Night Clubs in Mississauga, Ontario

You might not realize it, but there was once a time when Mississauga had a budding nightlife scene. The below clubs were the trailblazers for the handful of clubs the city has today. Back then, there wasn't much choice of music at nightclubs. There wasn't much house or hip hop and the rave scene hadn't quite taken off yet, so we were forced to listen to dance and top 40 music all night long. But when you remember yourself at one of these places, you realize it was never a bad thing.
You know you're old school insauga when…

50 signs you grew up in Mississauga if you remember.

• you got free popcorn at Fabricland after studying at the library
• Henry gave you your change (Mickey's)
• you got your battle wounds on Devil's hill
• you used to go swimming in the 180's

5 - The Mix - 1987

The Mix was the first rendition of nightclub that existed before Club 108/107. It was all-ages on Friday and Saturday nights and I remember going to this place by bus and playing pool all night because I was too chicken to dance with a girl (I was 12-years-old). In 1987, the biggest dance track was Control by Janet Jackson and the dance floor looked pretty silly as everyone was trying to dance like Janet did in her video.

What you most likely would have danced too:

4 - Astralight - 1986 to 1989

Dixie Arena almost faced a wrecking ball in 1986 before being repurposed as an all-ages nightclub. The club was called Astralight and the residents around Dixie and Dundas opposed it immediately. In its prime, it was one of the biggest no-booze clubs in Canada and attracted many big name DJ's and artists who were active at the time. It snagged Chris Sheppard on Friday nights and even hosted a fateful LL Cool J performance during which a fire broke out. At one point, police shut it down because it failed to secure the required municipal and fire safety approvals to remain operational. That enraged several hundred patrons who were waiting to enter. The LL Cool J night was the last night, as Astralight had been plagued by fires throughout its three year run. The building stood empty until 1996 and was replaced by the Applewood on the Park townhouses.

3 - Superstars - Late 80’s to 1991

Superstars, a mostly all-ages place, was the biggest nightclub at the time in Mississauga. This was where all your friends went every weekend. Sometimes we would get a ride, sometimes we would have to take the bus. Trust me, taking the bus there wasn’t a bad thing. That Dixie bus was filled with all sorts of people also going to Superstars and you would party on the bus before you got there. You would see people from all the Mississauga high schools and even people from the east end and downtown. Most people that remember this place wouldn't even remember seeing the bar because they were under age. This place had a huge dance floor and was the place to be in Mississauga back in the late 80s and early 90s.

What you most likely would have danced too:

2 - Club 108/107 - 1996 to 2004 and 2012

Before your iPod and Napster there was this archaic thing called a radio and you had to listen to it if you wanted to hear new music. The biggest radio stations during this time period were Energy 108 FM and Q107, hence Club 108/107. From what we can remember, Club 108 was on the Friday and Club 107 was on Saturday. Every time you went, it was pretty much guaranteed that you'd see a huge fight break out. For some reason they thought it was a good idea to re-open the club 15 years later and call it Club 108 again. Sadly, it didn't make it. Now it sits as a Sports bar.

1 - Richard's - early 80's to early 90's