It's my pleasure to invite you to the 10th edition of UrbexMalt, the biggest annual urban exploration meetup in America, held in Montréal!
For more information on how and when attend, please send me a PM.
Hope new and older users from here can come! There is already a good amount of people from here, including Av, who can give their impression of their experience.
Featuring:
- 2 Fireplace - Crew shot - UM 2021 stickers - Multiple rooms arranged on three floors - Photo exhibition of 550+ pictures - Exhibition of artifacts & documents - Fire breathing demonstration - Cinema room - Music/DJ - Lighting from the original plant lights - Smoke and light effects - Guestbook - A working bathroom - A new restaurant: Salading Malt Grill & Co. - A new bar with custom tables and stools - Hundreds of explorers!
What is UrbexMalt?
It is a vision, the will to make something great for the community of explorers, have a moment and a place to be together at least once a year to break the internet barrier and social media dramas.
It's challenges, technical, emotional, physical.
In the beginning, i would never even imagine being where i am with this today, it's just incredible what you can accomplish when you have a passion for something!
Over the years the vision was to always add something new to see and create new spaces and features. Push boundaries, make possible what seems impossible.
With the help of my friend Deconstruckt and others friends, we made this vision came to life. It was and still is a hardcore venture playing the cat and mouse game with the owner and welders, have it underground and illegal and hidden in plain sight.
I would need months to explain everything we did and the thousand of hours spent there and the hundreds of stories attach to it.
You will be able to see a little bit from the pictures and videos ill post down there.
Where the UrbexMalt tradition began?
In 2012, following a series of small but successful meets at the Canada Malting Plant since 2010, a dozen explorers gathered on a faithful night that later became known as "UrbexMalt, 1st edition".
Things started out small, with a handful of makeshift wooden benches and a small bonfire in the complex's inner courtyard. This is when the organizers ClementRSedona and Deconstrukt vowed to organize a better, bigger event on an annual basis: This is how UrbexMalt was born!
UM 2013
On the second edition of UrbexMalt, in 2013, much more effort was put into the realization of the meet: Cleaning the rubble in the courtyard to make it easier and safer to walk, building a better campfire, and more benches.
That year, the "suit-up" dress code was implemented to contrast with the all-around dereliction of the Canada Malting Plant and usual exploring clothing.
Around 30 explorers from all around the Québec province attended the event. There was fire-spitting, fireworks, a barbecue, and of course the famous group shot that became mandatory for each subsequent edition.
UM 2014
2014 was the year we decided to do the meet inside for the first time. Since we were losing the fireplace, we built one inside along with a tall chimney.
Over 80 people attended this edition.
For the first time in 30 years, electricity was running again in the plant's original conduits and wiring, feeding the old lights and giving back the rooms a taste of their original condition.
A fireplace, music DJ, photo exhibition with more than 120 photos, benches, tables, comfy couches, hundreds of candles, barbecue, red and golden carpets were some of the features on display.
Here is a video of some of the work and a part of the meet.
UM 2015
On this 4th edition, a record 110 guests showed up for the evening.
2015 was Canada Malting's 110th birthday, and we were back altogether to honor this milestone.
All of the urban exploration enthusiasts in Québec were invited and some came from Ontario and even from France, dressed in their best clothes. We took a group picture with 96 of the guests, far exceeding the 63 of the previous year.
This year, over 150 pictures were exhibited including fifty by the artist & photographer Daniel Guilbert. He presented his clichés of the Canada Malting taken after its closure in the 1980s and later in the 1990s.
UM 2016
For the 5th edition, 132 explorers attended the event, exceeding last year’s 100 guests.
UrbexMalt 2016 was probably the biggest meeting of urban explorers to ever be held in America. This year’s group picture shows 113 explorers, wearing their best attire.
Invitations were sent out amongst the exploring scene in Ontario, and 15 talented explorers made the trip to Montreal for a nice meeting at our exploring Mecca.
Once again, we outdid ourselves to give our guests a truly original and unforgettable experience.
Another floor was added to the existing setup, adding 3 new exhibition rooms displaying pictures and artifacts, such as documents and various things found inside the Malt Plant.
Overall a total of 360 pictures were on display, including pictures taken by Daniel Guilbert at the Malt Plant over the years, and the BroomMan (Le Balayeur) series by one of the hosts, Guillaume Clément.
The entrance and every passage and staircase leading to the reception floor was cleaned and brightly lit with the building’s original light fixtures.
A dozen rooms were given a full and deep cleaning, including the repairing and reinstalling of the original light fixtures.
5 couches and numerous chairs and benches were laid to provide an absolute level of comfort. The remainder of the previous years’ installations was still present: the fireplace underwent a full lifting and new glass doors to prevent the smoke from entering back inside.
We are proud to pay a tribute to this historic place every year since it is an emblematic part of our passion.
UM 2017
For the first time, the event went international, with guests coming from Australia, USA, UK and of course Canada. This year's event was once again bigger than the previous one, with a total of 180 people who have attended.
Many improvements were done this year, including a huge mural by artist Jean-François Charest, the addition of a cinema room, lighting and ambient effects in the main room, a "fire breathing" performance, stickers made for the occasion, and new artifacts including the building's original blueprints from 1905 and 1930.
The group picture, taken at the same spot every year, was a real challenge to achieve: two levels of 40 feet-long benches were installed to fit the 150 people present in the picture.
Video montage of the meet by Charest
UM 2018
That year we went all out, we made a brand new central fireplace from scratch with brick from the 1905 building and tile from the terracotta silos. It was an incredible technical challenge as we needed to evacuate the smoke and was limited in power for the blower.
A total of 145 guests showed up that year.
A new huge exposition room was added with an incredible hanging setup.
A bathroom was made from scratch too, plumbing was pierced thru 4 concrete floors to reach the basement. A 1000L freshwater supply was installed. The original sink was restored and the original backsplash was used too, original mirror, and lots of other small details to create not only a functional but a beautiful bathroom.
A Urbexmalt sign was made from wood and plasma cut in metal with a backlight. Other light features were added throughout the building.
This year was the best setup so far, even exceeding our expectations.
I spent almost half of the year there, building and fixing stuff.
Video of a part of the meet:
UM 2019
This edition was challenging but not for the usual reasons. Not because there was a lot of work involved but because of trouble with the owner of the plant.
For several years now, the owner was trying to stop us from getting inside and doing the meet, having realized that something was going on.
Just after the meet of 2018, he came with a bunch of his employees and took everything he could see (tables, the toilet, tools, cleaning supply, etc) He also found the door that i had fabricated in 2017 and welded it shut. It was not the first door he welded but this time it was some kind of a war declaration.
The next year, in 2019, he was constantly coming inside to check.
That's why that year i decided not to do anything new and do like if we weren't coming back. I fabricated another door and we didn't move anything inside for the whole year until the meet time came.
The meet date was moved 1 month earlier than usual to mislead him but as a result, not as many people could attend.
The few things we did were to paint the big exposition room with the original colors and fabricate a new backlit sign, made from the original plant blueprint.
Freaktograhy had his own exposition room on the second floor to showcase his work.
102 guests came that year and everything went as plan, we had won the war against the owner once again!
UM 2020
This is the UM covid edition. We had to take special measures, disinfectant and masks were mandatory. Even with the pandemic, we managed to be 124 guests. Luckily the restrictions back then were not so bad yet.
There is nothing that comes close to what we did that year, even if i have said that numerous times before!
We basically built a restaurant/oven made out of one of the original 1905 cast iron kiln frame and doors that were used on the kiln to dry the grains.
We duplicated one of the original kiln with a mix of conventional and refractory bricks. That alone took almost 6 months to do, around 2000 bricks and 65 60 pounds mortar bag that we had to haul up to the third floor. A workstation out of bricks and tiles was also built as part of the oven. Grills were added to cook the food inside.
A countertop was made out of 3"x12" century-old pieces of wood and refinished with clear epoxy.
Another beautiful backlit sign was made depicting the old kiln door.
Other repairs and improvements were done like fixing a huge hole in the reception room and in the staircase.
This was truly one of the best year ever, the food made by my friend and cook was incredible.
Here is a video montage of it that no pictures can describe. (please do not share)
Ugh, really bummed I couldn't mske it out again this year. I've been to 3 of these events and they're always such a memorable time. It gets better and better every year - I'm realllly hoping I can make it out in 2022! Keep up the amazing work guys!
Posted by terapr0 Ugh, really bummed I couldn't mske it out again this year. I've been to 3 of these events and they're always such a memorable time. It gets better and better every year - I'm realllly hoping I can make it out in 2022! Keep up the amazing work guys!
I'm with you, I missed the last two. Let's plan now to go together next year!
Ethics
