Sunday night revealed a new facet of Exposé Noir. Just when we thought we understood the landscape, the Hangar appeared. A skeletal structure built for weather and rave alike, it offered no walls, just a roof suspended over bodies, smoke, and sound. It felt like a passageway. Somewhere between earth and sky, where light didn’t just illuminate the space but became part of the horizon.

Helena Hauff took that horizon and cracked it open.

The Hamburg based legend led a masterclass in sonic revolution. Kicking off with industrial heat and percussive insistence, she wove in echoes of Detroit techno—the soul and struggle behind the machine. Her set was a ride through BPM and emotional terrain, a roller coaster of tempos and tectonic shifts. Raw, urgent, ecstatic; she gave the kind of set that feels physically historic. As she once told Glamcult, “Rave is revolutionary.” And this night, it truly was.

What made it hit even harder was the setting. Fog curled through the open air; the lights – bold, intelligent, and unfiltered felt like part of the sky. They expanded the architecture beyond its scaffolding, framing the crowd as silhouettes in an electric storm. The smoke didn’t obscure; it revealed. Hauff’s set wasn’t just the highlight of the night; it was its spine.

Back inside the Belvedere, Wata Igarashi was crafting a very different kind of enchantment. The Japanese producer played to a steadily growing crowd between two enormous cone speakers facing each other, almost sculptural in their placement. The result was an immersive, echoic chamber where every sound felt suspended in air. It was playful and hypnotic, like being in a terrarium of green light and dancing amphibians. Rhythmic, precise, but full of joy – his set had a jazzy undertone, a kind of ludic elegance. It was easy to dance to, but even easier to get lost in.

Then came Polygonia and the Belvedere transformed. With Helena’s set wrapped, the room swelled to capacity. A multidisciplinary artist trained in visual art, sound design, and ecological thought, Polygonia doesn’t simply perform, she builds intricate ecosystems of sound. Her live set felt like entering a biodiverse sound garden: rich in textures, polymorphic in rhythm, and vividly spatial. There was no need to move wildly; the sound itself moved through and around us. Tactile, immersive, and intellectually sculpted, her set was both meditative and kinetic, a sonic architecture you could inhabit.

Together, these three artists carved out the final arc of Exposé Noir—not just with beats, but with vision. Night two confirmed what night one had already hinted at: this was more than curation. It was composition. A study in contrasts—grit and grace, speed and stillness, body and space.

We arrived just after dark, greeted by a wash of fog and the soft glow of strobe lights already in motion. Exposé Noir was alive. Phone cameras were sealed, voluntarily forgotten, and replaced by a strange sense of intimacy and trust. This was more than a party. It felt like entering a curated microcosm, a world built on rhythm, breath, and sweat, where mutual respect made space for joy.

Up on the Terrasse, Tiga was already in flow. A Montreal legend with a long legacy in global electronic music, he moved effortlessly through eras. Disco basslines bubbled under Björk-like vocal textures. It was elegant, surprising, almost cinematic. The view from the Belvedere heightened the surrealism, Habitat 67 and the Biosphere loomed across the dark water like props in a dream. There was a moment, just after a beat dropped into silence, when we looked around and realized: people weren’t documenting this. They were living it. You could feel the intention in the design of the space: immersive, generous, protective.

But it was next door, inside the Belvedere, that the real spell took hold. The lighting work was stunning: soft, sharp, atmospheric. Fog wrapped the room in velvet. Lights refracted through it, sculpting bodies in motion. It felt ceremonial, like entering a collective trance.

Yazzus, the Ghanaian-British DJ rising out of Berlin’s queer underground, took the helm and catapulted the night into another dimension. Her set was radiant: fast, sexy, explosive. She pulled from Ghettotech, Jungle, and early 2000s rave nostalgia, but the result was unmistakably her own. With every drop and build, she was carving out a space that was both ecstatic and vulnerable. High-octane but joyful, she gave us permission to fully let go. The room responded in kind. As we were told earlier that night, “It’s about intensity, but it’s also about care.”

Then came DJ Tool, steering us deeper into the dark. A core member of Berlin’s Mala Junta collective, he’s known for pushing high-speed, emotionally charged techno with surgical precision. His set was relentless, industrial, physical, and unflinching. If Yazzus gave us wings, Tool locked us into the tunnel and hit accelerate. But even here, in the harshest moments, there was a sense of control and trust of being taken somewhere on purpose.

That night at Exposé Noir didn’t just showcase three DJs. It honored the emotional architecture of nightlife: how the right energy, sound, and setting can move a room beyond escapism into something deeper. It reminded us how good it feels to be completely, fully there.

Year after year, the Piknic formula proves that it works.

Itʼs a tall order to meet the expectations that come with such a reputation, but once you cross those gates and step into the crowd, it quickly becomes clear why this festival continues to draw people in. The fluorescent backdrop, paired with an even more vibrant crowd swaying to infectious grooves and skipping from stage to stage, gives the event a sense of playful debauchery. It’s the crème de la crème of summer parties, where artists show up with their A game.

A tribute to Montrealʼs diversity, Piknic offers a full spectrum of nightlife condensed into the microcosms of its two stages. At the National Bank Stage, set up like an intimate boiler room session, we were treated to a pulsing evening of hyperpop. Meanwhile, just across the gulley at the Fizz Stage, the mood was a global homage to club classics. Chloe Lallouz captivated the crowd with her delightfully unpredictable genre-blending. Opening with a bachata track, the

open-air venue momentarily transformed into a casual tropical party. From there, she offered glimpses of sounds from across the globe—India, Morocco, Brazil, and early 2000s U.S.A.—all layered over a steady afrohouse groove that built into baile funk and amapiano. Dancing circles formed, limbo sticks made their way through the crowd, and most importantly, her set illuminated the multicultural essence of Montreal, bringing everyone together in a shared rhythm.

As the night deepened, Stryv picked up where Lallouz left off, carrying the collective energy and elevating it to euphoric heights. An experienced producer, Stryv has mastered the art of anticipation, keeping dancers on the edge with a finely tuned balance of chord stabs and ghostly vocal textures. His rhythms were hypnotic, evolving seamlessly without ever overwhelming. It was like watching a storm roll in and out—subtle yet powerful. And as the final hour approached, the sky metaphorically cleared, releasing a wave of positive energy. Even soaking wet, the crowd refused to accept that the night was ending, chanting for “just one more song.”

In a parallel universe only a five-minute walk away, ZORZA was redefining techno with a cool and collected presence. Navigating the fringes of hyperpop and underground rave, her quiet continuously renewed the element of surprise. With an ear for obscure internet finds and sped up pop samples, Zorzaʼs inventiveness was a breath of fresh air. With distorted samples that sounded like the system was about to crash, people were losing their minds. All around the stage and amongst the muddy grass, people were jumping, yelling and punching the air. Everywhere you felt the release and excitement of what it means to be here at Piknic. Its the official arrival of summer, and the fact that whether it rains or shines, Montrealʼs nightlife is always alive.

Piknic isnʼt just a music festival—itʼs a cultural barometer of Montrealʼs evolving nightlife. Whether you’re drawn in by nostalgia, global rhythms, or emerging djʼs, there’s space for you at Piknic. And maybe thatʼs the magic of it: in a city as eclectic as Montreal, this festival finds a way to make it all dance together.