IMPERIAL CLOSED, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT — We have received a notice from Imperial Vancouver, our home venue for many of our upcoming Restricted Entertainment events, that they have made the decision to close indefinitely, effective immediately, and that they will be unable to honour or host all upcoming bookings.
All ticket sales to all our upcoming events are currently paused and on hold while we search for replacement venues. In the event of new venues being secured, tickets will re-activate.
Venues are extremely scarce and some events may unfortunately wind up being cancelled as a result of the Imperial’s decision, which is a huge disappointment to everyone to say the least.
We have been informed by AdmitOne, the Imperial’s ticketing company, that in the event of any cancellations, all previously purchased tickets will be fully refunded automatically. You will not need to write in and request your refund.
In the event a replacement venue is found, all previously purchased tickets will be automatically transferred over and valid for the new event.
If you previously bought a ticket to an event, and the new venue or rescheduled date doesn’t work for you, you can absolutely get your ticket refunded.
Send in refund requests by email to :
PURR on Saturday October 15 has been moved to the Waldorf.
Ticket sales have been exceptionally strong for this event and the capacity at the Waldorf is lower than the Imperial, so while we will be able to fit in all existing ticket holders, we may already have hit SOLD OUT status for PURR due to the venue change. We are very excited to release more details about this shortly in a separate announcement!
PASSION PORTAL, SIN CITY and COFFIN CLUB events on the Halloween weekend are all on hold with ticket sales paused while we attempt to secure replacement venues. This is a very big challenge as we are only a month out from the first Halloween back since venues have fully re-opened, and almost all venues are sure to be already booked.
If you hear of a 300-500+ capacity venue available October 28/29, please email :
Please only let us know of any options you may know of that are confirmed as available on those dates, or which are available to be booked for larger scale events.
PUBLIC STATEMENT, REGARDING THE HOMELESS ENCAMPMENT :
MRG, the parent company which operates the Imperial, has cited safety concerns to staff and patrons due to the homeless encampment on the street outside the venue, and incidents of violence in the immediate area, as the reason for their decision to close. They must operate their business on a daily basis and this is their prerogative – all businesses should keep the safety of their patrons in mind, and no employees should be expected to work in unsafe conditions.
However we must go on record and say that this is not the opinion of us at Restricted Entertainment. We have long had our events in the Gastown and Downtown Eastside area, with nightclub venues overlapping with the local residents. It being a low income area, with a high prevalence of homeless people and open drug use on the street level, is nothing new. This can be visually alarming, and while there have been incidents, assaults and friction in the area, this is also nothing new. Long time attendees of our events may remember a tent encampment outside Club 23 West many years ago which similarly stretched on for a considerable period of time. The Rickshaw has dealt with all these same issues the entirety of their operation, and are busier than ever.
As we head into colder weather, we sincerely hope that all the people who are living on street level in the city are able to find housing which provides greater physical and mental shelter and support, and we strongly urge the city to help facilitate this in all ways possible.
Businesses closing down, the city losing even more of it’s already scarce event venues, and people living on the street are all unacceptable. While the social problems resulting in these situations are understandably long-running and complex, they cannot be ignored and should be made an immediate priority.
In terms of feeling unsafe, we feel that the situation on Granville Street every weekend outside the more mainstream venues frankly makes many of the patrons of our alternative, fetish and LGTBQ+ community even more uncomfortable and feeling threatened.
These communities have long found homes in venues off the beaten path for exactly this reason, and have always been supportive of attending venues in less affluent neighbourhoods. This exact situation typically results in venues supporting more alternative and emerging forms of art & culture rising up in rougher areas of town.
We would like to extend a personal thank you to the thousands of people who have supported and attended Restricted Entertainment events over the last 20+ years. Just showing up to the events and walking through the door directly contributes to the continuation and growth of underground culture in Vancouver.
Sincerely
Isaac Terpstra
Restricted Entertainment
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