{"id":1206,"date":"2012-06-29T23:39:51","date_gmt":"2012-06-30T03:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2025-11-13T16:56:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T21:56:55","slug":"digital-pride-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electronicearth.ca\/syoung\/digital-pride-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"PRIDE DIGITAL DREAMIN IN THE 6IX"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Back in March, almost right after Electronic Nation Canada’s ‘Digital Dreams’ Music Festival was announced, I had a conversation with TK, Arts & Culture Manager at Pride Toronto, about what it could mean for their festival.<\/p>\n

The concern on my end was how Digital Dreams, spanning 2 days (the Saturday & Sunday of Pride Toronto Festival weekend) and selling 23,000 advance tickets for each day, might affect attendance in the Church & Wellesley area \u2013 possibly affecting Pride Toronto’s and their vendors’ bottom line for this year’s festival after they’d just pulled themselves out of the red the prior year from their 2010 30th anniversary celebrations.<\/p>\n

TK expressed to me a different and very positive reaction on how the festivals running at the same time, and presenting very different talent in very different environments (Pride within the downtown streets and Digital Dreams on Echo Beach at Ontario Place) would most likely create better attendance for both festivals and drive the city’s economic benefit even higher.<\/p>\n

I stepped back for a second to take in the thought and consider it closely \u2013 it was true that both festivals are entirely different, targeted at two very different markets of people, and the ones that enjoy both types of festivals would actually make the effort to attend both.<\/p>\n

Now, After the fact \u2013 I was a prime example of that thought. I\u00a0 attended and worked at both festivals myself \u2013 accordingly making room in my schedule to accommodate the decision much like other festival revellers \u2013 effectively spending more time out in the city during my weekend than I would have if I attended only one or the either.<\/p>\n

Starting my festival adventures on Friday evening at a friend’s house for pre-drinks, we ventured over to the Pride Toronto South Stage to take in the last bit of The Cliks’<\/em> performance before Bif Naked<\/em><\/a> was to take the stage as that evening’s headlining act. Nearing the end of their performance time, Lucas Silveira, the FTM transgender lead singer\/guitarist for The Cliks<\/em>, proposed to his girlfriend, Skye Chevolleau, who happily said ‘yes, of course’ in front of a packed stage of onlookers.<\/p>\n

Once all of the ‘awww’, fans screaming congratulations, and some tears had subsided \u2013 one more song was performed by Lucas Silveira and The Cliks <\/em>before Bif Naked<\/em><\/a> started preparing for her performance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What can I say about Bif<\/em><\/a>? She’s ‘.. proud, loud, and out of control!’<\/em> as well as definitely proving she’s ‘.. gonna be ok!’<\/em> after battling and winning her fight with breast cancer and the divorce from her husband.<\/p>\n

After a high energy performance, Bif<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/i>announced another Toronto stop in August during her upcoming acoustic tour – it not only sounds like Bif<\/a>‘s<\/em>\u00a0got her groove back but she’s writing again!<\/p>\n

I called it an early night after that to be well rested for my own SERIAL SEAN DJ Set on the Central Stage the following Saturday evening – which, thank you to everyone who came out to hear me play and to everyone who had a hand in helping me prepare this year \u2013 it meant a lot to once again see familiar faces in the crowd and to perform\/work with Pride Toronto for a solid 9th year!<\/p>\n

After my performance and talking to some people who came out to hear me \u2013 it was time to rush off and drop my DJ gear before running back to Pride’s Wellesley Stage for the tail end of Dirty Disco w\/ DeKo-Ze & Jelo. The Dirty Disco party was moved to the festival’s largest stage this year due it’s overwhelming success and growth in previous years \u2013 but the performers still delivered, and I finally had a chance to meet long term twitter chatter Miss Raquel backstage!<\/p>\n

Finished my Pride responsibilities for the weekend, I decided to stay out late with some friends, and slept in on Sunday for a couple hours before I was to check in on the waterfront for Digital Dreams Music Festival \u2013 I wound up arriving on site around 8pm and managed to tour the festival grounds before settling in at the main Dreams Stage to catch ‘Designer Drugs’, ‘Major Lazer’, ‘Alesso’, and ‘Kaskade’ before the festival shutdown for the night.<\/p>\n

By far, my favorite set was Alesso, I’d never heard him before, either online or live, but I was definitely impressed by his energy, production value, and of course track selection \u2013 choosing a harder edged tech sound that got me moving all the way through his performance.<\/p>\n

It took me a few days to recover from all of the excitement and to get back into the swing of things but Canada Day Weekend was definitely well worth it!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Pride Toronto: Church\/Wellesley Village – Toronto, Canada
\nDigital Dreams Music Festival: Echo Beach, Ontario Place – Toronto, Canada<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photos:
\nThese photos and video stills were taken Q2 during the early summer month of June in 2012.
\n<\/em>Credit:\u00a0Sean Young <\/em>aka\u00a0SERIAL SEAN<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in March, almost right after Electronic Nation Canada’s ‘Digital Dreams’ Music Festival was announced, I had a conversation with TK, Arts & Culture Manager at Pride Toronto, about what it could mean for their festival. The concern on my end was how Digital Dreams, spanning 2 days (the Saturday & Sunday of Pride Toronto Festival weekend) and selling 23,000 … <\/p>\n

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