MONTREAL — It’s a lunch break unlike any other.

Two hundred packed, stacked vegetarian lunches are tied with ribbon, and folding tables are lined with a rainbow of Rise Kombucha drinks while the DJ does his thing.

As people come in, they grab the goods and eat standing or sitting in impromptu picnic clusters while moving to the beat.

Some come in collared shirts, but undo a couple of buttons and take off their dress shoes before hitting the floor. Others clearly have rave-y sensibilities. Industry professionals, university students, a couple of children and even a dog are among the varied types who have shown up to this lunch break. And everyone is having fun.

Within 10 minutes, the mixed dance floor is bumping. People are busting moves as if they don’t have to be back behind a desk in an hour.

Welcome to Lunch Beat Montréal, a one-hour party intended to get you out of the office and into the groove. The only rule at this not-for-profit event, though, is that you have to dance.

“What’s exciting about it is that it’s never the same crowd, place or music,” explains Lunch Beat Montréal organizer Jan-Nicolas Vanderveken, who has four of these parties under his belt.

The response so far, he said, has been exceptional.

Apparently, Montrealers really want a place to dance at lunch.

“People are so excited (about this) that it’s almost as if, for their entire adult lives, someone told them they couldn’t dance at noon but now they can,” said Vanderveken. “They really love it.”

Montreal is the 59th city to join the midday dance craze, which originated in Sweden and has swept through Europe and parts of the United States. The Montreal edition, which started in April, has seen its venues vary from the Excentris cinema to an outdoor site at the Fringe Festival, to a studio in McGill’s Schulich School of Music where the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal has been known to record.

“It’s just too easy to grab a sandwich and stay at your desk, or go out and keep talking business. We want people to get back to work with a fresh mind,” said Vanderveken.

“We really believe that after getting out and getting some dancing and exercise in, you’re more creative.”

For participant Josée Plamondon, a 52-year-old social data analyst who has attended every edition of Lunch Beat Montréal to date, this is the kind of thing that changes the very culture of a city.

“We have a lot of people (in Montreal) who could be connected, and this is the way,” she said. “(It’s) like a collision with other universes … a chance to get out of the usual routine, mingle and talk, and to see what people are doing.

“It’s an event that says, ‘Let’s bring people together.’ That’s very simple. And it’s easy for people to share and enjoy it.”

Plamondon explained that she has met people from a variety of disciplines and industries, young and old, anglophone and francophone, since she started attending the lunches, and it’s been refreshing to add new contacts to her network.

“But this isn’t a business lunch,” said Vanderveken. Participants are mostly doing this for the fun of it.