A city with a strong clubbing and nightlife presence, Toronto was due for an event like Digital Dreams. Located on the former Ontario Place venue, Digital Dreams was made for those who revel in night life. Armed with some of the top house and techno artist, the team behind Digital Dreams were sure to give Toronto a great party and something to remember.
There are those unwritten rules any seasoned clubber understands. We come. We fuck shit up. We leave. Despite hearing reviews by other attendees of long lines, long waits, ATM machine problems, horrible bathrooms, no shade, and a less than par VIP area, I experienced none of that. My party of eight came to party. So anxious to party, that we took matters into our own hands. What wait you ask? All we did was cut to the front of an unsupervised line at the entrance to avoid waiting. Who comes to a party with no money? Shame on you if you think an ATM machine will house enough money for thousands of people during a long weekend. What do you expect bathrooms and portable toilets to smell like with thousands of people using it? Lastly, the VIP area. A VIP area for events like this are flat out stupid. I'll have my rant later on why I'm beginning to hate VIP areas more and more, but why would you want to be contained in an area while you have all this space to move around freely? In a club, it would make more sense (sometimes), but not at a festival. I'm glad all those people who bought VIP tickets felt like shit. Pretentious fucks. Do you really need the VIP treatment to help you party? Come to the party, and party! Who sits? Was it really hot outside? I didn't notice. I thought it was supposed to be hot in the summer. My only complaint would be the sound quality at the Echo Beach stage. I'm not a sound tech or anything, but it was seriously not loud enough. I was told a speaker blew out, and if true, would've been unfortunate. Although, to have such shit sound quality the first day of the event at Echo Beach, and for it to be apparent, it could have been improved for the following day.
Day One - June 30
As I recall, there were four stages. Two of which I never noticed. We ventured mostly at the Echo Beach stage because that was more our preference in music. We caught the end of the Hed Kandi set, along with Lauren Lane, Craig Pettigrew, Guy Gerber, Dj Boris and Steve Lawler. They played their sets, and although I'm not a fan of the short sets, each artist played their signature style and kept the party goers happy. I must say though, if this were a live audition for each dj to win some new fans over, in my opinion, I'm still a fan of each artist, but Guy Gerber was quite boring for my liking. We lingered around the Dreams stage for a second, and although it was larger, with more visuals and the sound quality was better, the artist line up was not our cup of tea.
Day Two - July 1
Between the two days, day two ranked higher on the fun meter and as well as the artist performing that day. Day two seemed to have more people, with better energy levels. We caught Chus & Ceballos, Nic Fanciulli, Mark Knight, Carlo Lio & Dubfire. They all played great sets. Nic Fanciulli had to be my favorite for the night. Carlo Lio's set seemed destined to destroy the crowd but cut short. That was seriously a complete teaser and it felt like a majority of the crowd hoped he would have played longer. Dubfire started a little slow but ended with a flurry of bomb tracks. The Echo Beach stage ended earlier than the Dreams stage and by default we ended up at the Dreams stage to catch Kaskade. It would be unfair to critique his style since he lost me as a listener after his switch from deep soulful house to airy voice ridden same structured video game gun shooting music. I'll try to keep this positive. Every kid around me looked happy, or really high. Generation gaps were clearly prevalent between styles of music, so we'll leave it at that. The night ended with fireworks, I presume in celebration of Canada Day.
Overall, with it's first attempt of a EDM music festival, Digital Dreams can only get better.
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