| Title: | The state of the scene |
| Posted On: | 2007-05-08 02:14:24 |
So...anyone heard about parties getting busted?
A few things I think we need to clear up.
1. There's no proof that it's any afterhour's fault. Whatever anyone says they've heard, we don't have any tangible evidence. Even if it is their fault, there's nothing we can do about it.
2. It's NOT the end of the scene. We've seen busts in the past. The more it goes, the harder it is to throw parties. Every city has seen that, and Montreal has been a little bit behind with all of this. How many cities in North America still have warehouse raves? Not a lot.
I'm not going to whine here. Plenty of people are doing that on the message boards. I want to explore the problems and propose solutions.
The first problem we have is that parties are getting busted. They are 3 solutions to this. First one is to make parties 100% legal, with permits. We didn't really need to worry about that for a few years, but we do now. The police will only leave parties alone if they're small enough. After all, a 50 people party can easily pass off as a private loft party. The second option is to throw parties at afterhours. Not everyone likes this option, and it might not be suited to every genre of music, for now. Still, it is a viable option. The third one is to throw parties out of the city limits. The Montreal police can't do anything if the event is outside of their juridiction. That doesn't mean we can get careless about it, but the good old bus trip worked in the past, in even gave a sense of adventure to the party. All 3 of these options will work, if done properly.
It's up to the promoters to do these things, wich brings us to the second problem. Where are the promoters? Many retired. Most upcoming events are all local parties, small parties where less than 100 people will go, and this is on the weekends where something is actually happening. Granted, the scene doesn't need more than 1 quality event per month to stay healthy. Quality events are still hard to find. Most of the veteran promoters have already retired, and a lot of the new ones don't feel like throwing much parties anymore, since they're afraid of getting busted. Only the psytrance scene seems to be doing good (if we exclude the commercial scene). The reason is simple, veteran promoters are still active there, and helping the younger ones. To everyone who wants to throw a party, don't be afraid to do it, and most importantly, to ask for help. Even promoters who retired will be more than happy to give out a few tips. I can help out myself.
What the scene needs right now is to stick together. Quit it with the drama, the bitching, and concentrate on making sure the scene survive. Criticize, but do it in a constructive way. You have to say it when a promoter or dj's attitude doesn't seem right. Keep in mind that you're saying it so this person can improve. Over all, remember that the scene belongs to all of us. Always keep that in mind, and eventually, more and more people will want to go to parties, and will enjoy it as much as we all do.
Listening To: Bleh
