When I was a kid living in Calgary, I was a pro trick-or-treater. I would dress up in five different costumes and circulate the neighbourhood. My step-sister and I would head out at dusk in costume number one, walk the neighbourhood, come back home to change into costume number two and repeat our rounds, only this time we paid attention to the houses that gave out the good candy. Once we were done round two, we went back home and changed into costume number three. This round was the most important because we only hit the houses that were worth it; we knew which houses had the good candy and the ones that didn’t.
By costume five we knew the night was nearing an end and that we would get more candy because the houses would want to get rid of it.
After our tricking journey we would count the candy we collected in our pillow cases, toss the apples because we believed in that urban legend of razor blades in apples, and sort our candy by chocolate, suckers, gum, etc. Believe me when I tell you that I used to have candy that lasted me well past Christmas. The five costume strategy was fool proof!
I have grown up a lot since then, and find adult costumes and parties to be more of my liking. Here I’m sharing the Halloween parties that I feel are worth the effort in dressing up and going out for this year.
Friday, October 30th, 2015:
1. Animal Trainer Halloween at Nocturne, Toronto.
Now this is for the fun furry fiends out there! Cats, kittens, lions and hunters; come play, drink and mate! Purrrfect sounds by: Greg Gow, Amber Long, DJ Takin, JD Mack, Spazzmonk, and K-dust. Grab tickets for $20 – $25 from here and read more over at the official Facebook invite.
2. Hunter Game at Coda, 794 Bathurst Street, Toronto.
Featuring music by Simon Jain, Jonathan Rosa and Butrous. Tickets are currently $25 + service charge, available on wanttickets.com. RSVP to the event on the Facebook invite page!
Friday, October 30th, 2015 – Saturday, October 31st, 2015:
3. Monster Mash at Liberty Grand
Embrace presents one hell of a diverse two-night party with big names including Tchami, Shiba San, Gorgon City, Thugli, REZZ, Mija, and even the fantastic Andrew Bayer. Tickets are Night 1 for $60, Halloween Night for $75 or both nights for a great deal of $100. You can grab them here and mark your attendance on the official Facebook page.
Saturday, October 31st, 2015 (Halloween Night):
4. Vinyl vs. Digital 3 prese Ted by Renaissance at li’ly, 656 College Street, Toronto
Bringing back the real old school with music by: Chris Sheppard, Deadly Hedley, Craig Beesack, Andy Roberts, Medicine Muffin, Gio, John E, Peter the Greek, Dave Bianchi, Grimace vs. Unit 42, James K, Rob Daboom, Iron Mike, Mike Conradi, Davi Mello, Biotrans, Paul Alfano, and Devoted Soul. Tickets are $20 + service charge. Bottle service ($250) and tickets are available from wantickets.com. Visit the Facebook invite page to view the event details.
5. Enter the Asylum at District 28, 28 Logan Avenue, Toronto.
Enter the chilling world of 19th century with misunderstood madness sounds by: Matt C, Joee Cons, Dustin Natais, Chris Larsen, Nature of Music, Alberto Jossue, Justin Astor, Leelee Mishi. There is a $500 cash prize for the best costume! Hosted by SummerDaze, White Label Promo and Balance Inc., this is sure to be a good one. Tickets are $30 – $35 at wanttickets.com and you can mark your attendance at their Facebook event page.
6. Toronto Zombie Crawl 2015 at various venues.
Check out the Facebook invite to see all of the venues, then get yourself zombified and join in the fun. Scare the locals! Tickets range from $20 – $30 and are available here!
7. Halloween on Church Street, Toronto
Walk about the gouls, goblins, zombies and vampires along Toronto’s most celebrated street, Church Street. There will be many costumes to see and bars, restaurants to pop into for a quick bevy along your spooky stroll. I’m sure the festivities will commence at dusk and carry on until dawn… don’t say I didn’t warn you. Oh, and it’s FREE! Check out the Facebook event page here.
8. Hallowtronic 2nd Edition at Geary Lane, 360 Geary Avenue, Toronto
Join Gabriel Belmudes, DJ Jimmi G, Bits & Bytes, Lumen, and Audi Etoffe at Geary Lane for psytrance, techno, and deep house sounds. Grab tickets online here and RSVP to the facebook page. This venue will be CASH ONLY at the door and CASH ONLY at the bar.
For those who like a good after-hours event, I have two Halloween ones just for you:
Sunday, November 1st, 2015:
9. Halloween Scary Beats Sunday at Comfort Zone, 480 Spadina Avenue
Toronto has 12 hours of beats for your body! Scary beats by Manzone & Strong, Deko-ze, Jay Force, Mikey Terra, Quim, Manolo, Greg Gow, Rudee Nik, Chris Ink, Random Doug, Ticky Ty, DJ S!kk, Shaun C and Arman. Doors open at 1AM on Sunday, November 1st but remember this is right after the clock strikes midnight on Halloween.
10. The Halloween After-party – After-hour Escapade at Club 120, 120 Church Street
The party starts at 3am, which is but three hours after Halloween ends. After-party sounds will be from Amir Eighteen, Chris Larsen, Leo Franco & Michael Davison, Mina vs. Conrad, Mundane a.k.a. Chorniy vs. Rafwat, Ricky Syfer, Sam Haze and Takin. Mark yourself as attending on The Halloween Afterparty official Facebook page.
You can listen to me delve deeper into EDM event listings on a weekly basis on Babylon FM, where I’ll be your best source for where to dance.
Raquel Richards – EDM TOR
