NAME: DJ SPINZ
ROLE: DJ
GENRE: DRUM & BASS

Narrowing down the Destiny memories is a tough one. If they’ve been around for 22 years, that means that many of the Destiny attendees are younger than that. Even my crappy math skills can put 2 + 2 together and come up with the fact that some of its attendees may very well have been conceived after a big night out at one of those early shows. Mind blown!

For DJ memories I’d have to start with WEMF. Since the days they opened up that “second” tent to drum and bass, I’ve been playing that stage and loving it no matter what slot it was. When its an outdoor, 3 day event, often in the middle of nowhere; there are bound to be a few epic stories to come out of it. But if I have to narrow it down a couple of events stand out...

The first would be a back to back set I played with Capital J at the Sauble Beach show (I think?). We arrived in the middle of the night after having made a crazy trek out, and if I remember correctly this was before they allowed booze on the grounds, so of course we snuck in as many booze cans as we possibly could in our record crates. Caps and I always approached those sets with the mindset that we really should be having as much fun as the people in front of us or what was the point. So we went all in!

But as the sun rose from behind the crowd, we started to see their faces and everyone at that point seemed to have a nice thick layer of dirt on them. The more the sun came up, the more dirty we realized everyone was! By this point the place was a mess of ravers sweating sand and looking like those dusty desert dudes from Mad Max 2. But they were not ready to stop; they would keep rocking even though it was well into the daylight hours now. At the height of the craziness, this kid starts gesturing wildly in front of us on the dance floor. He was so excited to give us something so i lean down to see what was up. That's when he thrusts this heaping plate of bacon towards my face. Jay and I just lost it laughing and to this day that is most likely the weirdest thing that anyone ever tried to give me during a set. Needless to say, we did NOT eat the bacon.

Another fun one was during the last WEMF. Not the actual last WEMF, but the first time they tried calling it quits before the people demanded them to bring it back! I was scheduled to play the last DnB set which for me was an incredible honour. So I was planning to hit that set big time. But before all that was an extended set by Andy C. I was there with an amazing crew of people, lots of DJs, promoters and long time scenesters and we were smashing up that field in a massive way. The sound system was probably to this day the best outdoor system I’ve ever heard. We were dancing in the middle of the field and were getting just pummeled by sound, yet we all seemed to be able to talk and hear each other perfectly as we went nuts for a couple of hours of the Executioner. It was that perfect balance of elements that can only be described as magic. By the end I was just running on fumes and knew I was going to regret it if I stayed and kept going, after all I still had a set later on that morning that I had to play! So I went back to my tent and decided to get some sleep. What I didn’t realize is that my phone/alarm had died while I was sleeping and I hadn't slept in two days. I was awakened about 5 minutes before my set by my girlfriend (now wife). I had 5 minutes to run from one end of the campground to the other, set up my gear and start playing. My body basically went from 0-100 kph in just a few minutes and to my surprise I was able to somehow get my brain working properly within the first tune and the set went off! I will definitely never forget that one!

As a party-goer, I would also have to mention all the amazing shows at Guv and Koolhaus (RIP GUV!) I’m pretty sure I went to just about every one including the epic 4 hour Andy C set at Koolhaus for the Destiny 20 year. This night also happened to be my wedding night! Since Jesse and Ryan were guests at the wedding and Dan was in my wedding party; it only made sense that rather than end at the usual wedding wrap up time, we would just keep the party going at Destiny. This one is special because we just rolled in there still decked out in our wedding outfits. Its not often you can say you raved with your whole crew in the VIP dressed in suits and ties and wedding dresses!

With that I say big up Destiny, the gold standard of partying in North America for now over 2 decades! As owner of my own events company, Soul In Motion, I have to say I really look up to these guys and I’m in awe when I think of all they have accomplished and given to our city in terms of keeping our scene alive and strong!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/djspinz
Twitter: www.twitter.com/djspinzto
Mixcloud:www.mixcloud.com/spinzcycle

** Join us on August 14th, 2015 to celebrate 22 continuous years of Destiny events! CLICK HERE for more info **