Igloofest Adds Entirely New Dimension with Videotron Mobile Stage, Imagined by 4U2C

	Igloofest. Photo: Mathieu Waddel

Record-breaking Siberian cold snaps, slushy thaws, rain, sleet, violent deep-freezes -- nothing has kept the Igloofest production team from preparing the Old Port's Jacques-Cartier Quay for the eighth edition of the month-long celebration that launched January 16. These extreme conditions are also the very ingredients that make Igloofest a unique world-renowned event. In honor of the event's exceptional character, the festival is offering a new space worthy of its scope, the Videotron Mobile stage, whose dimensions completely change the appearance of the Igloo village. A veritable reinvention for Igloofest, this new space is designed by 4U2C.

To understand the Igloofest frame of mind, seeing and experiencing at least once in person is a must. The enormity of its visual displays is equaled only by the madness of creating an electronic-music festival under the stars, on the Quays of the Old Port of Montreal, during 12 of the city's coldest winter evenings. This year, the Sapporo stage again impress with its size, which has increased. However, this year the biggest news is across the village. It is more than just a second stage -- it is a truly immersive open-air universe of its own.

Presented by Videotron Mobile, involved for the first time, this new urban igloo made of nested containers is also a nod to the original purpose of the Old Port. The space, lighting, and projections are devised by 4U2C, a new player in the world of visual creation and a partner collaborator, Solotech.

"The idea of reconfiguring the second stage was simmering for a long time and the combination of new partnerships with Videotron Mobile and the 4U2C team occurred at just the right moment to help us implement the project," explains Nicolas Cournoyer, general director of Igloofest.

"For the 4U2C team, Igloofest's invitation to create an immersive environment in which the festival takes place represented a great challenge, both in terms of design and imagination. The prospect of working under the open Montreal sky in winter was very appealing," adds Yves Aucoin, president of 4U2C.

For festival-goers, this new space within the heart of the festival offers three times more space than before to dance and experience Igloofest in otherworldly fashion. For the invited artists, 90% of whom are from the local scene, for some, it is the first chance to play in front of such a large crowd.

The arrangement of containers creates a screen more than 30m wide, wrapping audiences within an environment quite distinct from the village and main stage. 4U2C's signature touch is visible throughout the Igloofest season and will be highlighted at a special evening on January 24th,when 4U2C and its artists will lead the crowd into their own world of images and visual sensations, which lock into the beats of guest DJs to electrify the crowd.