The HullaBoard - The 10 Greatest moments in Hullabaloo History

I was inspired to write this tonight. I tried to cover "moments" and not anything like an actual DJ set. Obviously lists like this are very subjective but I hope you enjoy the history lesson:

The 10 Greatest moments in Hullabaloo History

10. Walking into Foreverland after it had been transformed with it's $12000 decoration budget.

The year was 1999 and Hullabaloo was riding high with a string of events that will go down as the greatest in rave history. A high concept party was born from a brainstorming thread on the now hugely popular Hullaboard. That might be the only Hulla that was directly inspired by the hullaravers discussion. Not to get in any copyright troubles, we were inspired by Peter Pan and came up with our own "Foreverland".

The venue that was chosen was one of the most overused and hated venues of that period - The Warehouse, now known as the Kool Haus, part of the Guvernment complex. For a few years in the 90's most weekend raves were held in that space. The challenge to Frolic was how to use it in a new way and secondly how to keep it a secret from everyone so to not hurt ticket sales.

He signed the deal 6 weeks in advance but told no one of his plans. Not even his sound company was told of the venue, just left hanging with that he was still looking. Robin Frolic was in charge of the immense decorations budget, hiring many props from a movie prop warehouse, as well as dozens of actual live trees. Each room had it's theme. The main room was "The Treehouse" with dozens of live trees, fake palm trees, a wooden cabin built on stage and even a functioning lighthouse at the corner of the stage. The second arena was the Pirates Cove with a full pirate ship mast complete with crows nest behind the DJ. The chillout tent was a mermaid lagoon complete with fake boulders and seaweed everywhere. On top of that, one of the most insane lighting rigs ever seen at a rave which Charles, the owner of the Guvernment, declared as the best light show he had ever seen in his venue.

24 hours before the party the secret couldn't be contained any longer and word started to get out. Someone started posting "It's at the Warehouse!" on the Hullaboard, which at the time had no security or user accounts. So to thwart them Frolic began posting under aliases that it was at every well known venue in the city, just to flood the board with useless junk so that no one could make sense of it.

Finally the big night. To change things even more, instead of using the regular front entrance, the ravers were brought in from a back doorway which led directly into the main area and the full impact of the decor and lights hit you full on. Many people were so disoriented they couldn't even identify the venue once they were inside.

9. E-By-Gum retires

For the first few years of Hullabaloo, there was one "official" voice that every raver knew. That was of Anabolic Frolic's extremely hardworking MC, E-by-gum. It took many years for the quality of local MCs to get to the point of being able to work a Hullabaloo, so in the early days E-by-gum covered several hours of the night, with the exception of the jungle and headlining sets (if a UK MC had come in).

E-by-gum was beginning to experience burnout though and found he wasn't able to give it 100% anymore. That being the case he thought it best not to short change the ravers and it was time to hang up his mic, even though Hulla was extremely huge at the time in 2000.

Space Invader December 2000 was to be his last set and it was a very emotional send off. Working with Anabolic Frolic one last time, the crowd gave him a huge ovation and an extremely loud "E-by-gum" chant than went on for a long time. Lots of talent have left Hulla over the years, but not someone so identified with the company and it was quite the loss.

It was hard for him to stay retired though, and E-by-gum made a few more appearances with Anabolic Frolic over the next year or so, with his final ever appearance at Hulla's 6 year anniversary, Stay Here Forever.

8. Candy funfur explosion at Funtopia 1

It's hard now to think of a time before candy ravers but they didn't exist when Hulla first started. People started making costumes by the third party, and by the 6th one, the One Year Birthday Funtopia, fun fur and candy fashions had exploded in Toronto.

To compound this effect, a very large Toronto rave company, Liquid Adrenaline, was holding it's 3rd year anniversary on the same night which left Hulla with a crowd of the most hardcore candy ravers you had ever seen. Even with the competition Hulla still sold out it's 2000 person venue. The spectacle was so much Tribe magazine from Toronto declared Hulla as the newest cult. A title affectionately celebrated by the Hulla ravers. Things were never the same after that.

7. Hulla sells out 2500 people without a flyer

It was 1999. Hulla and the scene was left reeling after the drug O.D. at the previous event, A view to a Thrill, the third rave related death that summer in Toronto. Anabolic Frolic knew he could never give up, but at the same time it didn't seem right to proceed business as usual.

The internet was still a new frontier but the Hullaboard was a huge community already. Frolic decided to break new ground and hold a party without a printed flyer. It would become standard operating procedure in the years to come, but at this time this was completely revolutionary. "For Those Who Know" was the name of the party. The online text for the party simply said "Please join us for a very special event. This is strictly for our diehard Hullabaloo following. No flyers. No hype. Just solid music, and solid Hullabaloo vibe". The result, a completely sold out event of 2500 people. Packed from wall to wall.

6. "Happy Hullabaloo" at Funtopia 2

Funtopia 2 was another high point in Hulla's incredible run. A sold out event of over 4000. During Frolic's anniversary set MC's E-by-gum and JD decided to put Frolic on the spot by having him stop his music and to say something to the crowd. You'll have to remember that this is in the days before "Happy Hour" and years of speaking on the mic, and Frolic was totally unprepared for this moment. Left with all the eyes and ears of 4000 hardcore ravers waiting for him to speak, he said what came to his mind. "I've only got 2 words to say.... Happy Hullabaloo!". The place went ballistic.

5. All Good Things sells out in 8 days, 5 months in advance.

Everyone knew it was going to happen, yet when it did it was still stunning. To have any rave sell out in advance is an amazing feat. To have one sell out in 8 days, with 5 months to go before the big night was just completely incomprehensible. It was just the tip of the iceberg of the big things that lay ahead of Hulla's "final season". Frolic knew that Hulla had to end it's historic run in a historic way, and the stage was set to make that happen.

4. Gavin's Baby announcement

Accelerator 2003. The Frolic's were well known rave celebrities now, and had been for several years. Since so much about their lives were known, it made perfect sense to share this new development with all of their Hullabaloo family. Frolic got on the mic at the end of his set to tell everyone "We're having a baby!" to a deafening response from the ecstatic crowd. Hullabaloo will be special for many reasons, but this personal connection between it's promoters and it's patrons will always make it stand alone.

3. The Group Hug at "Group Hug"

Hulla was going through some of it's darkest days in the spring of 2000. Unrelenting police persecution culminated in their outright threats of taking Frolic away in handcuffs if anyone was found to be doing anything illegal at their upcoming "Through the looking glass" event. Even if the charges were groundless, the police would still get their visual of taking away the lightening rod of the Toronto rave scene away in handcuffs while the media covered it. He was left with no choice but to pull the plug 3 days before. A coroner's inquest into the View to a Thrill O.D. was about to begin and a new police chief took office in Toronto and called raves "a threat to the fabric of Canadian society", urging Prime Minister Chretien to act on it.

A promoter friend of Frolic's, Phil from Phryl, stepped in to help his friend out. A replacement party was scheduled at the Opera House featuring the UK talent that were already booked and on their way to the country. Because of the police pressure, the replacement party had to be clearly seperated from Frolic (it was not officially a Hullabaloo event) and he had to not even attend as police were standing outside looking for him. Finally at 5am Frolic snuck it to play the closing set of the night.

No one knew if this was going to be the last of Hulla, and the crowd that came out knew what this moment meant. The ovation Frolic got when taking the stage was emotionally off the charts. The love and support radiating from the crowd was in such force it was palpable. Finally, at the end Frolic got on the mic to thank everyone for their support and it was time for the last track. Heart of Gold, the Hullabaloo anthem was played and Frolic joined the crowd on the floor in an enormous group hug. We all knew this had to potentially last a lifetime.

2. Chris proposes to Robin

It was the last ever Hullabaloo stage at WEMF, summer of 2002. While Robin was a Hullabaloo fixture with Chris, officially she was nothing more than a girlfriend. The time had come for Chris to propose to Robin and he knew there was only one place to do that, on the Hullabaloo stage in front of the Hullabaloo family. Frolic played his set, MC'd by the UK's MC Storm, who was one of the few people who knew what was going on. Just before Frolic's last track, Storm said Frolic had something to say and handed him the mic. Frolic called Robin to the stage and introduced her to the crowd. He told them most people think they're already married, but they're not... yet. To which he then turned to Robin and made his proposal. Robin was totally caught off guard, wearing her "raving dragon" outfit she had made. Then Frolic played his last song "Stay with me". DJ Elixir commented afterwards that he thought the tent was going to burst into flames from the PLUR overload felt by everyone in attendance.

1. Frolic says "goodbye" then returns for his encore

The entire "All Good Things" party is filled with greatest moments, but probably the one that everyone will remember most was at the end when Frolic gave his 10 minute speech, summing up what the last 8 years was about, and finally with a last song, "Shooting Star", one of the many anthems forever connected with Hullabaloo and Anabolic Frolic. He then disappeared from sight and the word "Goodbye" filled the projection screen over the stage.

Hullabaloo was filled with incredible precedents and Frolic planned for 1 more. Letting the crowd chant for an encore, and then again for "one more track" he returned to close out Hullabaloo's final chapter with the song that had been part of it since the very beginning, Heart of Gold. Without an MC and just with the sound of the crowd, the first notes of Heart of Gold started followed by the vocals and everyone knew that this was indeed the end. Frolic closed his eyes on stage, tilted his head back and soaked up the energy from everyone there one last time. One of the greatest stories to ever come from the rave scene was having it's historic end, and that's why it's #1 on this list.