Toronto Star: "Council to hear motion to reverse ban on electronic music events at Exhibition Place"

The Toronto Council will be hearing a motion on May 7th brought forward by Councillor Mike Layton that will ask to "require the board of governors to reverse the policy made in April" to ban EDM events at Exhibition Place. If this motion passes, according to the Toronto Star, it would require the Exhibition Place to "review safety protocols and make any changes necessary". 

Ryan Kruger, the Managing Direction of Election Nation Canada (The organizers behind Digital Dreams and Brrrrr!), had a chance to talk to EDM Canada about this very topic and much more. Here's what he had to say on the issue: 

EDM Canada: In light of the banning of EDM events at Exhibition Place by the Toronto City Council, are you at all worried that one day the Provincial Government might do the same with The Flats @ M.C.A (Ontario Place)?

Ryan Kruger: In short no, I'm not worried about that. But there's a couple of things that I'd like to comment on your statement. One is that it wasn't the Toronto Council that voted on that, it was the Executive Committee of the Exhibition. It's a much smaller entity than Toronto Council. I'm quite confident that Toronto in its quest to become a music city and cultural hub on par musically with some places like Austin will not allow something like this to continue very long. I think when it actually does comes to a full Council debate and vote, which will probably happen sooner than later – I think we'll see this decision is quickly reversed. I think overall it was a decision that was made in haste and was made for the wrong reasons. I think when people take a step back and realize exactly what message their sending and what the message means in the bigger picture, it will be quickly reversed.

The full conversation with Ryan Kruger will be posted tomorrow. If you want to learn more about Digital Dreams, you'll definitely want to give it a read.