North Star Pinball Bar Fundraiser - Ends April 5! | All Pinball

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4

#1 3 years ago

OP

AJK

movingpictures

Pinside member

12y 71,900 1,260

Hi Pinside,

My pinball bar and route has been mainly closed for over a year and in an attempt to survive, we just launched a T-shirt fundraiser campaign, designed by my friend Johnny Crap, that runs until April 5. I am reaching out to all pinball fans who want to support small business and help keep location pinball alive to consider a purchase or donation.

https://fundraiser.northstarpinball.com/

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North Star Machines à Piastres opened in 2015 and openly flouted a bylaw that forbade pinball machines from being operated in places that served alcohol. Pinball was essentially illegal in Montreal, and after 2 years of lobbying we were able to change the laws and build a thriving pinball community. To celebrate, we had a prohibition party where we gave away a pinball machine with special guests Roger and Ellen Sharpe.

North Star is also home to the original Gottlieb factory sign, which now serves as the backdrop of the bar.

We recently expanded our operating business, and just before Covid, launched a project with the Montreal Canadiens NHL team to operate an arcade at their home arena. Here we exposed tens of thousands of people to a stellar lineup of pinball machines, and a short few weeks after, Covid hit and completely destroyed our business.

So here we are over a year later, living in a "Red" zone with a nightly curfew.
We are on day 80-something of a nightly curfew, where we can't leave our homes after 8pm.
We have resisted asking the public for help until now, and are really hoping we can reopen this summer. Unfortunately the vaccine rollout has been excruciatingly slow in Canada, so it's not looking good.
We are hoping this fundraiser will help us stay alive and allow us to continue our goal of sharing pinball with the people.

All prices are in Canadian funds, and if you are outside the US and Canada, please email us for a shipping quote.
We will gladly ship these shirts far and wide.

Thank you in advance for the support and encouragement!!!

If you are interested in some more history of our project, here's a couple links:

https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/pinball-punk-montreal-north-star/
https://thewalrus.ca/ding-ding-ding/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/pinball-north-star-montreal-bylaw-1.4062263

And our recent pivot to renting machines:
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2103065&cache=%2F5-things-to-know-for-monday-september-16-2019-1.4594485

North Star Bar
Gottlieb Factory
Pinball on the Jumbotron
Prohibition Party with Roger!

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#2 3 years ago

RVM

robin

Pinside founder

Alkmaar

21y 192K 7,918 94

Man, I feel sorry to read about this. Montreal is high on my "places to visit" list!

So I would like to bring some extra eyeballs to this fundraiser and hope you will all consider ordering this classy t-shirt. I know I'm ordering one! Thread stickied!

Ya know, there are many other pinball bars and arcades around the world struggling to stay in business and if you are a fan of location pinball (and really, who isn't?) then please also consider supporting your local pinball place. Maybe they are also selling t-shirts or doing something else to make it through this long lockdown.

To be completely transparent: This is all in my own selfish interest! When I return to the States and Canada I want to have cool places to visit and play pinball!