Bingo Meets Disco

In Ottawa, Canada, an accomplished team of event organisers is taking the idea a step further.

Meet Jason Pelletier, a 30 year old disc jockey who creates interesting events with business partner Melanie Yugo. The two have a well earned reputation for taking ideas you wouldn't normally associate with each other and mixing them together to create unique club experiences.

In Ottawa the pair are notorious for the success of their Spins and Needles parties – an series of events that merged creating hand crafts with music. After the success of that venture, they were looking for something new.

Pelletier had already decided that whatever the next venture was going to be, it had to have something to do with Disco music. Inspiration struck during a game of bingo in his home town.

And so Disco Bingo was born – the bizarre and quirky marriage of disco dancing with a regular game of bingo. Basically, guests at the venue buy bingo tickets and daub them while they dance – the DJ calls out numbers during his set.

The event has proven to be wildly popular. Pelletier and Yugo draw capacity crowds and regularly sell out the event completely, and crowds flock to get down to the retro sounds and play bingo at the same time.

What is interesting is the demographic that's turning up to the event – it's across the board. You wouldn't expect either extremely dated disco music or live card-based bingo games to be popular with the youth market, but put the two together and suddenly you have a winner on your hands.

Pelletier and Yugo say that their parties are well supported by young student players and dancers. In addition, there's also a fair representation from the young professional set, as well as a good percentage of senior citizens too. It's an unlikely yet healthy mix.

The overwhelming theme of the evenings is to have fun. The prizes aren't ever serious – there's no money to be won here. Instead, players who get the Full House will be taking home mini disco balls, a selection of snacks, or tins of corned beef.