Toronto's favourite after hours venue has been shut down

A unique Toronto warehouse space best known for hosting massive, late-night electronic music events has closed its doors, albeit temporarily, by apparent order of the City.

"Unfortunately 500 Keele has to shut its doors for the next month," reads a notice on the Junction venue's Facebook page.

"We are forced to take action on the space in order to keep up with its growth. City regulations and spacing issues need to be resolved before we move forward with another event."

I FUCKING LOVE 500 KEELE

— karl lagerfeld (@little_dynamo) May 9, 2019

A series of events scheduled for this weekend — Jeremy Underground & Pangaea on May 18 and Charlotte de Witte on May 19 — will not go forward as planned at 500 Keele, though they have been relocated to other venues.

The sold-out Charlotte de Witte show will take place at Masonic Temple on Sunday, while Jeremy Underground & Pangea will send off 500 Keele with a bang during the venue's first "outdoor rave" behind the building on Saturday.

"The parties will never stop," reads 500 Keele's event page, though fans of the city's live music scene are increasingly worried that they might, given how many similar venues have been shut down in recent years.

These music closures are getting fucking stupid and I wanna do something about it, especially as brands further align with toronto artists. More artists (and their managers!!!!!) need to learn how to better communicate their value and involvement or entire scene suffers from it

— eric zaworski (@ericzawo) May 9, 2019

"Despite Toronto's mission to be recognized internationally as a music city, skyrocketing rent prices and noise complaints have contributed to a rash of venue closures in recent years," explains Calum Slingerland for Exclaim.

Indeed, over the past three years alone, we've seen the closures of Double Double Land, The Silver Dollar Room, Faith-Void, D-Beatstro, The Hoxton, Holy Oak, Gate 403, Soybomb HQ, Hugh's Room and UNIUN (among others.)

"We need to start an email campaign to mayor and council about the need to make these spaces possible for the citizens of Toronto," commented one fan of 500 Keele's on Facebook in response to the temporary closure announcement.

"That was a good run guys!" wrote another. "Looking forward to what comes next."