I-DANCE is a huge free
rave that was thrown in
Toronto to protest the city's
ban on "
electronic music parties". To understand the
spirit of I-DANCE, you first must know a bit about the
underground history of
Toronto.
Toronto has been well known as an
excellent electronic music scene for some time. Our mayor
Mel Lastman, however, began a
campaign against "
rave parties". Eventually, he passed a law stating (approximately):
"No parties with the performance of electronic music past 3 am shal be allowed within the city limits."
The
response was a huge
outcry from the
ravers of
Toronto. After much
protest, it was decided that the true
spirit of
raves (which is
music and
dancing, not
drugs as Mayor Lastman was continually claiming) would be
demonstrated with a large, free
rave thrown in
Nathan Phillips Square, which is directly outside
Toronto City Hall.
Even the drug-using members of the
raver community abstained from
ecstacy and
ketamines for this party, and some of
Toronto's best
DJs were present, including
St. Pete,
Paranoid Jack,
Flipside and
MC Ylook.
Much of the music was specially
composed to
protest the
ban. The two most notable songs were
Ricochet by
D-Region and
Flipside, where a
recording of an interview with
Mel Lastman on the subject of
raves was repeated using a
sampler, emphasizing the quotes "I didn't know what a rave party was" and "I thought we could control them". The other was
Strike Back by
Flipside featuring the vocals of
Ylook, which was a
hip-hop/
jungle track that spoke loudly about the true
principals of
raves:
"Hey yo Mel, you wanna shut raves down? And shoot blacks down? And shoot browns down? I say we vote you down out of the office! Your policies just aint workin for me, I don't smoke crack, THC or ecstacy! Lookin for the easy way out, but that aint the solution! Raggin on parties while my neighbourhoods gettin ruined!"
I-DANCE was
largely successful. The next day, all 53 members of
Toronto City Council voted on whether or not to keep the ban. The vote was 50 to 3 in
favour of
removing the ban. It is a
point of interest that Mayor Lastman was one of the three who voted to keep the ban.
The
organizers and
promoters of I-DANCE now plan to instate it as an
annual affair, however many feel that the
spririt will be lost.