Friday morning the city of Toronto passed a motion to ban Electronic Music shows at Exhibition Place, more commonly known as The Ex, which is considered public land owned by the city of Toronto. The Ex has hosted events featuring superstar acts such as David Guetta, Avicii, and Tiesto, so this is no small nightclub by any standards. The reasoning behind the new law was just as you’d expect, to help keep people from getting hurt or dying at raves. While we can’t argue with a city doing something to prevent people from dying, there is something a little more unsettling at play.
The law was originally proposed by Zlatko Starkovski, owner of Muzik Nightclub; A club that specializes in EDM shows, and just so happens to be RIGHT NEXT DOOR to Exhibition Place. Basically Mr. Starkovski saw that his business was getting hurt by all these raves at The Ex, and decided that he suddenly cared about public safety. By our count, more people have died at Muzik Nightclub events that at shows at The Ex.
So is Toronto really looking out for their raver citizens, or is this just business as usual?
You can read the full letter HERE