NOW magazine had an interesting article this week about the police closing down a regular all-day all-ages “Promise party” that has been held at Cherry Beach for the past five years.
Predictably, accounts of what the party was like diverge. The organizers say it was a harmless, long-standing event that they compare to the “tam-tams” who gather every Sunday on the slopes of Mount Royal in Montreal. The police claim there was open alcohol, drugs, and excessive noise. However, the residents of nearby Toronto island say they never had a problem with the parties, and consider them well-organized. Party organizers argue that any disturbances in the area came from patrons of the Docks club.
The shut-down may be a result of plans to begin the revitalization of the waterfront, including building two playing fields near Cherry Beach. In a painfully ironic statement, the spokesperson for the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation notes that they have been trying to get the raves shut down, and then explains that the playing fields “are a way to bring people down to the port lands and to the lake.” She does not seem to have noticed that the parties were already accomplishing this goal.
The same issue of NOW also has a good contribution to the ongoing discussion about bicycle theft, including the role (or lack thereof) of Toronto’s police.
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There’s a lengthy discussion about the Cherry Beach party bust here.
There is also a weekly Tam-tams in Queen’s Park, though it’s in its early stages and is nothing compared to Montreal’s.
The organizers say it was a harmless, long-standing event that they compare to the “tam-tams†who gather every Sunday on the slopes of Mount Royal in Montreal. The police claim there was open alcohol, drugs, and excessive noise.
The fact that the police said it probably means it’s a complete distortion.
Does anyone want to make a bet as to how long it will be before some cop gets up in front of a table of guns, a la Fantino in 2000, and falsely claim that they were seized at a beach rave?
There are ongoing violations with the night raves on weekends at the Beach. Been there, done that got the tshirt. That whole area is a pit, and while there are some kids going to raves, that’s not a good use of the space, and doesn’t represent broad or regular use of the area.
The city is in desperate need of playing fields, and this is derelict, contaminated land. It may be “conservation” designated, but it’s tailings and highly polluted, just like the rest of the port, so temporary playing fields ahead of remediation is great.
Does anyone on this blog ever support anything? Is anyone ever even consistent? Beyond the whole death to capitalists etc of the left, the lack of coherence or sticking to a point is viciously annoying. Stop being children and start being productive in finding solutions. You are the reason why the city will never get real power, since you can’t behave like adults in politics.
The organizers say it was a harmless, long-standing event that they compare to the “tam-tams†who gather every Sunday on the slopes of Mount Royal in Montreal. The police claim there was open alcohol, drugs, and excessive noise.
There are definitely all three at the Tams on Mont Royal. And it’s located in the centre of that city.
The issue of the beach “rave” aside, the city is planning on clear cutting over 200 unique and important trees in order to build sports fields. These fields will be constructed out of astro-turf (!!!) and will be accompanied by some concrete infrastructure like change rooms and a snack bar. The sole purpose for doing this is to accomodate a FIFA soccer tournament in the summer. These fields will then be completely abandoned leaving a couple of concrete buildings and a whole lot of empty space where there were once beautiful trees. Why is the city allowing this to happen? Because of the almighty dollar that FIFA is sending their way. Promise parties have been about freedom of expression and freedom from commerce. They are an oasis in the city in the summer, and have been a positive thing for young creative Torontonians. Unfortunately there is no money for the city in freedom and the city finds it necessary to shut it down just as they did the year before with the weekly drum circle at Trinity Bellwoods park. The city is driving out it’s young creative types who are leaving on masse to go to Vancouver and Montreal. A city’s culture should be based on grassroots activites and fresh ideas, not corporate sponsored one-time events. The sooner the city realizes this, the more likely it will be to stop the mass exodus of artists, musicians and entrepeneurs.
Mike> I think the Promise parties were a good thing (unfortunate only for their tendency to play the dreadful Trance) but to say that Toronto’s young creative types are leaving for MTL or VAN in some great exodus is not evident in my experience. In fact, i’d say the opposite is true.
And since we’re talking anecdotally, most young creatives i know wouldn’t be caught dead at a drum circle.
I recall there was some trouble at Trinity Bellwoods, being surrounded by a residental neighbourhoods — but i rode through the tuesday night Queens Park circles (as quickly as i could) a bunch of times over the summer and it seemed to be going off without any disturbance. Maybe bellwoods was just the wrong place for it?
Am I the only one that has a huge problem with Toronto spending 500 million for TEMPORARY FIELDS? What will it cost to remove and clean up afterwords or will this be yet another amazing landmark down by the beaches, we have so many…..
We have people staving, living on our streets, Is it any wonder Toronto is broke? And I don’t just mean cash strapped either. This type of blatant stupidly inspires me to stop paying taxes…