Piknic Électronik delivers immaculate vibes to Montreal’s premier outdoor dancefloor

Your Piknic Électronik 2025 season preview

I love electronic music. A lot.

At the age of nine, I asked my dad to buy me the CD of Daft Punk’s Discovery, which had recently come out at that time. He brought it back, and the album predisposed me to house music and just about any other genre with four-on-the-floor beats or heavy sampling (preferably both). It’s a love that has only burned brighter with time.

As such, I was hardly a newbie with the genre when I went to Piknic Électronik’s opening night this past Sunday. The annual weekly event at Parc Jean-Drapeau is one I’ve been going to for years now. But there’s always a limit for how much of a good thing one can handle — and for me, that limit can be reached quickly if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

Unfortunately, it rained the entire time I was there. In the most ironically poetic way, this was the calm before this Piknic season’s storm.

The folks at Piknic’s parent company Multicolore surely didn’t envision the 2025 season kicking off this way. Technically, their first event had happened the night before, with an OfF Piknic show by Dutch EDM titan Armin van Buuren — which was also very rainy. But despite the grim conditions and a whole lot of mud, attendees had no issues getting into the festival spirit on Sunday.

Even if the opening day was as wet and dreary as they come, the vibes remained immaculate. Those vibes were also very on-brand for an EDM festival.

While I was eating a pretty satisfying fried chicken sandwich with fries from the food truck area (wolfing them down to keep them from getting soggy), I overheard a stage in the distance blaring out happy hardcore and hardstyle remixes of System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!” and Fall Out Boy’s “Thnks fr th Mmrs” — not exactly my cup of tea. But when I arrived back at the Fizz stage, Chloe Lallouz was DJing a lively, house-focused set, with globe-spanning influences throughout. Much more my vibe.

The rain wasn’t that heavy, but it was consistent, which hampered the experience (and the typical attendance levels) to some degree. Despite this, people were clearly enjoying themselves greatly while draped in ponchos, including a group of dudes wearing blue-and-white Quebec fleur-de-lis ponchos. After all, Tokébekicitte!

At one point, an inflatable alligator made its way through the poncho-clad crowd before a couple of dudes started dancing with it gleefully. While I got a brief reprieve from the rain under a tent backstage, a snail was hanging out on a nearby table, whom a group of other Piknic team members had named Laurent — a fittingly French name, considering his kind gets served for dinner in the mother country. I love these cute spontaneous moments with the local wildlife (real or artificial) — they’re part of Piknic’s unique appeal.

Not far from Laurent, I got a short interview with Mathieu Constance, Multicolore’s director of bookings.

Dave MacIntyre: This is the first official night of Piknic Électronik this season. How does it feel to be back at it?

Mathieu Constance: It’s great to be back. We’re really excited about this new setup that we have, the new site with the 360 Stage. It’s always really fun to be back at Parc Jean-Drapeau in May to kick things off, and to do this many shows and see everybody.

DM: Who are you most excited to have booked this year?

MC: We’re really excited to have Enrico Sangiuliano, one of Italy’s most proficient techno exports. We have Ki/Ki also coming up in September — that’s been a long time coming. That’s a really exciting one. It’s another long weekend. 

Generally those Mondays are very energetic and very crazy. Those will be a lot of fun.

We also have a couple of the new-blood U.K. garage acts coming in. The closing show of the whole season is going to be in October with Notion. Tomorrow [May 19], on the 360 Stage — we have Arthi, one of Rinse FM’s residents. It’s going to be really nice. On Sundays, we get to explore different sounds and do a bit more diverse things, since we have more of a built-in crowd and more accessible tickets. Those are the ones where we can exercise our more curatorial vision over things. That’s always a lot of fun.

DM: What are you doing differently this year compared to last season?

MC: It’s the same basic formula. We try to stay very current and up-to-date with new trends and new things. There’s a lot of new blood. I think this season, compared to last year, there are a lot of first-timers. That’s always something we try to push consciously. This year, it really shows, not just on the support billing, but also locals and headliners. That’s not something we have as much leeway with, obviously, on OfF Piknic for the bigger concerts with more established artists. 

DM: Who are you most looking forward to seeing this year?

MC: Ki/Ki, for me, was one of the ones I really wanted to get. That one’s going to be crazy. Hiroko Yamamura, as well, who we have in July, is going to be really special. We had her do an afterparty for Igloofest a couple years back. Earlier in the season, we have DJ Tennis coming and presenting a Life and Death showcase. He’s a staple for us… It’ll be really fun to see him explore all of his label stuff, as well. We’re excited that he’s bringing Haai and Luke Alessi. There’s a lot to look forward to. It’s going to be a nice, long season.

DM: I love how people are having a great time here and getting in the festival spirit when it’s dreary and pissing rain on them. It’s wild how music and festivals like this have the power to do that.

MC: It’s really difficult at this time to get the trust of the festival-goers and have that built in. It’s always really nice to see that there’s a huge baseline of fans who’ll come out — rain, shine, whatever it is. They all want to be here. We’re really thankful for that.

DM: What has Piknic Électronik — and I guess Multicolore in general — got planned for the rest of this year?
MC: We’re not done rolling out the OfF Piknic shows. There’ll be quite a bit of programming coming through for the end of September and October for the last bit of the season. We just announced the dates for the Palomosa festival in September. The lineup is going to be coming out for that very soon. That’s going to be extremely exciting, as well. Our sights are turned already towards filling up what we’re doing for the winter for Igloofest next year. ■

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For more on Piknic Électronik 2025, please visit their website.

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