret: Yeah, all that. So it was a sort of big party that we organised like that. And that’s how it happened… Hand People, Tiny Tim… it was fantastic!
Louis Rastelli: How do you find in those times the booking of these bands?
François Dallegret: I used to go to New York regularly, I knew all these people anyway. That’s how it happened. And I used to live at the Chelsea, in New York, I was at the Chelsea Hotel. The Band was there. And I knew Robbie Robertson.
Louis Rastelli: Ah, yes, okay!
François Dallegret: He’s a friend. So it was probably through him that I got the contacts, etc. That’s how it happened. [Laughs.]