After club fire and festival tragedy, Tampa EDM entrepreneur John Santoro rebuilds – Tampa Bay Times

John Santoro is the king of Tampa Bay’s electronic music scene, a kinetic world of sweat and neon catering to thousands of millennials each weekend. He’s a veteran promoter, club owner and founder of the Sunset Music Festival, which draws 50,000 fans each May to Raymond James Stadium. At his club, the Ritz Ybor, he obsesses over details to maintain control of his empire.
In the past year, that control spiraled out of his hands.
Last April, Santoro watched a fire destroy his previous club, the Amphitheatre,, the largest dance music venue in Ybor City. In May, two fans died following drug overdoses at the Sunset Music Festival, prompting calls to shut it down. The fire was a disorienting setback; the deaths a tragedy and painful public blow.
Santoro suddenly found himself facing hard questions from his city, his clientele, his staff, even his family.
“It was a lot of sleepless nights,” Santoro told the Times in his first interview since Sunset ’16. “How do you not analyze something like that? So that’s what I had to do. Assess it, methodically go through step by step by step.
“And then I had to grieve.”
For more on Santoro, click here for our profile.
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