Vivid Nite Club Winnipeg Closes Its Doors
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After opening up to much excitement, promise, and hype, Winnipeg’s Vivid Nite Club has closed its doors after less then one year in business. Right before Vivid opened, we ran a special feature on our website which provided an Exclusive Preview of the club before any details were released.
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After taking over the location of one of Winnipeg’s most successful bars at the time, Coyotes, Vivid attempted to change the way nightclubs are viewed in Winnipeg. Vivid introduced exciting features such as in house magicians, dance performances, light shows, 20+ weekends and lavish VIP services. Most interesting however was that until 10:00PM, Vivid was a lounge serving food such as sushi (the only nightclub in Winnipeg that did this). At 10:00PM Vivid transformed into a full fledged nightclub with a DJ and a packed dance floor.
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Within the first few weeks of Vivid being open, the promise and popularity of the club only grew. The fortune of the club however began to change after a highly publicized car chase and shooting was published in all major newspapers and media outlets. The club owners insisted that although the suspects were arrested in Vivid’s parking lot, Vivid had nothing to do with the crime and it was in fact a neighboring bar. No matter what the truth is, this event definitely harmed Vivid’s reputation during a time where people are especially concerned about bar violence.
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Internal friction within Vivid also harmed the club after the team in charge of Promotion and Marketing left after having a disagreement with management (the management at Vivid is the same management that currently owns and operates the long running Palomino Club). This disagreement stems from a differing view in what the club was supposed to become. After the Marketing & Promotion’s team left the club (Vivid promotional staff is now at Winnipeg’s new Mystique Nightclub.), Vivid removed the 20+ weekend rule in order to attract new customers and cater to a different audience.
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No official plans have being announced yet for the current building. There have being rumors about Coyote’s re-opening but these are just rumors for now. Vivid’s Pembina Highway location has proven before that it can be used to house a successful nightclub so I would not be surprised if within a year Winnipeg has a new nightclub moving in that location. The proximity to Manitoba’s largest University is a definite advantage as well as the recent announcement about Winnipeg’s Stadium being relocated just down the street.
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What are your thought about this recent closure? Are you surprised? Did you ever personally attend Vivid? What did you think?
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Leave a comment below and share your feeling about this story!
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I’m really glad you ran this story, I’d heard rumours about it closing and was wondering whether they were true. I don’t think the violence had anything to do with the lack of success in the bar, but that the disagreement between the promo team and management caused the entire fall. Winnipeg was tired of the trashy Coyote’s scene, and when management tried to revert back to that type of club after Vivid’s opening, it disillusioned clientele, especially since the Exchange District now offers such a great scene. I was at Vivid the second weekend it opened, but once I heard the promo team left I had no desire to ever go back. About a month later I had to stop by for a birthday one night and was shocked at the stark contrast between then and the opening weeks. I never went back. I’m sure that was the case for most people.
Is anyone actually surprised about this?
honestly.. i’m not surprised… the only thing i’m surprised about is how long it lasted.
I find it very amusing that the downfall of Vivid keeps being linked (on this site) to the departure of the original Promo team. I was there opening weekend, and I have been there numerous times after, with and without the previous promo team. I actually prefered the scene after the so called “great promo team” left. Less cheese, more Winnipeg style. We are not Vegas, nor should we try to be. Magician, confetti canon, light show??? Really? That is all well and good if marketing to the 18 year old crowd, but they weren’t, they were marketing to 21 and over. Not exactly my cup of tea, as I am 25 years old. And the handful of times I have been there, also including the weekend before closure, it did not seem any more or less busy then before their departure. I have noticed that this site seems to favor this said “promotions team.” Nothing ever seems to be said badly towards them and their club, just to their competitors. Which leads me to believe one of them may be running this site, or is paying someone to run it. Which is a shame as I do enjoy looking to this site for whats up in Winnipeg entertainment. It is true that Vivid did not catch on like the new Mystique at which this promo team is now working. But what have they really done differently over there from Vivid, besides cut out the lounge aspect, and marketed to the more appropriate age group (18+). There is a confetti canon, the same magician, a light show, dancers…etc, etc. And since there departure I was very glad to see that I was not receiving multiple emails/invites/status updates on facebook related to Vivid anymore. And this is the reason I refuse to join the Mystique page now. Again, I’m sure this is all well and good for 18 year olds, but to constantly be bombarded on a daily basis with this stuff, was rediculous. It was nice to see the emails/invites/status updates slow down extensively once they departured. So maybe it wasn’t the departure of the promo team. Maybe it was the shooting, maybe it was location, maybe it was timing, maybe it was a ton of different things. To say it was due to their departure is unrealistic, and in bad taste.
@ Kendall
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Thank you for your post and on WinnipegNightlife.Ca
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First things first, I can assure you I have no relation to any promotion company/nightclub/bar in Winnipeg. Something I take very seriously and genuinely try to do with the website is be as unbiased as possible and provide a full picture of what goes on in Winnipeg. I re-read my posting and understood how it could be read as a biased point of view. I made some minor changes that should make it read how I intend it to. Thank you for pointing this out.
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Secondly, at no point in my post do I make a statement about a “great promo team”. What I have stated with regards to the violence and Promotion team leaving are known facts/events that occurred during Vivid’s time of operations. Like you state, whether either the violence or promotion team leaving had any effect on Vivid closing is something that nobody but management likely knows. This post is not meant to “link the downfall to the departure of the original Promo team” by any means.
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Thirdly, what Winnipeg needs more of are the entrepreneurs to takes risks and push and promote their events/venues (whoever they may be). Winnipeg is a very tough market for nightlife. Summer is tough as a large portion of the population leave town (cottages etc.) and winters are tough because of the cold. Winnipegger’s are also notoriously “cheap” and Manitoba has some of the strictest liquor laws around. We really should be thankful for how much we have and the effort of those who help bring us nightlife entertainment. You will notice on my site (in contrast to your quote “Nothing ever seems to be said badly towards them and their club, just to their competitors”) that I do not make negative remarks or “gossipy” comments but prefer to stick to straight fact and supportive statements. It is a lot easier to give nonconstructive and slamming criticism then constructive comments.
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Thanks again for you comment. I always appreciate hearing what readers have to say. Hope you continue to read the website.
Is is it true that the person who runs this site also works at
Mystique doing security???
“First things first, I can assure you I have no relation to any promotion company/nightclub/bar in Winnipeg.”
If this is the case you got some explaining to do Lucy…
@ Dean
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I believe you are thinking of a different person with the same first name. I definitely do not work at Mystique.
Thank you for the clarification.
only thing i never understood was why an originally highly anticipated nightclub would open with a 21+ rule while being neighbors with a campus of mostly 18+ university students?
my 0.02
Not that I ever go to any of said Winnipeg clubs, but I remember when me and my friends passed around the Vivid night club website around on facebook and laughed about how fucking shitty it looked. If they hired people with real perspective, not a bunch of hacks, they would have pulled the plug on the idea before it was too late, instead of a year later; humiliated.
Real success in night life comes from keeping your shit simple. Vivid was too complicated. If I wanted a fucking birthday party with a magician and confetti, I would go to fucking Chucky Cheese (sweet irony!). If I wanna see girls dancing on a stage, i’ll go see strippers! The whole Vivid experience sounds like it was engineered by pre-pubescent teens, destined to fail. And it did.
The other problem comes when you have complex facebook social networking nonsense. A mistake Mystique is repeating already it seems. As someone mentioned earlier, this supposed “super awesome marketing team” bombarded facebook group members with stupid shit all the time. That’s a recipe to piss people off and ultimately drive them away from your club!
With a stupid name like Vivid and high school kiddie magician-lightshow-confetticannon antics, it’s no surprise this club has gone under. Good riddance! Who’s next!? Mystique?
I agree with Dean that there must be something about this site that is connected to Jamie Hall, or why would the most successful, longest running club in Winnipeg not be included on the voting list for Best Club…. The Pal Rocks every night…..
if this website has something to do with Jamie/Mystique/vivid, then why the hell would they post so many events at other nightclubs (especially places like republic nd whiskey dix) that are in direct competition? wouldn’t make much sense to be honest.
Holy, lol my facebook is blowing up today. If I had a nickel for every time somebody accused me of running this site… well, I’d have a huge pile of nickels, which I suppose wouldn’t be worth much, but still… Even Jamie Hall accused me of running this site. Secretly for the longest time I thought HE was running it… (that’s why we were both so surprised to randomly meet winnipegnightlife’s “Matt” last week at a commerce party).
But just to further clarify:
STOP MESSAGING ME ABOUT THIS! THIS ISN’T MY SITE! I LOVE THE PALOMINO CLUB DAMMIT!
also kendall, I’m bringing the confetti cannon over to ur house and shooting u with it, k thx. Everybody is always hating on the stupid confetti cannon, but in reality it’s 1000 times better than it sounds.
Trendy clubs are going to keep opening and closing all the time, get used to it, it’s part of the industry. I think the average life expectancy of a club is somewhere around one year, which I believe is pretty much what vivid did, there’s no shame in that. Personally I hope they do resurrect Coyote’s again.
Also just for the record if a chucky cheese served booze I would be there like every night of the week. Enough with the hate already, try to get back to what u actually enjoy about clubbing.
I agree with Matt!
Very good comments both pro and con on this issue. and another side note of the final nail in Vivids coffin was yes, it wasn’t packed all the time, felt alittle stripped down and smaller , and Vivid Entertainment ( yes, the porn company ) had sent a letter saying drop the name or face legal proceedings. They said “let it go” . I hope Coyotes or some style of it is reborn , that part of town needs a bigger older bar. I agree that Winnipeg is a tough market with the summer and winter crowds always alittle lacking . Coyotes back in the day had it’s own issues of too much jailbait there and that was the stressing of the +21 crowd issue and for Jaime Hall to run it as a Vegas idea , first off , it was a bad location to do it there but basically Hall tried the concept, without using his money , or in part , and later was told no no, cut some of this fluff off, he said pfft and left and founded Mystique. And power to him and I wish him success. I never met the guy. Winnipeg has lots of bars and different crowds that go with that. People that move away from Wpg always say they “miss the soul” of here, we do have all kinds of music and tastes. There are bars I have never walked into and some issues go with all of them. I think Whiskey Dix is a good bar but the lack of bathrooms and that lineup for the patio are the first things people complain about. The Pal is a legend and usually a good time but some people crinkle thier noses at it saying the crowd ” is too old and overrun with Cougars” . I think they got a good mix crowd there. I guess it goes back to the old question ” if someone from out of town comes here and you wanna show them a good time , where would you end up ? ”
The bars I have been impressed with that to he have “all 8 cylinders firing ” meaning good staff, security and crowd would probably be Stereo, The Pal, Whiskey Dix . but at the same time, I know I could find an issue with all. Stereo is too full. Dix is the little lineups and the pal , too many old (like round 50) types .
but yeah that is just my view but like they say “Opinions are like assholes. Everybody’s got one and everyone thinks everyone else’s stinks.” Cheers.
and thanks to the folks who actually give a shit about Winnipeg night scene and caring. This town is full of great people and evertyone is connected by like 4 degrees or less. Let’s all just have some fun , get home safe and everyone have a good time. G’night !!
Wow,my eyes hurt from reading all this. I only have two things to say.
1. I have worked at multiple clubs in Winnipeg and know the Matt that runs this site and I assure you he is not involved with any of them.
2. I am not originally from Winnipeg but have lived here for a few years. I have experienced club scenes in may cities and resort towns. And the bottom line is,no matter who runs the club,no matter who the promotions team is,no matter what dj/band is playing,and no matter how “big city” or “small town” the venue is…Winnipeg will never be a “great” club scene. The people that live here expect too much for too little. Raise a door cost to anything over $5 (and thats pushing it) and everybody complains about how expensive it is. Charge more than $4 for a highball and someone grumbles about how they can’t believe the prices.I think the club owners and promoters in this city need to focus less on competition and more on working together to make this city as club friendly as possible given the rules and regulations that they are forced to follow,which I might add are ridiculous. (Someone please tell me,did all these rules really start when some drunk drown in the river?) Less time and money needs to be spent on trying to determine who is the best club and more time needs to be spent on how to secure the longevity of club/night life in this city. I do agree with a previous statement about “simplicity is the key” because this is not Las Vegas or L.A,it’s not New York or Miami,this is Winnipeg; A cold little city full of an oddly high number of nice attractive people,a handful of douchebags,and a whole bunch of people looking for the most bang for their buck. . .
Jamie Hall ruined a great location…
figures his gf would chirp up on here…..
I like Mystique, it’s fun there.
Winnipeg needs a bar like the LID again. One Huge ass screen. cheep drinks 2.50.
@ Steve,
I don’t know you don’t care too. Vivid brought itself down Jamie had nothing to do with it and didn’t like the way it was being run hence why he left.
Don’t be a douche bag and comment about things or people you don’t know.
This note got way blown out of proportion.
So another club closed, lets just chalk it up to they had a good run and wish them the best.
No need to get all opinionated.
I agree with Jessie…. this is not NY or Vegas, they made the place smaller…. tried to have dancing girls…which we saw fail at Mezzo …
its a bar next to a university…. had great parking…. and was already a success….. it was turned into something that it never should have been….
I was very unimpressed with it…. Even the sign on the Bishop Grandin side was placed to low to be seen from the road, where the old coyotes sign could be seen for a mile.
Kayla and Matt were telling me about this post for awhile and I’ve been ignoring it but I needed a good laugh today so I checked it out.
So here’s my top 5 things that I find wrong with this post …
01. How is anyone honestly going to equate dancers and confetti to Vegas? Honestly, you need to go to Vegas. There’s a lot more to their scene and that’s because of $500 bottles of Goose and $50 cover. Now go anywhere else in the world. Where there’s music there’s usually dancers. They help engage a crowd.
02. Confetti Hate … I fucking love it and so do the people that I see on video that are dancing in it. Get over it. It’s fun at the right moment.
03. Me Having Anything To Do with the Rise or Fall of Any Club … This is likely my fault because I’m so damn attractive and my face gets put on stuff (humour people, I’m clearly joking) but to be serious for a moment, I come up with a plan, present it to the owners and they make decisions. This isn’t passing the buck, this is business. It’s like you Steve, when you go to your boss in the back of Burger King and ask him something, he tells you what’s up and you do it. Every business is as strong as the leadership AKA the owners.
04. Facebook … I hated messaging as much as I did for Vivid but that wasn’t my call. I TRY to message once a month for Mystique but if something is going to effect a large number of people’s plans sometimes an extra message is the only way to get the word out there.
I have always said I don’t like messaging unless there’s something new to say like tonight when I message about NYE, December’s events and contests.
This is why I like pages. It’s all news feed and if you don’t want the info you just hide it and then go to the page when you want info. People have just gotta stop hating on new Facebook and start using its awesome services.
05. Why is it that you have to be 18 to have fun in this city? It’s like when you turn 25 you can’t let loose and have a good time. Good thing there’s hundreds of people through our doors each week that disagree or I’d jump out of a window due to depression.
At the end of the day there’s always hate, there’s always people that chime up when they have no idea what they’re talking about and when I do something there’ll always be CONFETTI! LOL … oh and the wicked illusionist Sean Fields who boggles minds on a regular basis.
I have fun doing what I do and if you don’t like our brand of entertainment that’s fine, I likely don’t like what you’ve got going on either. At least I’m not up in your face on the Yahtzee forums.
I’ll state, just because it seems needed, I’m in no way affiliated with this site. Matt (not Mystique Matt) is doing a great job and we all (owners, promoters, etc.) appreciate the extra push even if all the Negative Nancys come out to play.
Later!
WOWSERS!!
YA THIS POST GOT WAY OUT OF HAND. RIDICULOUS LOL.
I THINK ALL CLUBS IN THIS CITY SHOULD HELP EACHOTHER OUT.
PS
MSG ME OR SHERAZ ON FB OR TWITTER FOR
VIP PARTIES AT REPUBLIC NIGHTCLUB
PEACE
LOVE YOU ALL
Make into Chucky Cheese Again
Now only if the Palomino Club would close….peace to the neighbourhood which has seen first hand on what 18-20 year olds (aka Monday night Hell) can blatantly get away with. Vandalism, violence, extremely young drunk drivers, broken beer bootles, noise, assault, glass shards in your dog’s paw, theft, smashed car windows & a lot more.