Teens mingle in exclusive nightclub

Drew Rowsome
National Post

Saturday, May 19, 2007

It's Saturday night in the Entertainment District: A gaggle of scantily clad young women bound onto the go-go platform in the middle of a nightclub, only slightly unsteady in sky-high stilettos. Some of the girls, crowned with bunny ears, are as young as 15.

"They just need to show off," says Rick Cowan, the 30ish manager and conceptual creator of Klik, laughing as the competition for the spotlight on the dais grows fiercer.

Welcome to Klik, an alcoholfree club on Richmond Street West where an eager line-up of 15- to 18-year-olds begins at 8 p.m.

All-ages nightclub events are nothing new to Toronto, but Klik has the only open door for youths on a Saturday night. Here, Toronto teens can pre-arrange to have a VIP area with personal security, champagne buckets filled with bottled water and a velvet rope to give them instant cachet.

Mr. Cowan, who has been in the nightclub business for many years, said he has always wanted to create a space for underage partiers.

Growing up in Ottawa, he was a regular at an all-ages club called Astro Light, and remembers "feeling kind of cool. Or at least thinking I was."

Klik, which will accommodate 1,200 with all four floors in operation, gets busier every weekend, relying on youth-based marketing through networking sites myspace.com and Facebook. Standard club admission is $15, but the promoters distribute tickets, with their individual names imprinted on them, which give the ticket holder a $5 reduction. Each ticket that is redeemed puts $1 in the promoter's pocket.

Rachel, 16, Haley and Albert, both 15, are the power triumvirate of promotions at Klik. Though from disparate parts of the city -- Bathurst and Eglinton; North York; and Gerrard Street East respectively -- the trio met at Klik and realized there was money to be made if they teamed up.

Rachel's strategy is simple: she finds someone on Facebook from another school and becomes their friend. The new friend supplies her friends and another pool of potential revelers are added to the list. Between them the three entrepreneurs have thousands of "friends" who are e-mailed about all the parties and special promotions at Klik.

City Councillor Frances Nunziata, who last year called for an evening curfew after a 12-yearold was stabbed in the Entertainment District, said she won't "support any nightclub that caters to teenagers. How do you supervise it?"

Klik is supervised by highly visible security people who are enjoying dealing with youthful exuberance rather than belligerent drunks. Mr. Cowan is aware Klik is under a microscope, so the building has no liquor on the premises or even a liquor licence. Profits come from the admission charge and from a small markup on soft drinks and Red Bull.

Security person Natassja Anto-Keshen and her co-workers check ID and pat down every entrant, and keep out anyone who looks too old.

Pockets are emptied; wallets, purses and pants cuffs are carefully scrutinized. Ms. Anto-Keshen said they usually only find the occasional joint, which is confiscated immediately. More common is for partiers to arrive after having "raided their parents' liquor cabinet - they don't get in."

Ms. Nunziata is not reassured. She finds the safety concerns too "disturbing. Kids manage to bring things in."

Mr. Cowan said he has given many skeptical parents tours before they book the birthday parties or Sweet 16s that help fill the club. The location itself gives many pause.

The Entertainment District after dark can be a dangerous place, but Mr. Cowan points out Klik is on the outer edge of the Entertainment District, has its entrance in the back facing an open parking lot, opens earlier than most clubs and closes at 1:30 a.m., before the other nightclubs finish last call.

However he can't deny that the mean streets are daunting: a party for a group of private school students could not be booked until the parents decided to ferry the troupe door to door by limousine.

By 10 p.m. Klik is full. The dance of the moment, "the grind," has dancers in long snaking lines, crotch to crotch, in what is the closest approximation to sex that can be performed with clothing still worn.

The parking lot outside is ankle-deep with discarded flyers trumpeting luridly coloured come-ons to competing nightclubs.

� National Post 2007

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Last edited by Swamper on Aug-09-2007 at 15:52