iDance Festival officially over - [spin from why TO is so diff. from Europe & MTL]
Some of you often wonder why the TO scene is so different than MTL and Europe. Why we can't have large electronic music festivals and why the Guvernment is the only place were a major party can take place and why it always has to be so crowded and no one seems to do anything about it.
Wells the answer is that at one point in time, the TO scene was actually headed in a direction that could possibly have fostered the foundation of an evolving Electronic music scene at a much larger scale.
The parties at the Better Living Center on the CNE grounds and the iDance festival were a perfect example. Both featured events with crowds numbering over 15,000 at times and were no doubt the largest scale electronic music parties in TO ever once featuing such DJ's as Sasha, Darren Emerson, Richie Hawtin, Matt Hardwick, Paul Oakenfold, and etc. The largest event at the Guv Complex say. Labour of Love would draw approximately only about 1/3 of the number of people that were once attending these events into a smaller more densely packed area.
So then some might be wondering, okay so what happened? Why don't we have these parties anymore and why is there no iDance event for 2003 like there was for 2000 and 2001?
To find out more click here:
http://www.tribemagazine.com/board/...ce&pagenumber=1
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with the first iDance, we were fighting something very concrete and easy to see. there was a municpal by-law that prohibited raves on city-owned properties and we wanted to abolish the by-law (not only because of the by-law itself, but because it potentially opened the floodgates to other, harsher legislation). iDance 2000 was a success as it resulted in the by-law being overturned by an overwhelming majority vote of 50-3. many toronto news reporters called it one of the biggest city council "flip-flops" of all time.
with the second iDance, it was harder to see what we were fighting unless you really took the time to watch our media interviews and to read our statements leading up to the event. in the year leading up to iDance 2001, the 'powers that be' (i.e. the police and certain city officials) decided that, since they could not legally stop these events from happening (i.e. because they tried and failed), they would stop the events by other means. they tried pricing promoters out of business by requiring absolutely ridiculous numbers of pay-duty police officers. they put improper pressure on venue owners, at times threatening to revoke liquor licences, causing some owners to cancel events (eg. the docks, the liquid adrenaline at the water park, etc.). they showed up at WEMF 2001 with an injunction based entirely on "profile-type" evidence in an attempt to stop the event from happening. they even waited until the very last minute to get the injunction, claiming exigent circumstances, so that the promoters would be unable to properly dispute the injunction. ultimately, they failed to stop WEMF 2001, but certainty not for lack of trying. these are all examples of things that the authorities were doing to stop events. the actions were unconstitutional and a violation of civil rights. they did it because they thought no one would ever notice or care.
THAT is what iDance 2001 was fighting. by drawing the attention of the media, the public and certain *good* politicians to the civil rights violations being committed, we hoped to change policy. if the police knew that their actions would end up in large numbers of harsh newspaper articles, maybe they would think long and hard before doing something improper.
did we succeed? it's hard to say because, like i said, there is no concrete way to measure the success like there was in 2000. but you know what? the police never tried to get an injunction like that again. and i have not heard of a single incident of the police threatening to revoke any venue owner's liquor licence since then.
so you decide.
-Klubmasta Will (iDance co-organizer)
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I believe that one of the only ways that the scene in TO will progress to a higher level and attain the glory that it once had in numbers can only come through the aid of corporate sponsorship mainly through liquor advertising since Goldclub's contract is ending in Oct. and newer federal legislation is forcing tobacco advertising from the scene. The only problem here is that many of these liquor companies might only jump on board if the prospects seem somewhat profitable. (Many have already started wetting their feet like Heineken Music and Smirnoff Experience). The largest liquored sponsored event in TO was I believe Smirnoff Experience @ the Liberty Grande on the CNE grounds.
Whether or not any of this will come to fruition only time will tell ..
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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow
Last edited by dEsidEL on Aug-28-2003 at 02:47
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