Ravers by Speaker Stack 1999

Big white shirts untucked. Ties. Sporty looks. Made for dancing.

Liquid Ecstacy Booth 1996

The Canadian rave community had it its own specialized brands and vendors. DJ Koala’s Liquid Ecstacy booth kept ravers jacked with sugary treats and smartdrinks in the early days of rave scene. Illuminated by my flash strobe, this entire booth was in darkness except for the fluorescent signs which were lit with black lights.

Devan at Dawn, Downsview Airbase 1999

While the rest of the rave was still going full tilt in the hangers at the Downsview Airbase, a few hundred of us went outside to dance and welcome the break of dawn. This is Devan, just before sunrise. Isn’t she beautiful?

TRIP Booth, Better Days Rave, 1996.

How proud Kim Stanford looks behind the counter of the TRIP booth at a Better Days rave in 1996! A registered nurse, Kim set up The Toronto Raver Info Project with crews of volunteers to bring public health information into raves. TRIP provided earplugs, condoms, safe sex information as well as responsible use info to ravers in person and at the party.  It was always good to see the TRIP crew at events.

At first. promoters were reluctant to have TRIP inside their events, because they felt it might give the impression their events were unsafe. I lobbied them hard, telling them how important it was to have TRIP at events because it actually demonstrated safety, and besides, it was great resource for the community. We gave TRIP a 1/4 page free ad in TRIBE each month so they could connect to the community and to the promoters directly. Soon enough, TRIP booths began appearing at more raves in Toronto.  Nightclub owners in the city, on the other hand, were less welcoming.

Tribe Magazine Readers, 1998

Tribe was mostly distributed at street fashion retailers and record stores across Canada, but we  loved distributing copies directly to ravers at raves. Granted, there was hardly enough light at the events to read the mag – but ravers always found a way. We purposely used fonts that could be seen easier in low light. Read by glowstick, lighter, or in the guaranteed light of the washroom, Tribe provided the news and a welcome break from dancing. Besides, your picture might be in it! Or at worst you could sit on it to protect the phat pants from the rave goo on the floor.

Halcyon Booth, 1998

Vendor booths at raves in the 1990’s were the best. Can’t you feel the warmth? Totally non-corporate. Made with love.  Homemade rave fashions, arts, crafts. A place to hang after dancing for hours.  A place to rest my cameras for a few minutes when the shoulders began to sag. A place to experience Canada’s rave community firsthand.

Phat Pants, Toronto, 1998

These are phat pants. Phat pants became fashionable as raves grew more popular in North America. Gender neutral and worn low on the waist, they widened out from there.  Some, like the phat pants on this raver, were super wide. Ravers insisted phat pants made dancing easier, and they also added a visual element to liquid dancing as they floated around a dancer’s legs. Some ravers duct-taped the bottoms to protect them from the ‘rave goo’ that accumulated on dance floors at parties.

JMK at the Phoenix, Toronto, 1996

JMK (Jeremy, Mike and Kenny) were a house music DJ crew in Toronto. Here they are guesting at Scott Cairn’s house night at the Phoenix Concert Theater in 1996.
There were seriously talented house music DJ crews playing in Toronto in the mid 90’s: Dino & Terry; Peter, Tyrone and Shams; JMK; Mark & Aki. Each crew was world class, and each attracted their own fans. It’s hard enough to be a solitary DJ, but working as a team playing live vinyl sets is another skill set entirely. JMK’s  energy and experimentation brought new levels of deepness to Canada’s house music scene and attracted many new fans to the genre. Kenny Glasgow (later of Art Department) still DJs today and is a highly skilled music producer.

Don Berns aka Dr, Trance, Rites of Spring, Toronto, 1996.

I miss Don. He passed away a few years ago now and it was a great loss to Canada’s electronic music community. Here he is as Dr. Trance in the thick of his prime time set at his own event – no better place for any DJ to be, really. It was an epic, uplifting set and you know he just killed it.