Apparently this isn't our first festival scandal: Carl Cox back in 1996

I tried my best to find the original link to this story that I found on reddit but all I can come up with was this link from the Trance Addict forum archives. If anyone has the original link please let me know. This event happened before I was going out to clubs so this is the first time I've heard about it.

EXCERPT from an interview with Carl:

-I remember reading about this rave you did in Canada, that went horrendously wrong!

Ottawa. These kids had put on this party for two days, supposed to be 10,000 people each day. The line up was incredible, lots of people from England. I said I ain't going if I don't have a work permit but the promoters said 'It's okay, your names will be sorted out.' We got to Canada and got through. But there was no pick up. We called the promoter, found him,and he said, 'We're busy can you get a taxi to your hotel.' So we said ok, we did that. We got to the hotel, they said 'your rooms have been sold, we've got nothing for you.' We tried to find the promoter and couldn't find him. So we went to the Westin, and I got my credit card out. So far - no work permit, had to get a taxi, got to the hotel and our rooms have been sold, now I have to pay my own money to stay in the Westin... I'm like, this is not looking good.

Carl Cox goes to the wall for his audience

I didn't see anyone from the promoters until I was picked up to go to the party at 1.30 in the morning. I'm fuming now. No one's telling me anything. But all I can think is that this is my first time in Canada and all these kids have come for me. This is the only time I've done this and I'm thinking I can't be in Canada and not go to the party. This guy comes for us in this old Datsun pick up, there's all chickens in the back, it's a wreck. We get to the party and see Lenny D, and he's like 'This party is , there's only about 10 people here and the sound system went down halfway through and the buses that brought people down from Montreal hadn't got paid so they stranded people.' So the only place we could go to was this one area on the football field where there was about 300 people. We haven't see any of the promoters, they've all skipped off. So my idea was to make really good out of a bad situation. I went on, and the people there had the best time 'cos we were all in the same boat. Halfway through, the sound system cut off, and the PA people said 'that's it, we're not playing any more unless we get paid.' So I had to get on the mike and say 'These sound people are not going to switch the sound back on unless they get paid,' so now I'm being an ambassador to the whole situation. So we passed round the hat and we all put money in - and I put money in! - and we managed to keep the party going.

Meanwhile, the sun comes up and I'm wearing this black t-shirt and I felt really itchy, and I pulled across my back of my neck and it was all black and it was mosquitos. All over me! I'd been working so hard I hadn't noticed! So I get back to the hotel room and I felt really bad and itchy and my whole neck and back was covered in mosquito bites. Then I found out that one of the promoters was on a suicide watch because he felt really bad and couldn't handle it, and eventually actually killed himself. The other promoter had his mum's house hocked for deposits for all sorts of things.

-The guy didn't kill himself that weekend?

No, but he did commit suicide.

-How much did it cost you?

It ran into the thousands.

I really hope that we can all get beyond this event and return back to normal. The EDM scene is strong in Ottawa and we'll get through this.

(Source: Reddit and Trance Addict Forum Archive)