Durham’s arts and culture scene receives much needed resuscitation
On March 27, 2024, the Quasar Concept Society (QCS) hosted Luminous at the Bond St. Event Centre’s (Bond St.) twotwotwo venue in downtown Oshawa, Ont., showcasing emerging musicians in the Durham Region while giving young people a reason to go outside and explore the city’s arts and culture.
“We came here [in September] and most of our Canadian friends said there’s nothing to do,” says Jessica De La Cruz, co-founder of QCS. “So we thought, why don’t we do something to do.”
The event featured the Durham-based artists RCN Rambo, Cool Missy, Prod.San, Siddhant Shah, Jayden Gardener, Mykill Hazi, Ashcoustics and Jeffery Noel.
Ashleigh-Marie Koehn, a solo acoustic artist known as Ashcoustics, said she was “bummed,” about the state of arts and culture in Oshawa after moving from South Africa.
“I’m from Cape Town, [there] I was able to walk out of my house on any night and go to a place that had something happening. I feel like this [venue] is going to revive [Oshawa] because it’s a place where you can actually sit and engage with people,”says Koehn.
QCS is an Oshawa-based entertainment enterprise that focuses on event and artist production and promotion, curating events across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The group was founded by De La Cruz, 27, and Wai Ying Ho, 29, two international students in the Music Business Management (MBM) program at Durham College (DC).
Other members of QCS include Santiago Correa as production assistant and event host, Matthew Lambert on sound and tech and Angelina Kobiakova on logistics.
Ho and De La Cruz organized these eight artists; promoting the event through Instagram, posters and leaflets that were distributed on the DC campus and in small Oshawa businesses like Kops Records-, a small GTA record store chain.
The artists involved, some of which are also in the MBM program, say entities like QCS and Bond St. in a small town like Oshawa makes it easier for artists to start a career.
“Venues like this open opportunities for young artists to get experience-, it’s also character development, it gets them to show their stage presence and gets people to understand who they are,” says D’andre Jamal Felix, a rap artist known as RCN Rambo.
“For artists who are starting below ground zero such as myself, it’s a great way to just put yourself out there when you’re too nervous to go to [Toronto] and take a random gig. You can do it in front of your people first and boost your confidence,” says Siddhant Shah.
Koehn says because of these factors, Oshawa has a lot of potential for growth in its arts and culture.
“I’m really hoping it becomes a new hub for emerging talent because Toronto is so saturated. It would be nice if there was a little starter place and it feels like this could be that because of the MBM program. It could really be a nice stepping stone to Toronto [as] a place for musicians to find their feet.”
Ho and De La Cruz say Luminous is an opportunity for the QCS members to gain real world experience in running an event as well.
“We learn about this in school, but sometimes there’s too many people involved, we have like 40 [students] in one class, so we cannot get into the core [of how],” says Ho. “With this event, we have fewer people and can [give] the right person the right position.
Ho and De La Cruz say the community was receptive to their efforts and they received support from local businesses. Kops Records provided a $25 gift card raffle and the Bond St. owner provided their space for free.
Nicholas Diachenko, the owner of Bond St., says this was a one time thing and he did so because he wanted to establish a good relationship with the QCS, attendees and the community.
“I was born and raised in Oshawa and I wish we had something like this growing up, something everyone can be excited about. We want to promote a third space, a place where people meet, it’s safe and it’s going to be fun,” says Diachenko. “Since COVID, some people are staying at home and we want to incentivize getting people back out interacting with each other again.”
Located at 44 Bond St. E in Oshawa, Ont., the Bond St. Event Centre opened February 3 and is a multi-use event space. It contains a 1,300 capacity mainstage, the twotwotwo, a 300 capacity basement venue, the Local Lounge, a small scale event space, a cafe and the Snack|Bar-, a restaurant with a menu that takes influence from various cultures and styles.
Diachenko says Oshawa has a rich history of arts and culture and is currently home to many talented performers-, but there is a venue void that he is trying to fill. Diachenko added that he wants to help bring the community together and jumpstart events by establishing Bond St. as a versatile culture, entertainment, social and business hub in Durham.
Felix says even though Oshawa is growing and venues like Bont St. provide artists from even smaller local towns like Bowmanville and Courtice the ability to find a stage in the first place, artists should be careful getting comfortable in one place.
“If you’re trying to make it in Durham, travel around, go to different studios and areas. Promote your music to different types of promoters, clubs and venues. It’s about recognition and getting ourselves out there,” says Felix. “You [should] strive to get out there for anyone to catch your ear-, don’t try and limit yourself only in Durham because you can only get so far with just the area you’re stuck in.”
Felix says he uses Scarborough, Ont., for music related work because he has found a team that heightens each other’s abilities. He says the major difference between Durham and a city like Scarborough is the involvement of people in the scene.
“In [Durham], you’ll find a lot of people that take an interest and do like music, but it’s not the same type of way in Scarborough where they’re all enveloped there. Rap is a huge part of the community.”
Felix added that only recently has he seen an influx of new artists in Durham and the scene does have room for growth.
Correa says it’s going to take a small, dedicated group like QCS to take action in leading this growth and curate events where fans and artists can connect.
QCS says by hosting events like this they can expand their reach and meet new artists for future events while demonstrating local talent and their dedication to the arts and culture scene of Durham.
In its local lounge, Bond St. hosts a vinyl social every Wednesday at 7 p.m. and acoustic sessions every Friday at 7 p.m.
