Nightowl Toronto: We are not ready to say goodbye

Dear Toronto, we’re not ready to say goodbye…

To our loving Nightowl family, a time has come in which we need your support.

For those of you who don’t know us yet, Nightowl is most recognized for its live music and entertainment. We are a venue that has helped launch the careers of local bands and artists by providing the perfect setup and location for shows. We are so very proud to have hosted so many amazing events and concerts.

The most important thing at Nightowl was always making sure that anyone and everyone felt right at home. As members of the queer community, Reese and Kurt have always emphasized the importance of widening the range of safe and queer inclusive spaces in Toronto. Nightowl has evolved into a place that creates a sense of safety, community, and family...and of course lots of fun!

Reese started working at Nightowl over 5 years ago. After years of blood, sweat, and tears poured into this business, Reese was finally given the opportunity to inherit ownership of Nightowl. On March 16, 2020, everything was finally settled and Nightowl’s doors were ready to open. Just ONE DAY later on March 17, 2020, The Government of Canada announced its first state of emergency requiring Toronto to go into lockdown. Even more unfortunately, when patios and partial patronage were permitted, Nightowl couldn’t apply for Café TO due to TTC complications. Even though it felt like our dreams vanished into thin air, the Nightowl team didn’t give up. As soon as we were able, we brought you live sports games, custom cocktails, special brunches, incredible food, and Drag Queens!

Despite all of our best efforts, 2020 continued to be a very tough year and 2021 hasn’t been any easier – especially for live entertainment venues such as ours.

We have already had to say goodbye to one of our locations. We are asking for your help to keep our last venue and last piece of this business we love so much.

All funding will go towards safeguarding our venue. Our last day to ensure we keep Nightowl is July 1st, 2021.

We’re not ready to say goodbye and we hope that you aren’t either.

Yours always,
Nightowl