I was lucky enough to be able to attend the last Hullabaloo party in Toronto and wanted to review it on here so that if anyone else is over in the states they will know to check it out. We were staying a four-hour drive away from Toronto in New York. This is nothing to the North American ravers, some of who will regularly travel for three days to get to these parties! We arrived to find a smallish venue; it was packed out with about 1000 ravers. There was a stage area, which was low at about 2 feet off the floor. There was also a balcony at the back of the arena that served as the drinking area and ID had to be shown to get up here. When we arrived DJ Frisky was about halfway through his set. We didn’t catch much of this as I was checking out the venue and trying to find toilets and cloakroom. The last 10 minutes we were up on the balcony and had an amazing view of the crowd going mad for his up beat hardcore. Lots of remixed cheesy stuff. It’s not very often that three of my favourite classics are played in my first half hour of an event! Next up was DJ Chiclet playing hardhouse. The crowd thinned a bit for her set, but there was still a packed dancefloor by our standards! I now understand why the American ravers dance with their arms very close to their bodies; there simply isn’t the space to do different! By about halfway though this set I was starting to notice the differences in the crowd too. These people don’t do the wasted gurning we are so used to. After asking why this might be I was told that over in Canada there isn’t much MDMA type chemicals. All the drugs are Crystal Meth based so everyone is hyper all night. Also at around £10 per pill you can’t do the 6 or 7 a night we manage to take! What was most surprising was how fluffy everyone still was. I spent the whole night being wished “Happy Hulla” and given hugs and ‘candy’ bracelets. At 1am it was time for Kevin Energys set. We had pushed our way to the front for this to try and get some good pictures, have a look in the gallery. After the first few tunes it became clear that I was never going to be able to dance. I looked behind me to check for some space and realised the whole arena was jammed solid. My lovely friends realised that this was spoiling my enjoyment and arranged for me to go up on stage to dance. Thanks guys!!! Their dancers are very different to ours; they all wore costumes and held signs with things like “choon” and “wicked” on. These were passed to me so I could join in looking crazy! Kev’s set was fantastic, the crowd loved it and there were chants for him to strip off his T-shirt as he finished!?! Chatting to him straight afterward I think he was pleased with how it went. The North American rave scene is much more about happy hardcore so their reaction was great. Nice one Kev! Straight after was Hulla’s creator Anabolic Frolic. This guy was wicked, playing lots of cheesy happy hardcore and doing random stuff like chucking teddies into the crowd. (This appeared to be a part of every event with people waiting for it!) Everyone went mad for him, he really is their hero putting on these events and providing a place where they can be ravers, or candy kiddies. Most of these people have never told their friends or family that they are into the scene because of the bad press it has out there. Next up was a guy called D-Minus, another Happy Hardcore DJ. This guy has been on the scene for years, but I have to say the mixing was like that of a novice. The tunes were wicked, lots of classics mixed in with our favourite raver baby anthems, but the levels were way too high and the clangs could be heard for miles. This was the lowest point of a fantastic night for me. The next set was AC Slater, more anthems and bouncy hardcore. Think there’s a few pictures knocking about of Peter stomping away to this guy!! Unfortunately by this point my body clock was telling me it was lunchtime on Sunday and it needed some sleep so we left about halfway through this set, that comfy hotel bed was just calling too loud! Shouts go out to Anabolic Frolic for letting us go to his party, and to all the mad Hulla kids who made it such a fantastic experience. Phil, Mikey and Tommy get special hugs for showing us their country and giving us bed space, I love you boys X And last but not least, Peter, for putting up with me on the long flight out there!!! Check out some photos here!
