Winnipeg Nightlife

-

-

This past Monday at Winnipeg’s Lo Pub saw one of the most serious fights Winnipeg has seen at a bar in some time (biggest we have heard about since the massive brawl outside Cowboys and Stereo in November 2009). We are talking about a massive, bar clearing fight involving over 20 people, weapons, and 4 people going to the hospital with body lacerations.

-

Despite the Lo Pub being in one of the “tougher” areas of Winnipeg, this has been the first instance of violence seen at the bar/hostel since its opening. The lack of previous violence has driven many people to believe that it was the crowd for this particular show (a Rap/Hip Hop event featuring Vancouver’s “Boombox Saints” and the upcoming Winnipeg hip hop group “Trackstars”) that brought out the fight, not the bar itself. As a result, the manager of the Lo Pub has canceled the bar’s popular weekly hip hop night (Mass Appeal Mondays) in a attempt to recover the establishments image and keep his patrons safe.

-

What do you think about this fight or bar fights in general? Were you at Lo Pub when everything went down? Is it true that a hip hop crowd is more prone to violence then other genres of music?

-

COMMENT BELOW (NO SIGN UP REQUIRED) WITH YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS SERIOUS INCIDENT!

-

Boombox Saints – Flip It

-

Read Our Exclusive Review Of Lo Pub (Particularly Their Goodform Thursday Weekly Event)

-

Original Incident Report Story (WFP Link)

-

WINNIPEG — Four men were taken to hospital in stable condition after a brawl outside a popular downtown pub last night.

-

Winnipeg police said they received a fight call at 11 p.m. Monday at Ellice Avenue and Kennedy Street, outside the Lo Pub. Police said this morning about 20 people were involved in the melee.

-

Four men aged 21 and 22 suffered stab wounds and were taken to hospital with laceration injuries. No one was taken into custody. Police said the investigation is continuing.

-

Jack Jonasson, the Lo Pub’s owner, said about 70 people went to Lo Pub to watch a Vancouver group perform there. Many were friends and family of the performers, he said.

-

Jonasson said the fight broke out slightly off the Lo Pub property after one man who was outside with a handful of friends began facing off with another group of people. The crowd slowly edged off to a few metres south-east of the pub’s main entrance, near a sculpture.

-

He said about 15 people began involved kicking and punching each other until police showed up about five to ten minutes later. He said he saw one person taken into custody, but did not see any weapons.

-

Jonasson said the pub’s weekly Monday hip-hop night will now be cancelled. The event kicked off about four months ago, he said.

-

He said the bar has held hundreds of events without problems.

Bar Manager Decides To Cancel Mass Appeal Monday Hip Hop Nights (WFP Link)

A Kennedy Street bar manager said he’s cancelling hip-hop music nights after several people were stabbed near the downtown establishment early Monday morning.

-

The brawl involved an estimated 20 to 25 people, a witness said.Four men went to hospital with stab wounds, although all were listed in stable condition.

-

Jack Jonasson, the Lo Pub’s manager, said the fight broke out outside the club after a crowd of about seven to nine men began kicking and punching another 10 to 15 men who exited the club.

-

The Lo Pub is located inside the Hostelling International Winnipeg Downtowner, at the corner of Kennedy and Ellice Avenue. For about five minutes, the men clashed in a small park area beyond the southeast corner of the hostel’s property on Webb Place.

-

“We’re going to take a look at the situation and try to figure out what we can do to make sure it never happens again.”

-

Jonasson said that might mean getting more security. On Monday night, five staff were working.

-

He said the crowd of about 70 people who came to see a Vancouver-based group called the Boombox Saints were “far removed” from the bar’s usual clientele.

-

As the band set up to play its show inside around midnight, he said he heard about an upset man outside the bar.

-

Jonasson said he went outside and tried to calm the yelling man. “I couldn’t make out what it was that he was upset about,” he said.

-

Within two minutes, he said a larger group exited the bar and the fight began between two groups before some participants fled the scene.

-

A local club website advertised an event called Mass Appeal Monday, which featured a string of hip-hop acts for a $7 entrance fee, including the Boombox Saints.

-

Lexani Llaguno, the group’s Vancouver-based manager, said none of the Boombox Saints members was involved in the fight or injured. Jonasson said the event is a blow to the local hip-hop scene he’s tried to build with weekly events over the last four months.

Pub Regulars Vow The Brawl Won’t Get Them Down (WFP Link)

As the first punches flew outside the Lo Pub on Monday night, Jack Jonasson watched with horror, then heartbreak: “Oh my God,” he thought. “Oh my God.”

-

But on Thursday afternoon, three days after the headline-grabbing brawl that sent four people to hospital with stab wounds, Jonasson started fighting back: In an emotional Facebook message, the Lo Pub manager urged fans to come to the venue on Thursday afternoon to renew the positive vibe.

-

And so, before the workday even ended on the busiest bar night of the year, more than 100 supporters packed the pub to hoist a pint, toss some darts, and hold their Lo pride to the light. “Some people are looking for any excuse to diss the whole downtown. And a part of me doesn’t want them to know how good it is,” laughed Lo regular Tara Wiebe, 40, as she quaffed a pint at the party. “This is the best pub in town.”

-

That’s exactly the rep that Jonasson set out to build when he launched the Lo more than two years ago. Which is why the fight — the first he’s seen near the pub — was so devastating to him; it’s also why he’s now a man on a mission.

-

Jonasson, 34, may not have been able to prevent the brawl, which flared between a group of first-time visitors to the hip Kennedy Street venue. But he’s sure as hell not going to let it happen again, he said.

-

“We’ve put long, difficult, sweaty hours into turning this place into something that is changing the neighbourhood for the better,” Jonasson said, noting that he’s planning on launching meetings with downtown groups to talk security. “Maybe in some ways this is a blessing in disguise… It’s re-energized my passion for making this place as good as it can be, and my passion for seeing downtown become a better place to live, work and play.”

-

It already is better, said fans at the Thursday gathering. Christian Cassidy, 42, works across the street from the Lo and the adjoining HI hostel. He remembers when the joint was a ramshackle hotel and beer vendor spilling rowdy drunks into the street by mid-afternoon. “It really pulled down the area,” Cassidy said.

-

He went to the old watering-hole once, and only once; but at the Lo, he’s a regular. “This is what downtown redevelopment is all about,” Cassidy said, nodding at the crowd that filled the Lo on Thursday afternoon.

-