All week long, the sidewalks of Sainte Catherine in the Village were lined with a twenty-year retrospective of poster-sized photographs of Black and Blue. Organized chronologically, the photographs enabled you to walk the street and see firsthand how Montreal's premier circuit festival has evolved from a one-night AIDS fundraising party in 1991 with 600 attendees - into a forty-event juggernaut attracting as many as 80,000 people throughout its weeklong festival.

Over the course of its twenty-year history, the Black and Blue Festival, produced by the BBCM (Bad Boy Club Montreal) Foundation, has become celebrated for legendary events marked by innovative production, artistic direction, and ground-breaking sound. For years, what you heard in the clubs throughout the year was often debuted at Black and Blue's Main Event.

And, equally important, during its twenty-year history, BBCM has donated more than $1.5 million dollars to LGBT and HIV-service organizations, while generating more than $300 million in tourism revenues.

Throughout the weekend of 10.10.10, Black and Blue's 20th anniversary, the planes, trains, and automobiles kept arriving from New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and beyond, bringing partygoers from all over North America and Europe to a city that has become internationally recognized for its belief in the redemptive qualities of all-night parties. As Caroline Rousse, the Director of External Relations for BBCM said, "We're throwing ourselves a twentieth birthday party - for all of us."

And on Sunday night, at the Palais des Congres, thousands of revelers poured into the vast hall for Main Event to find a gargantuan birthday party dedicated to the celebration of diversity and the freedom to dance and love. With two massive rooms bisected by an immense chill lounge complete with sofas, banquettes, and benches, the Palais des Congres was an all-night playground.

To the left was the Trance Room, helmed by Omar El Gamal, tyDI, Marco V, Gareth Emery, Aly & Fila, Simon Patterson and Carl Muren, with a leviathan lighting rig/chandelier by lighting wizard, Francois Roupinian of Lightemotion, and iconographic, wall-sized scrims in black-and-white by celebrated Montreal artist Zilon. The room was packed with kids of all ages, forming a splendid tableau vivant of various shades of black and blue, comprised of every material from rubber, lace, latex, tulle, and lycra.

Meanwhile, across the hall, in the House Room, Rosabel (aka Abel Aguilera and Ralphi Rosario) were the openers. These two legends of house music were laying down a deep, chunky house groove that mixed Chicago, New York, Miami, and Montreal into one ferocious and hypnotic, mesmerizing beat. Even before midnight, the floor was packed - and Rosabel kept the bedazzled and bedizened glamazons pumping to a set that included "Lemme See You Shake," "Music Sets You Free," "Move It On, Push It On," and "Get Your Hands (Off My Man)." And by the time Rosabel moved into a mash-up of "You're Free (To Do What You Want To Do)" and "Rise Up," it was clear that the lyrics were an admonition to us all: to celebrate and accrue our freedoms.

During a month that has seen all of us in the LGBT community, friends and family, reeling from the heartbreaking news about young LGBT suicides and deaths from around the continent, the subliminal message of the 20th-anniversary of Black and Blue was about the camaraderie that is available to us - and necessary to us for our survival.

Performing with the BBCM dancers, Jessy Gauthier worked his recent hit "Sex" into an empowering production number that was a call to arms to "believe in yourself" and "treat me right" - with a verbal coda to the performance projected on colossal video screens: "IF YOU FEEL A FREAK, YOU'RE NOT ALONE. IF YOU FEEL ALONE IN THIS WORLD, I'M HERE FOR YOU." A reminder to all of us that we are there for each other. That's the point: plain and simple. Reach out - and be there.

One of the joys of Black and Blue's Main Event is the heterogeneity of the cosmopolitan crowd. In years past, some parties have been marked by a bifurcated dance floor, making it clear where the line was between the straights and the gays - and yet in recent years, that line has become ever more amorphous, almost completely disappearing at this year's Main Event so that the thousands of party people on the dance floor became a glorious crazy quilt of resplendent color.

And when Chus & Ceballos took over the tables, working a set that was both complex and elemental, as well as cerebral, the union was complete: between mind, body, and soul - and every dancer on the floor. This was the fourth Main Event appearance for the dynamic duo known for their Iberican sound - and their set was a glorious paean to the joys of letting it loose and working it out on the floor with thousands of like-minded individuals.

From there, Paulette took over with a killer set that included this year's ubiquitous and beloved anthem "Hey, Hey (I Heard You Say)," resulting in delirious cheers, fist-pumping, and jumping, as well as Xtina's "Not Myself Tonight," "I Want You (And I Want It Now)," and "I Got Nothing (But Love 4 U)."

One highlight of the night was the triumphant return of Montreal's favorite, Mark Anthony, for an unprecedented fifteenth appearance at Main Event. Anthony opened his booty-shaking set with a riff including the words "Is that marijuana I smell? Do I smell marijuana in the house?," which was as much a reference to the early morning hour as it was to the general sense of freedom that pervaded the floor.

Often, in sharing news about Black and Blue to those who have yet to attend, it's hard to convey to them how quickly time passes while under the sway of steady and propulsive rhythms. "A fifteen-hour dance marathon?" they repeat - and yet how quickly those hours pass amidst a sea of smiling faces and happy people. For those of us who live primarily in large American cities, the floor at Main Event at Black and Blue is an ocean of civility and acceptance, a vision of a future where people of all backgrounds and color coalesce into one happy mass of humanity. We're not yet there, but we're getting closer - and Black and Blue is an annual reminder of what the future can hold for all of us.