Promoter Profile: The Business, Toronto

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Staff: Chilton Gaines, Hydee, StickBubbly, Everest, Emcee Zee

Launch Date: October 10, 2003
# of Events & Events/year: 381 total over 7 years including weeklies and special events
Average Venue Capacity: 350 - 800
Average demographics: All-ages or 19+
Previous Headliners: Benny Page, Evol Intent, Ewun, Micky Finn, Danny Byrd, Modified Motion, Original Sin, SUV, Capital J, Marcus Visionary, Mark Instinct, NC-17, Mystical Influence, Spinz, Daddy Ruckus
Sponsors/Affiliate Companies: Solid Apparel, Hektic Kru

Got a mission statement?
The Business strives to provide high quality electronic music events at luxury venues with decadent ambience, intelligent lighting and crisp sound. We try to bring as many international headliners through Toronto and surrounding areas while also providing locals time to showcase their skills.

For the last two years our season of events has focused more on the spring and summer months, beginning in April and ending in November. One of our home venues is an outdoor patio called Arnolds and we try to use the good weather to judge the frequency of outdoor events each summer. Our goal is to give our patrons an enjoyable experience at our events.

What five things are the most important to you in setting up an event, and why?
#1: Venue - we try to keep the quality of the venues we use very high.
#2: Sound - loud, crisp sound is our standard and we always have a sound technician present to watch over the levels as the night unfolds.
#3: Talent - the DJs we host on our line-ups are always at the top of their game and we maintain a high standard of talent performing at our events.
#4: Lead time for promoting - there has to be a minimum of eight weeks lead time to properly promote and book our events.
#5: Lighting - motion lights, strobes and lasers always help our patrons enjoy our events.

What future plans do you have?
We're planning several events in Toronto and the surrounding area. We'll be hosting our annual patio sessions at Arnolds every few weeks throughout the summer as well, with local line-ups and the odd UK headliner.

On June 11th we are hosting an event with Original Sin & Modified Motion at Arnolds called "Digital Playaz", which will stand as the highest caliber event in Oakville's current history, featuring two UK headliners opposed to the usual one.

On August 28th we have a dubstep event featuring Flux Pavilion, on September 17th/18th we are hosting Crissy Cris in Toronto playing dubstep and in Oakville the next night playing DnB, and October 22nd is our seven year anniversary featuring Utah Jazz & Micky Finn.

We've found a new home in Toronto called Revival (783 College St.) and plan to use it for as many events as we can manage.

How much time goes into the planning & promotion of your average event?
For events with international headliners, ideally, three months lead-time is required. We focus on choosing our venue first, then move onto artist availability, then begin flyer design, print and promotions shortly after.
For local events we have been known to put together parties in as short as two weeks. A short lead-time makes for more stress and less time to promote, but it can really pay off.

Other genres? Do your events focus on music other than DnB?
We currently host the odd dubstep event and are planning to throw more mixed genre events that showcase all types of electronic music. Our focus is to expand and begin to affiliate our company with more of a general musical style instead of specializing in only DnB events. When we throw a party with two rooms, our secondary room is dubstep. We will never stop promoting DnB, but with so many new sub-genres emerging, the possibilities are endless.

The funniest/craziest thing to have happened at one of your events?
Our events are pretty tame. Out of 381 events to date we don't have too many crazy stories. Our events go rather smoothly and we try to maintain a positive vibe throughout the night by immersing ourselves as promoters, with our patrons on the dance floor. So if seeing the promoters dance as hard as the patrons is considered crazy, than I guess that's that!

The funniest thing I've had happen was in 2006 having Benny Page playing his first gig in Canada and someone came up asking me "when will you ever host a UK headliner?"

I looked puzzled, pointed at Benny and stated, "I think that guy might be from London, talk to him after his set and see if you can detect an accent."

So after the set, he went up to Benny and spoke a few words, then promptly came back to me and said, "You know what? I think he might be British!"

"No kidding," I say, "that's Benny Page from the UK, I hope you enjoyed yourself tonight."

After stating that Benny was from the UK, the patron was in awe. "Now I know," he says, "why I had such a great time tonight."

International talent always steps our events to the next level!