It was an unforgettable night at The Great Hall in Toronto; back for its second year, Our Music Festival returns with a stacked line up of amazing artists spanning across all genres:
- CJ Wiley
- Kinnie Starr & Cris Derksen
- R.Flex
- Sarah MacDougall with Lisa MacIssac of Madison Violet
- Semiah
- Lala Noel
- Irene Torres
- Kiza
- Earth 2 Tiffany
Host and creator Andrea Ramolo gives a warm welcome to a very kind audience to kick off a amazing night. And even joined fellow artists Cris Derksen and Kinnie Starr for a powerful performance of their song “Free” later in the night. Which included a beautiful traditional Hoop Dance performance.
Each artist brought so much of their own uniqueness to the stage that I actually wish they all had longer sets so I could bathe in their talent longer. But still, being able to see them in a festival format just pushes the drive and want to see each artist flourish with their own headlining shows in the future.
I went into this night only knowing one name on the line up, and I left the show following each artist on Spotify so I can follow their music journey moving forward. The music industry is a beast, a lot of music artists go unnoticed or overlooked. Which is one of the reasons Andrea Ramolo created this event, to give a platform to the voices we don’t often hear in the mainstream. It’s not about how many streams on a song an artist can get, but about the ones that make us truly feel something.
I ask you reader; how many Indigenous pop singers can you name? How about naming more than one non-binary artist? Might be a tough question to answer, so I encourage you to pick an artist and listen. You might just discover someone new that you really like and resonate with.
Interested in catching the festival next year? Follow @ourmusicfestivalto on social media for all future announcements and updates. For those that couldn’t make it out this year, you can still enjoy our exclusive photo gallery from the event just below.
Article & Photos by San Veliz (@spacemanmediaproductions)
