After going on hiatus for a few months, one of Toronto’s most popular parties is back in business. Put on by music curators and party promoters Mansion, Happy Endings — the dark, sweaty party series thrown in dim sum restaurants throughout Toronto—has gone from mute to full volume, and now there appears to be no pause in sight.

Easily the most famous series put on by the three-year-old company Mansion, Happy Endings a grew to such a large and popular status that venues weren’t sure how to deal with it anymore. “As the Happy Endings party grew, so did the attention we received from liquor inspectors and the fire department,” said Nancy Chen, one-fourth of the Mansion army (the rest of which is made up by Konrad Droeske, Matt Eckensweiler, and Thomas Masmejean). “Due to overcapacity issues, we’ve been moving to larger and larger spaces. Hopefully it is here to stay this time at the new space.”

And all it’s done is made the party darker, sweatier, dirtier, and full of way more bass.

“With any new space, we have to find ways to best use it,” Chen said. “With the new Happy Endings space we had to bring in a more powerful sound system and we will be utilizing their projection capabilities.”

The party’s resurrection, which took place on July 27 at Bright Pearl Seafood restaurant (346 Spadina Ave.), was special indeed. The place was packed full of good-looking twenty-somethings drinking, snacking on dim sum (oh yeah, they sell it), and dancing the night away to the beats of DJ/producers Exeter, Egyptrixx, and Scuba (the last of which who, due to a flight cancellation, didn’t actually get to the venue until 2:15 a.m.). Still, they raged. “Regardless of the issues, we promised Scuba’s fans that we would get him here no matter what, and that’s what we did,” Chen said. “We hope to bring him back to a proper show in the near future.”

And while the night was exciting for fans of the party, who have followed it faithfully for months and months, it seemed to be even more monumental for the people responsible for giving us all the good times. “It was Mansion’s first solo event series that we did with bookings, so it has a special place in our hearts,” Chen said of having Happy Endings come back to life. “It felt amazing. Like home.”

~ Sara Harowitz, photo by Conrad McGee-Stocks