“The guests who stayed on were treated like kings,” the friend says. “They were treated to luxury: the best food, the best drink, and a relaxing time in the sun. The weather in Montreal that time of year is usually amazing. Everyone’s in a great mood because the sun is out and summer is in the air. But then again, Guy’s timing is usually impeccable.”
Laliberté’s trademark grand entrance to his party would be in the early hours of the next morning, when he’d appear high atop a platform that was visible to the huge crowd. He’d be shirtless, with the huge tattoo on his back visible to everyone. Within a few seconds he’d start breathing fire out of his mouth, the way he used to when he was a busker in the early ’80s. It was the rallying cry of his old artist self. The crowd would go wild, and a huge cheer would engulf the mansion’s compound.
Before Laliberté performed there would be an array of Cirque du Soleil type performers strutting their stuff, including acrobats, jugglers, clowns, masseuses and fortune tellers. But none could spark the pulse of the crowd with the same intensity and humility as Laliberté. He was a more vivid and charismatic performer than any other.
A well-known business executive in Montreal says attending Guy’s party was one of the highlights of his life. It had taken him three years to get an invitation—finally a friend he had in common with Laliberté arranged it. From the moment he arrived, he was impressed with every detail.
“I’ve travelled all over the world but had never experienced anything like Guy’s party,” he says. “In fact, if it had not ended in the wee hours of the next morning, I could have easily stayed another month. Each direction you turned there was something incredible going on. I occasionally smoke pot, but that night I must have had 12 joints, which were being passed around like candy. I also did several lines of coke. It felt great to be so f–ked up in such an amazing atmosphere. It took me several weeks to recuperate, but I didn’t have a single regret. It was the greatest night of my life.”
Former swimsuit and Playboy model Angie Everhart attended Laliberté’s party the same summer she was shooting the film Wicked Minds in Montreal. Everhart, who is a notorious jet setter and former addict who has dated the likes of Prince Andrew and Sylvester Stallone, says the moment you walked through the front doors at Laliberté’s mansion, you immediately felt like you belonged and were completely transformed.
“I loved it,” Everhart says. “It was beyond crazy; it was complete insanity for hours. Everyone was so beautiful and so free. It was as if they all dumped their personal baggage at the door and let themselves go. And when Guy made his grand entrance spitting fire out of his mouth, it went from being electric to pandemonium. The music was deafening, which is the way I like it, and the energy was high, really high. If there was a straight person in the house they must have freaked out watching everyone else trip. They would have thought they were the one on drugs.”
Many of the guests brought Laliberté gifts, although he didn’t like receiving them and often gave the items away. He got more pleasure out of giving and watching people enjoy his big gift to them—the party.
“I made contacts that I’ll keep for life,” says “Denis,” an informant close to Cirque. “I could never figure out how Guy managed to get so many people from different parts of the world to attend. It completely blew my mind. One afternoon when we were all sitting around drinking and relaxing in the sun, I met a woman who had travelled all the way from Ecuador. She said she met Guy in Las Vegas at a breakfast diner and they became good friends. Guy is probably the only person in the world who could be in a room for less than five minutes and get to know everyone present and remember all their names. He loves people more than anything. It’s one of his greatest qualities.”
Laliberté told friends that his lavish parties were a tribute to them. He wanted people to have a 1960s feeling of freedom but with a modern twist. He had a calm assurance that whatever happened at his parties was right.
“He took a giant risk with all the sex, booze, and drugs,” says “Ted,” a friend of Laliberté’s. “It could have all collapsed in his face so easily. It would have taken just one incident like a drug overdose or a woman saying she was raped and he would have been vilified. Yet the measures he took to avoid anything like this were far from great. Sure, he had lots of security and staff on site, but they couldn’t monitor everything that was going on; it would have been impossible to do so. He put his faith in his friends, and they never disappointed him. I never even saw a fight break out although there were lots of guys who were there with their wives doing wife swapping or having fun with other women. It was a real anything-goes atmosphere. No one seemed to object.”
