Mix | mona jan 2010 Nickv & Cosmo Vitelli … mona supports Haïti
mona nickv & cosmo vitelli all night long
Running a club night after a while sometimes raises questions that can go beyond the simple fact (but far from easy feat) of congregating your crowd and playing the music of your life every month. We have been doing mona for two years now, it’s mainly been quite successful from a commercial point of view, we don’t earn heaps of money but we never lose anything, are able to afford great djs, make regular improvements to our set up and invest for future nights. I started to feel we could maybe set aside part of our earnings and donate it to a charity.
When the tremor in Haïti happened we were actually in the process of thinking about how to support such causes, and with the sheer scale of destruction and despair, it occured very naturally for us to donate the whole amount of the night’s earnings to La Fondation France – Solidarité Haïti. The quake occured on the Wednesday, mona was on the Saturday, the decision was wrapped up pretty quickly.
When you make a strong statement, you get quite a lot of attention. La Java, always empty at 1am for mona, filled up pretty early. I’m sure people were expecting a full house, was it conscious support for Haïti or was it because, as a consequence, people had been talking about the party for two days ? Maybe a bit of both. I felt a strong sense of solidarity throughout the night and most regulars, used to being on the guest list, were more than happy to pay (even if we’re still wondering what happened to the others that never made it and whom we never heard about afterwards – I wonder if they will put in any future requests). Other people attending didn’t really agree with our stance. Why support now ? Why not before ? Why Haïti ? Why such a widespread cause when you appeal to such a closeted crowd ? Isn’t it a deguised way of promoting your night ?
We had regularly thought about doing this with part or all of our earnings, without really knowing how to (and I still don’t feel we do so today). Why ? There’s always been a special mood at mona between people. Quite a lot goes on during a night, energies are liberated and exchanged, this is what makes people hang out for so long in such a confined and crowded space. You give out a lot and people take that home with them. So making a donation is an extension of that. It’s also a way of spreading a certain form of consciousness that you might not associate immediately with such a hedonistic activity, but isn’t in opposition with it, on the contrary. You can influence people in a positive direction by spreading out a positive message. Music is filled with such messages, listen to the lyrics of certain disco songs, naïve sometimes but uplifting nonetheless. A club night can be the same, if the experience is positive then you go home feeling good.
If you have the capacity to reach out and make an impact on a group of people like we have at mona, then you should use it positively. We spread messages about music or a particular, sometimes marginally perceived, way of being. We encourage social mixity and open mindedness, we push boundaries and share experiences with others regardless of who they are, what they do for work or who they sleep with. So showing support and care for those in need is exactly the same type of message that we are trying to convey every month, except on a more universal scale. This universality may bother certain people as mona can appear to be a very confidential affair, but we don’t exclude people from our nights, anyone is free to join in.
Making such decisions can always be a bit delicate as you never receive total support, whatever you do, there will always be someone to question or even challenge you. If you believe in your actions and believe they are right then you should plan them and carry out that plan. It is good to question but never good to remain in doubt.
I hope you enjoy the mix of the night above, I’m sorry I didn’t time to edit it (I might do a bit later on) so that’s nearly six hours of music mixed live for your ears. Thanks to Cosmo Vitelli, who came down and showed why he is one of the best French djs around. This short video was shot at 525 in the morning with Jean Carne singing out loud and clear, a very sweet moment.
Running a club night after a while sometimes raises questions that can go beyond the simple fact (but far from easy feat) of congregating your crowd and playing the music of your life every month. We have been doing mona for two years now, it’s mainly been quite successful from a commercial point of view, we don’t earn heaps of money but we never lose anything, are able to afford great djs, make regular improvements to our set up and invest for future nights. I started to feel we could maybe set aside part of our earnings and donate it to a charity.
When the tremor in Haïti happened we were actually in the process of thinking about how to support such causes, and with the sheer scale of destruction and despair, it occured very naturally for us to donate the whole amount of the night’s earnings to La Fondation France – Solidarité Haïti. The quake occured on the Wednesday, mona was on the Saturday, the decision was wrapped up pretty quickly.
When you make a strong statement, you get quite a lot of attention. La Java, always empty at 1am for mona, filled up pretty early. I’m sure people were expecting a full house, was it conscious support for Haïti or was it because, as a consequence, people had been talking about the party for two days ? Maybe a bit of both. I felt a strong sense of solidarity throughout the night and most regulars, used to being on the guest list, were more than happy to pay (even if we’re still wondering what happened to the others that never made it and whom we never heard about afterwards – I wonder if they will put in any future requests). Other people attending didn’t really agree with our stance. Why support now ? Why not before ? Why Haïti ? Why such a widespread cause when you appeal to such a closeted crowd ? Isn’t it a deguised way of promoting your night ?
We had regularly thought about doing this with part or all of our earnings, without really knowing how to (and I still don’t feel we do so today). Why ? There’s always been a special mood at mona between people. Quite a lot goes on during a night, energies are liberated and exchanged, this is what makes people hang out for so long in such a confined and crowded space. You give out a lot and people take that home with them. So making a donation is an extension of that. It’s also a way of spreading a certain form of consciousness that you might not associate immediately with such a hedonistic activity, but isn’t in opposition with it, on the contrary. You can influence people in a positive direction by spreading out a positive message. Music is filled with such messages, listen to the lyrics of certain disco songs, naïve sometimes but uplifting nonetheless. A club night can be the same, if the experience is positive then you go home feeling good.
If you have the capacity to reach out and make an impact on a group of people like we have at mona, then you should use it positively. We spread messages about music or a particular, sometimes marginally perceived, way of being. We encourage social mixity and open mindedness, we push boundaries and share experiences with others regardless of who they are, what they do for work or who they sleep with. So showing support and care for those in need is exactly the same type of message that we are trying to convey every month, except on a more universal scale. This universality may bother certain people as mona can appear to be a very confidential affair, but we don’t exclude people from our nights, anyone is free to join in.
Making such decisions can always be a bit delicate as you never receive total support, whatever you do, there will always be someone to question or even challenge you. If you believe in your actions and believe they are right then you should plan them and carry out that plan. It is good to question but never good to remain in doubt.
I hope you enjoy the mix of the night above, I’m sorry I didn’t time to edit it (I might do a bit later on) so that’s nearly six hours of music mixed live for your ears. Thanks to Cosmo Vitelli, who came down and showed why he is one of the best French djs around. This short video was shot at 525 in the morning with Jean Carne singing out loud and clear, a very sweet moment.
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