Sweaty bodies were packed together, swaying and bouncing, as DJ Felix Cartal deftly whisked his hands across the sliders and glowing buttons of his deck. The bassline was thrumming, the rhythm was pulsating and his shaggy mop of hair bobbed above the controls as he prepared to mix in a track he knew would drive the crowd wild: the SkyTrain door chimes.
It was a sample that might not have hit in any other venue, but it did with this specific audience: superfans crammed into a neon-lit SkyTrain car for a surprise Cartal show November 2023. It crushed. “It was a little Easter egg,” says the artist, who grew up in New West and spent many a night riding the rails downtown to gigs.
Though the SkyTrain show brought him a specific flavour of Vancouver notoriety, it wasn’t Cartal’s first pop-up. His album Into Sunsets first inspired him to think beyond the club. “I wanted to play somewhere with a sunset. There wasn’t really more of a thought to it than that,” he says. He set up an impromptu show on Third Beach, DJing right by the ocean. More people showed up than he’d expected, and it ignited a curiosity for more alternative venues—from an abandoned clothing store show with collaborator Lights, to the SkyTrain set. “The reason pop-ups are fun is because everyone is like-minded with their intentions,” he says. “In the club, people might be there for different reasons, like just there for the bottle service, but with a pop-up, everyone is dialled in. It kind of created this ripple effect of trying something new.”
The pop-ups are intended to be positive, not disruptive, of course. Cartal was careful to run the SkyTrain show post-rush hour, but also before it got too late and rowdy. “I didn’t want to be reckless or renegade,” he says. “People want to have fun and do cool things, but there can be a lot of red tape and licences, or venues being shut down.” Everyone was on their best behaviour, and SkyTrain staff was accommodating and helpful, making sure everyone got on and off safely.
Months after the fact, Cartal is still astounded at what he pulled off—but don’t expect to find him partying in a train car the next time you’re waiting at Stadium-Chinatown. “I don’t want to push my luck,” he says. “It was very special and I can’t believe it worked as well as it worked, and we got away with it. I can’t believe we did it, and that’s enough.”