Toronto’s diverse and resilient underground electronic music scene is the strongest it has ever been, despite facing numerous challenges including gentrification, transit infrastructure, disappearing venues and government resistance. There’s a new urgency to how these issues affect DJs, promoters, and music fans in the city, and they’ve been able to survive because they work together – regardless of genre and multicultural backgrounds. Bridging the gap between the DIY communities forging their own way, and the international artists that inspire them, Encounters is an all-night, multi-room celebration at the Symes, an Art Deco incinerator, with production design by SSpS. Founder of popular Toronto party series JERK (which has hosted editions in New York, Los Angeles, and Montreal) Bambii, and Discwoman affiliate and Parallel Minds label co-founder Ciel, have been at the forefront of championing safer dancefloors and more inclusive lineups. They’ll be joined by RBMA Bass Camp Calgary 2019 alumni Korea Town Acid and Raf Reza, PEP RALLY co-founders Chippy Nonstop and Karim Olen Ash, Forth affiliates Joel Eel and City Dance Corporation, Deep Gold affiliates and rave collective On Earth residents efemmera, Kehdo, and Ceremonies, whose genre-spanning selections will keep the crowd moving until the early morning. Complementing these local heavy hitters while nodding to Toronto’s multicultural fabric is Jamaican experimental dancehall crew Equiknoxx, Russian-born techno rising star Machine Woman, and veteran British DJ and Kaizen label boss Madam X.

Presented with Deep Gold, Forth, ISO Radio and On Earth