Some years ago, Kevin Mitchell’s fervor for music had him stumble upon a warehouse party on the outskirts of Atlanta. It was here he first experienced the emerging electronic music scene, and “energy unlike anything experienced previously.” Instantly hooked, Mitchell poured all his personal savings into booking DJs and renting clubs, even though he wasn’t even old enough to enjoy a drink there. Mitchell has since spun his passion for the warehouse party scene into a profitable promotion company, Sugar Society, which he founded in 2003 after relocating from Atlanta from Charlotte.
Creative Loafing: How has the Charlotte music/nightlife scene changed since you started working in the industry?
Kevin Mitchell: Five years ago, things were a lot less competitive for the venues than they are presently. The boom period led to an overabundance of clubs, venues, etc., which has resulted in “the rise of the Promoter.” Five years ago I could count the number of known promoters in Charlotte on one hand. The rise of social networking has given just about anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account the capability to influence the nightlife choices of others.
What genres do you see rising in popularity?
2009-2010 has seen an unprecedented era of collaboration amongst artists of differing genres. More specifically, electronic music artists like David Guetta, Tiësto, Steve Aoki, etc., have spent a lot of time in the studios with their more mainstream counterparts such as the Black Eyed Peas, Three Six Mafia and Lil Jon. Along with the flourishing of massive electronic music festivals, these collaborations with the mainstream have made electronic dance music as viable as anything on the commercial airwaves. In other words, it’s not being referred to just as “techno” anymore.
What events are you looking forward to?
That’s always a tough one. Sugar Society events are like kids if I had any — I love all of them! But if I had to choose a few coming up soon, I’d have to say I’m really looking forward to Marcus Schossow at Marigny [Nov. 6] and Paul Oakenfold with Chuckie at Halo [Nov. 16]. You’ll find me on the dance floor at any of these parties!
This article appears in Oct 19-25, 2010.
Go KEV!
Preposterous! Kevin Mitchell was ran out of Atlanta for throwing bunk parties where in he didn’t make enough money to pay his artists, and then ran off with the rest. The only “parties” he throws are events that he’s able to secure with big name sell out commercial DJ’s on large tours for a steal. Furthermore, he is also known for paying opening and closing DJ’s a whole of ten dollars while he rolls in bank from Forum. Creative loafing, you FAIL for thinking that this man is worthy of an online article hailing his “success” as a promoter, when he’s rarely ever seen hanging out with anyone involved in the Charlotte EDM scene outside of his cozy Greek green back supported venue! Half of North Carolina refuses to come or play at any of his events, and the other half may attend but can often be overhead speaking about his blatant disrespect for the ACTUAL scene.
Whats preposterous is anyone believing that Kevin Mitchell was ever “ran out of Atlanta”, in the first place. When Kevin was in Atlanta, he and his partner, were throwing some of the biggest parties in town then too. Do you honestly believe that anyone could “fuck over everybody in town” in Atlanta, and then move to a city only 3 hours away, set up shop there, and act like nothing ever happened? Do you not think that everyone in Atlanta would be screaming for his head, or warning Charlotte every day of the monster they now have on their hands? You know why none of that ever happened? Because outside of two or three really jerkoff promoters, nobody has ever been “ran out of Atlanta”. Now you are criticizing him for only booking “big name sell out Commercial DJs on large tours for a steal”. You know what that sounds like to me? Simple hating that he books DJs you can’t, or maybe he throws bigger parties than you? At the end of the day, this is a business. Of course any good promoter is going to book the biggest and best talent they can, with the greatest chance for a return on investment. If the guy is successful in his business, and is contributing to the scene, in any way, why are you hating? People that are busy doing their own thing do not have time to hate on what other people are doing. I know better than most that you can’t please everybody, since I have been throwing parties in Atlanta for over 16 years now. But I also know that when charges of “not caring about the scene” and “not paying DJs” get leveled against a credible promoter who has been doing it for ages, it’s also usually bullshit. If Kevin wasn’t paying DJs, he wouldn’t be able to book any more of them. If he didn’t care about “the scene”, I am sure there are a lot easier jobs in the world, with far far less risk, that he could be doing instead. Being a large party promoter is one of the most stressful and thankless jobs on the planet. It’s a ridiculously huge gamble every time you throw something. Sometimes you can lose everything in one night. Even if you have spent 10 years building up to it. It sounds to me like “theonewhocares” cares about the wrong things and has way too much time on their hands. If Kevin Mitchell is as bad as you say, the scene will eventually bear that out. It always does. Thats the great thing about our scene, it usually has a good barometer of who is doing what, and why. When promoters genuinely have ‘blatant disrespect for the actual scene”, they do not last longer than throwing 1-3 parties. As soon as they lose money once, they are out of the game for good. But when someone has been doing this as long as Kevin has, I don’t see how anyone can say shit. He obviously cares about what he is doing, or he wouldn’t do it anymore. He certainly wouldn’t have been doing this as long as he has. You have to give it up to anyone that has been a promoter of Dance Music for longer than 10 years, no matter how you feel about how they run their business. You know why? Because its a rare rare thing to see anyone last in this business. I have watched a thousand come, and I have watched a thousand go. Kevin is not one of them. Other than being rather large promoters in Atlanta, we also run a very large artist agency, and speak to our fellow agents all over the world on a daily basis. From that perspective as well, I can assure you, that Sugar Society has a spotless record of paying for the talent they book. I don’t know about local talent, because I am not up there, but if he wasn’t paying the major talent, he wouldn’t be able to book the “sell out commercial DJs on large tours, and especially wouldn’t be able to book them FOR A STEAL”. The person that wrote this criticism, contradicts him/herself several times. It seems to me like they are just trying to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Kevin, due to some personal beef they have with him, or what have you. When you put all of the criticisms together, the contradict. You can’t not pay people, and continue to be able to book talent. You cant not care about something, and then spend over half your life doing that one thing, as a business you CHOOSE to run. It just doesn’t add up. If Kevin is somehow faking the funk all of sudden, people will see that and stop coming to his parties. I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon. But until if and when that happens, quit hating.
he was absolutely run out of Atlanta by all the bunk parties he threw. So he came to Charlotte under a fake name because the Mirage name was so bad. Then he decided to be a fake promoter for the greek millionaires that run Mythos/Forum, so they could take all the money out of the scene, and the scene wouldnt care because they had this fake flyer boy out front to fool the casual ravers. The real true scene know he is a fake and a front.
Kevin was not run out of Atlanta nor did he hide from the Mirage name. Mirage was under different ownership as the primary partner pushed out the secondary partner to bring Kevin on board. In the meantime, they operated under separate entities in many cities around the Southeast until Kevin was officially brought on as a partner in Mirage in Atlanta. The partners eventual split as one continued promotion and became a well known promoter while the other became a successful real estate developer. Both seem to have had successful careers. If he is enjoying his job and people are attending his parties, then he will continue to succeed although under the ever challenges associated by a billionaire buying out the EDM scene & all that entails.
Ahh… this Kevin. Kevin who raped my friend after giving her GHB. I remember this Mirage Kevin!