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rfmcdonaldToronto's two major blogs both reviewed Long Winter at the Galleria. Amy Carlberg's "Field Notes: Long Winter at the Galleria" was relatively text-heavy, albeit also including good photos by Josh Allsopp.
A long white hallway leads into the Galleria. It normally serves as the back entrance to Planet Fitness, the mall’s 24/7 gym and one of several recent attempts at more modern relevance to the community. Joggers can still be seen trudging on treadmills alongside a photo exhibit by Shari Kasman that categorizes the various shades of “Galleria green” into different Pantone paint chips.
The fluorescent lights that lend the local landmark that nauseating hue are all off now. Music fans load up on mall hot dogs and tuna fish sandwiches from Galleria’s iconic snack bar as bands scream their lungs out against the backdrop of the closed Dollarama. Anni Spadafora of New Fries stares dead ahead into the audience, her guitar strapped up high under her armpit, letting spastic chords and killer riffs squeal from the instrument. The white-suited, left-handed bassist shakes his shaggy hair along to wandering lines. A dancer in a green M&M costume and a mouse mask joins the band on stage, moving their arms and hands as if summoning a goddess or a demon.
One girl manages to crowd surf for maybe six awesome seconds. One area is marked by a banner emblazoned BUNZ SHOP GALLERIA 3000, an IRL manifestation of the Internet craze/Facebook group. A quick tour of the art exhibits includes a sort of pink glowing light sabre surrounded by sound machines, a blacklight tent filled with music and multi-coloured neon pebbles, and a giant pigeon’s head constructed from shredded plastic bags.
19+ cultural buffs expecting a beer at a concert were crammed into one of two claustrophobic abandoned storefronts from which almost none of the general art or music were visible. One of these was christened “Shoppers Dance Mart.” A few glassy-eyed knots of kids swing their heads about and bend their knees slightly, glancing around self-consciously. Most people are so exhausted by waiting in line to get in, for drink tickets, and then drinks, that with no seating they take up residence against the wall, peering into their phones while clutching one of their maximum four drinks.
blogTO's Amy Grief wrote the shorter "Toronto learns parties in malls can only be so much fun", featuring the photos of Andrew Williamson.
Only two rooms (both empty storefronts) were licensed. This made getting drinks ($5 each) a little tough. At one point, I waited more than 15 minutes just to hear that I'd have to stand in yet another line for beer and liquor.
Luckily, no one seemed to want red wine, so I hopped right on over to the Dionysus-inspired booth and grabbed a glass.
The "It's Not U It's Me Shoppers Dance Mart" took over another one of these empty storefronts. It featured music and video installations from local artists, as well as a bar. Unsurprisingly, this proved to be popular, with many people dancing under the pulsating strobe lights for hours.
Bands like S.H.I.T, TEENANGER, The Highest Order, VCR and New Fries played short sets in the atrium, and at midnight, a surreal runway show dominated this main space.
Art installations, such as a giant pigeon head made out of plastic bags by Andrew Lamb and performance pieces by Carolyn Tripp and Jeremy Bailey, were situated in alcoves and hallways along with a BUNZ swap shop, enabling anyone to make trades on site.
Vintage photo booths, video games and coin-operated kiddie rides - many of which are permanent Galleria fixtures - were also a big draw.
"It was kind of fun to embrace the weirdness of it," one young woman told me as we were leaving the mall at around 1 a.m., when the event seemed to be dying down.
