More than 2,000 guests filled CTV's Queen Street headquarters Sunday for a multilevel party during the broadcast of the 21st annual MuchMusic Video Awards, which attracted a crowd of 8,000 fans to the intersection of Queen and John streets for a show co-hosted by Miley Cyrus and featuring performances by Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Drake.
The network—which didn't host a major industry party at the 2009 event—invited employees, sponsors, artists, and record-label executives to the bash, planned by Mafalda Caruso, CTV's executive director of special events, and Rob Dittmer of Three Event Planning & Design. The pair designed two party spaces in the eTalk and MuchMusic studios on the building’s main floor, and another in the network’s fifth-floor offices.
“The inspiration for all of the party space was from the promotions on MuchMusic,” said Caruso, who called on Dittmer to create colourful tubes that wound their way across the ceiling and added a playful element to the spaces. “The tubes represent connecting all of the different [CTV] properties.”
Party guests, who began arriving at 7 p.m. (two hours before the broadcast), received colour-coded wristbands (purple for media, red for reception guests) at a check-in desk set up in a black tent at the venue's Richmond Street entrance. From there, attendees got a sneak peek of the action behind the massive MMVA stage—which faced Queen Street—as they were directed through the back of the parking lot and into the main-floor party area. Guests mingled and watched footage of the red-carpet arrivals on television sets throughout the venue, including a 60-inch flat-screen in a fifth-floor boardroom.
Non-broadcast artists arrived via the red carpet, situated on John Street for the first time this year, while performers entered through a separate door that led directly into the artist lounge and greenrooms—dressed in blue in a nod to event sponsor Smarties. White furnishings from Furnishings by Corey filled the 40 dressing rooms, each of which had a table laden with sweets—including bowls of blue Smarties and a selection of letter-shaped cookies spelling out the names of performers like Cyrus, Perry, and Kesha.
Rather than hosting a gift lounge this year, CTV made a $10,000 donation to the Young Artists for Haiti initiative.
Correction: This story has been updated to correctly identify Contemporary Furniture Rentals as the supplier that provided the curved sectional sofa in the artist lounge.
