Hey kids,
Here's the transcripts of my interview w/Richie at DEMF last weekend. It's totally perfect for P3, so Alex is going to run it in TRIBE!
Enjoy!
peas,
Careygirl
Richie Hawtin, Sun May 28, DEMF
-You could start out by telling me what happened with your party in Windsor a couple months ago.
RH: basically, our party was just like a lot of the other parties lately, it was shut down without even having a chance to really talk to anyone or anything. We were setting up on a Wednesday or a Thursday and the officials came down and there were one or two permits that we hadn't received, and Friday morning we tried to find the right people for the right permits and it was just like, closed doors. No one was helping us or anything. it was just unfortunate. There was no warning It was like we did something wrong, or "you need this or that" it was just basically like, "this ain't gonna happen. Forget it." We have no problem doing legalized parties. We want to do parties which are safe and I think there's a lot of people, in Toronto, in Windsor, all over Canada, who want to do parties in safe, legal venues. But the thing that's being held against us seems to be that we want to go out after hours. Not everybody wants to go to bed at 10 o clock, 11 o clock at night. People want to go out and dance till 5 or 6 in the morning and that shouldn't be held against any of us.
-I heard that the cops were following you around all day that day.
RH: Yeah, it was really really crazy because as soon as they said no party, then they put tails on us, the cops were outside the house, they went by my mom and dad's house. It was just ridiculous. Really just blowing things out of proportion and unfortunately what they're doing is, this is the time when everyone is, the promoters and everyone is like, look, just tell us what you want us to do! Tell us what forms we need and what permits we need and we'll do it. If it takes us a little bit more money or a little bit more time to organize, fine. But it just seems like they wanna try and stamp it out, and the only thing they're going to do is drive it back underground, in a bad way, I think, though. There's so many people that like this music now that we need bigger venues and because there's more people, there's more safety concerns.
Everything that they're afraid of, what they think they're afraid of, with people overheating or taking too many drugs or being in the wrong place, unsafe environments, everything they're trying to solve and fix is going to become worse, you know what I mean? I can't believe that they don't see what they're doing. I don't even think they care anymore. They just want to stamp it out and move onto the next thing. And as soon as anyone tries to stamp something out or hold something down, it's only gonna get bigger and stronger eventually.
-So what do you think should be done instead?
RH: I think the [TDSC], that's like the first project of that kind that I've ever really heard of, and from what I've read, there was a lot of positive things that happened with that. There was a real communication open between the promoters and the city, that's what needs to happen. There needs to be some type of regulation, but there needs to be some type of understanding that this can't fit into the typical club environment, it can't fit into any type of regulations that they already have. Special ones need to be made. And right now that's not happening. Some type of committee needs to be set up, but maybe something that is a bit wider than just Toronto. Maybe it could be based it TO but maybe bringing people from all the provinces, that are representative of the major areas. Luckily, I know there's some Toronto officials down here this weekend, checking this out so hopefully it's going to enlighten them a little bit.
-I think To has a lot to learn from DEMF.
RH: Oh, for sure! All the people who are like, going against it really think that, they only see the negative side. They think it's just kids going out and taking drugs, going out late at night, and DEMF proves...look around! There's kids, people of all different ages, all different colors, families, kids are having a great time. There was thousands of people here last night. One of the city officials said there was more people here on that dance floor last night than there's ever been any other time in history. More than the country music hoedown and all that! And of course, when you have that many people down here, there's usually fights and too much alcohol and everything, but I didn't see anything last night. People were just having a good time.
-And lots of people were sober, too.
RH: Yeah, and when it was finished, everybody just went home and it was cool. Kids just want to have fun, man.
Here's the transcripts of my interview w/Richie at DEMF last weekend. It's totally perfect for P3, so Alex is going to run it in TRIBE!
Enjoy!
peas,
Careygirl
Richie Hawtin, Sun May 28, DEMF
-You could start out by telling me what happened with your party in Windsor a couple months ago.
RH: basically, our party was just like a lot of the other parties lately, it was shut down without even having a chance to really talk to anyone or anything. We were setting up on a Wednesday or a Thursday and the officials came down and there were one or two permits that we hadn't received, and Friday morning we tried to find the right people for the right permits and it was just like, closed doors. No one was helping us or anything. it was just unfortunate. There was no warning It was like we did something wrong, or "you need this or that" it was just basically like, "this ain't gonna happen. Forget it." We have no problem doing legalized parties. We want to do parties which are safe and I think there's a lot of people, in Toronto, in Windsor, all over Canada, who want to do parties in safe, legal venues. But the thing that's being held against us seems to be that we want to go out after hours. Not everybody wants to go to bed at 10 o clock, 11 o clock at night. People want to go out and dance till 5 or 6 in the morning and that shouldn't be held against any of us.
-I heard that the cops were following you around all day that day.
RH: Yeah, it was really really crazy because as soon as they said no party, then they put tails on us, the cops were outside the house, they went by my mom and dad's house. It was just ridiculous. Really just blowing things out of proportion and unfortunately what they're doing is, this is the time when everyone is, the promoters and everyone is like, look, just tell us what you want us to do! Tell us what forms we need and what permits we need and we'll do it. If it takes us a little bit more money or a little bit more time to organize, fine. But it just seems like they wanna try and stamp it out, and the only thing they're going to do is drive it back underground, in a bad way, I think, though. There's so many people that like this music now that we need bigger venues and because there's more people, there's more safety concerns.
Everything that they're afraid of, what they think they're afraid of, with people overheating or taking too many drugs or being in the wrong place, unsafe environments, everything they're trying to solve and fix is going to become worse, you know what I mean? I can't believe that they don't see what they're doing. I don't even think they care anymore. They just want to stamp it out and move onto the next thing. And as soon as anyone tries to stamp something out or hold something down, it's only gonna get bigger and stronger eventually.
-So what do you think should be done instead?
RH: I think the [TDSC], that's like the first project of that kind that I've ever really heard of, and from what I've read, there was a lot of positive things that happened with that. There was a real communication open between the promoters and the city, that's what needs to happen. There needs to be some type of regulation, but there needs to be some type of understanding that this can't fit into the typical club environment, it can't fit into any type of regulations that they already have. Special ones need to be made. And right now that's not happening. Some type of committee needs to be set up, but maybe something that is a bit wider than just Toronto. Maybe it could be based it TO but maybe bringing people from all the provinces, that are representative of the major areas. Luckily, I know there's some Toronto officials down here this weekend, checking this out so hopefully it's going to enlighten them a little bit.
-I think To has a lot to learn from DEMF.
RH: Oh, for sure! All the people who are like, going against it really think that, they only see the negative side. They think it's just kids going out and taking drugs, going out late at night, and DEMF proves...look around! There's kids, people of all different ages, all different colors, families, kids are having a great time. There was thousands of people here last night. One of the city officials said there was more people here on that dance floor last night than there's ever been any other time in history. More than the country music hoedown and all that! And of course, when you have that many people down here, there's usually fights and too much alcohol and everything, but I didn't see anything last night. People were just having a good time.
-And lots of people were sober, too.
RH: Yeah, and when it was finished, everybody just went home and it was cool. Kids just want to have fun, man.