Rumours of mega-club Circa‘s impending demise have been swirling this week, and the club itself has now confirmed that it’s been in bankruptcy court and has sent out letters to its many creditors.
Combined with the suspension of their liquor license and the ongoing economic downturn, this pretty much guarantees that the labyrinth of a venue will close its doors for good in the New Year. However, the reaction from the dance music community and insiders in the club world can be summed up with a collective shrug.
It was pretty easy to see this coming, following the departure of charismatic founder Peter Gatien last spring, and the subsequent termination of their flagship Friday night hipster dance party Randomland this summer. However, we don’t think the entire blame for the collapse should be placed on the failure to follow through on Gatien’s original vision, as there were serious flaws in the first place.
As we pointed out in our profile of the ambitious venture back in 2007, it always seemed like a long-shot bet that Gatien would be able to recreate the eclectic fusion of mainstream and underground that he made is name on back when he ruled the NYC club scene. It was apparent from the beginning that he’d miscalculated the dynamics of Toronto nightlife if he thought he could bring cool back to the club district.
Yes, once upon a time, the area now known as the entertainment district had underground cred. There were a few cool clubs in the area, but mainly there were tons of unused warehouse spaces, which eventually became ground zero for the early days of rave. As that scene exploded and the average age of the partiers broke the 19-plus barrier, the scene moved into clubs, and the area exploded with new venues.
Unfortunately, like party districts in other major cities, it quickly became a destination for suburbanites and tourists, and filled up with the interchangeable collection of top 40 bars that cater to them. Promoters would occasionally try to bring cool DJs into clubs in the area, but all too often the hip crowds would balk at the idea entering into what was increasingly seen as a warzone/playground for frat boys and meatheads.
Independently of these trends, throughout the rest of the world mega-clubs were closing their doors. Giant UK venues like Ministry of Sound represented a certain post-rave period, but fashions change, and increasingly clubbers were looking for something a bit more exclusive. The truth is, no matter how well you run a giant venue, the average patron ends up feeling a bit like cattle, which doesn’t make for a great night out.
Here in Toronto, the Guvernment was still flourishing, but it was (and is) increasingly an anomaly in the global scene.
It was in this environment that Peter Gatien tried to launch Circa, hoping to bring the gays, artsy types, and club kids back to the area they’d been chased out of. Before even opening its doors, Circa was almost derailed by the condo owners who’d bought lofts seemingly unaware that tens of thousands of partiers descend on the area every weekend.
Never mind that there were much fewer clubs in the area than at the peak, or that Circa’s address had been a club previously – property owners have political clout, and there were politicians eager to please them by doing everything they could to block Circa from opening.
When they finally did manage to launch, things initially looked pretty good. There was a heavy gay presence, but it was also a genuinely mixed environment. The young hipsters were coming out to party on the Friday nights, and the older generation of clubbers was packing it on Saturdays. Even the Queen West art scene was willing to brave the entertainment district, and Gatien was often seen overlooking the line up outside making sure that the ratio of cool kids to weekend warriors was at an appropriate level.
Those glory days were unfortunately (but predictably) short-lived. Queer partiers soon learned that even if Circa could provide a safe environment for them, they still stood a good chance of being gay bashed once they left the club.
Even within the club, the large number of random curiosity seekers ensured that a good portion of them were unreceptive to the idea of partying in the same room with drag queens. Bouncers found themselves in the awkward position of negotiating disputes between homophobic meatheads who’d spent hundreds on bottle service and glitter-covered club kids employed by the promoters.
This increasingly tense interplay between the target markets was compounded by the unwieldy layout of the former video game arcade. If it wasn’t that busy, it looked deserted, and when it was busy, it became impossible to navigate.
Often you felt like you spent more time trapped in a crush of people in the many hallways and staircases than you did on the actual dance floor.
This isn’t to say that Gatien was completely misguided. The market he was chasing did exist, and you quickly saw his competition across town at the Guvernment starting to book the same kinds of nu-rave DJs in an effort to woo the hipsters. As you can see from the declining fortunes of Circa post-Gatien, you really can’t fill venues this size with middle-of-the-road top 40.
For a moment it seemed like this was the natural progression of electro from basement dive bars to shiny big rooms.
Well, it turns out that’s not what many were looking for. Instead, the kids in day glo that initially flocked to Circa were soon mocking it, and sticking to smaller venues that allowed them to maintain their idea that this was something exclusive and special.
Gatien intended to raise the bar for nightlife in Toronto, and in a sideways kind of way, he did. Bars like Wrongbar, the Garrison, the Social and even the Drake are successful because they can offer some of what was good about Circa, but without most of the bullshit. Circa proved there was a market of hipster clubbers looking to party, but it also proved that they don’t want to do it in a club the size of a mall, or alongside the types of people that actually like shopping malls.
