How Sunday Afternoon Social Became One of Toronto’s Most Unique Parties

"My City" is THUMP Canada's year-end series where we get tastemakers in five different cities—Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver—to reflect on their 2015 and tell us about the one party, artist, event, etc., that they feel defined their regional scene. Today, freelance music journalist and host of "The CHOBO Show", Benjamin Boles looks at how Toronto's Sunday Afternoon Social parties became the hottest ticket in town.

One of the side effects of the massive wave of condo developments and gentrification that Toronto has experienced over the past decade is that there just aren't many big empty warehouse spaces left downtown that are suitable for all-night parties. Even if you can find a room that's big enough, good luck locating a spot without nearby neighbours who won't call the cops about the sound of bass pounding through the walls.

Three years ago, a group of Toronto underground dance music veterans came together for a series of winter events that tackled that issue with a simple solution: throw parties in the daytime instead. The Sunday Afternoon Social series was an immediate success, and has now become something of a local institution.

Starting at 1 PM, the daylight hours of the party tend to be relatively chill, but as the winter sun sets, the dancefloors fill up. One room usually features techno and house sounds, while the other offers more downtempo and dub-inspired grooves. There's a delightfully confusing maze of hallways and smaller rooms connecting the two old-school loft spaces. Unlike many Toronto events, the party often sells out of advance tickets, even when it's all locals on the bill. For most devotees of the Sunday Afternoon Social, the overall experience is much more of the draw than superstar DJs.

The series is the brainchild of the Box Of Kittens crew and Justin Martins, and connects multiple generations of partiers. It's one of the few events where it's not strange to see 19-year-olds dancing next to grey-haired partiers. B.O.K. started throwing events in Toronto in 2007, and now also host regular events in Berlin, but their roots in the scene go back to the 90s Toronto rave era. Justin Martins is also a true veteran of the warehouse scene, and was a big part of the original rave explosion. These days he supplies sound systems for other people's events through his alienInFlux company, and puts most of his promoter energy into the long-running annual Harvest Festival.

The concept for these daytime parties was partly inspired by the NYC loft scene and Berlin's 24/7 dancefloor culture, but also has some similarities in vibe to Toronto's long running Promise Cherry Beach events. While the 90s boasted regular illegal all-night beach parties, the Promise crew took that tradition and turned it into something more legit and tolerated by the city by shifting the action to the daylight hours. They also managed to tap into multiple scenes and generations: creating a space where the many nightlife subcultures of Toronto could converge.

Some might argue that these daytime parties aren't that different a concept from mainstream EDM festivals, or the trend of upscale pool club parties, but you only need to spend a few minutes at a Sunday Afternoon Social to realize it's a completely different world. Toronto has more than enough spots for bottle service bros to rage, which makes spaces like this vitally important for the underground.

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