Montgomery Center, VT, USA, North America, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy
About Brohaus Vinterfesten - Who runs this thing?
About Me
Hey, I’m John. If there’s music playing, you might know me as JC Simon.
I grew up in Ohio and have lived in Canada since 2007, but Vermont got its hooks into me first. I came to Jay Peak on a ski club trip in 2003 and kept finding reasons to come back. For years, I brought friends to Montgomery for New Year’s weekends at Grampa Grunt’s.
Then, in 2015, a wonderfully unlikely chain of gay connections—a Montreal strip bar, our mutual Ottawa friend Stéphane Laviolette, and a few well-timed introductions—led me to Brodown Hodown. I found the kind of weekend I love most: good music, old friends, new friends, and people from both sides of the border coming together in one small Vermont town.
I bought a house on River Street in December 2018. Since then, I’ve loved welcoming people to this little slice of Vermont and helping keep the Brodown spirit going. My goal is simple: bring fun people together and make each year a weekend worth coming back for. I don’t keep a dime from running the party. Every dollar collected goes back into making the next one bigger and better.
This takes far more than one person. Volunteers make it happen, and we always need more hands. If you’d like to help, please reach out.
Music is the other big part of my life. I’ve been a DJ since I was 14, playing everything from mobile gigs and clubs to Pride events, circuit parties, festivals, and FM and satellite radio. Back home in Ottawa, I also run HOTT STUFF, a quarterly 2SLGBTQ+ dance party.
If you’d told me on that first ski trip in 2003 that I’d someday be inviting you to an underground gay party weekend in Vermont… well, I probably would have asked what time the music starts.
#PLUR
#JCSimonARCADIA