Well, after the humiliating failure of my last attempt, it was pretty clear it was time for me to throw in the towel when it came to promotion. At that point, I was about to move to Victoria, with no clear goals in sight, and I had given up on being a promoter at that point.
My experiences and large network in the scene garnered Blueprint Events out of Vancouver, BC to headhunt me as one of the original members of the street team for the newly minted Blueprint Victoria, as they were bringing their brand to the island. It was the perfect avenue for me to continue promoting with no risk, and still attend amazing shows.
This seemed like a great fit for me, but something was always in the back of my mind. I felt the pull of independence, and as rewarding as it was to not have to be responsible for the outcome in essence, I really missed the feeling of building something myself from start to finish. Not to mention, I didn’t get to go out in a blaze of glory. I went out sadly, under the table.
A couple years had gone by, and finally in January of 2014, after a couple years of prodding and inquisitions from the rave scene, I announced that I would be throwing one last installment of Superfriends. It looked to be the biggest and brightest one yet, with almost 500 people confirmed on the event page within 24 hours of launch. DJs and producers from across Canada were submitting tunes and mixtapes to have considerations for the final chapter.
For the headliners, I decided to bring back an old trusted favourite, DJ Pants from Texas, as well as then-emerging bass music producers Pigeon Hole, and Shambhala Music Festival residents Generic & Dua. Local powerhouse Whipped Cream also made her outdoor debut at the tail end of their set, as she longtime friend Generic brought her up on.
Three stages, stacked to the brim with emerging and established talent, and a guest list of over 1000. This was the party of the year, it seemed. The day came, with all equipment set up and ready to go.
Until the land owner showed up and decided to tell us to leave. At this point, I gave up, I had no idea what to do, I was about to lose it all. But all of a sudden, my sound crew, run by DJ Anger of PK Sound and the entire crew from D-Blok Studios started ripping everything down faster than I’d expected. Within 1 hour of the announcement, we stripped the party, moved, and set up at a location nearby. The party proceeded to go off without one more hitch.
It was truly outstanding to watch. That moment really brought me back to my days as an early raver, and it was thrilling. (I mean, if you stuck around in the morning you may have witnessed an impromptu stand off between a dozen or so ravers and a fleet of horses, but that’s a story for another day.)
After that, I could truly say I was done. It wasn’t a massive commercial success, but in the end, I got my swan song, and I was incredibly grateful for that. Superfriends could officially be put to bed with no bad feelings, and I could rest easy knowing that for 7 years I put on an event so massive that it’s still talked about today.
At that point, I really didn’t know where to turn. I finished my run as a promoter, which was the only job I’d ever known in the rave scene. I knew I wasn’t going to be out of it completely and I knew I didn’t wanna just return to the ranks of general partier, so what was I to do? Well, that next summer, I found out exactly where I fit. Next up, I’ll go over in my last chapter, which brings to today.
Almost done folks, anything you wanna hear from the final chapter before we call it? Let us know in the comments!
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