01/19/2024
A little over a year ago, a friend and I decided we wanted to bring more bass house shows to Halifax. So we started an events company.
We aimed pretty high right out of the gate, and kind of skipped the "starting small" phase. It was exciting but also very challenging. It was a LOT of work building it all from scratch. For a long time, it was basically a full-time job that paid nothing - and in many ways, still is. But it has also been very rewarding.
One of the biggest challenges was venue availability. Coming out of the pandemic, Halifax had fewer electronic music venues and more promoters getting into the game. We had to put a lot of time into knocking on doors, emailing and calling venues to pitch the idea and see what - if anything - was available. This went on for a couple months. And most of the conversations - if they even got back to us - didn't end up going anywhere.
But we persisted, adapted, and worked with what we could get.
And a year later, we've put on 7 shows, in 4 cities spread across 3 provinces. We've given new opportunities to local talent and helped launch careers. And brought in 5 major headliners from the other side of the continent.
Each of these shows was in a different venue. One of them was on a boat - largely because of a lack of available venues on land. Our first show in Halifax was on a (long weekend) Sunday, because Fridays and Saturdays were all booked up. We put on shows in Charlottetown, Saint John NB, and Cape Breton. And our most recent was at the Marquee in Halifax, possibly the most fabled venue east of Montreal and a total bucket-list item for us.
Most of these came with some major, unexpected challenges. Very often, it did not feel like luck was on our side. Last-minute airline shenanigans, bad weather on long drives, major storm warnings on the day of the boat show, waves of sickness hitting the scene right before a couple of the shows. Pretty much all of them ended up being a lot more work than "normal" (if there is such a thing!)
But as we continued to adapt under pressure, each of them taught us valuable lessons, and each of them ended up being a great experience. And in the process we've worked alongside some incredible talent, formed and strengthened some amazing friendships, grown as artists and as people, and helped others around us to do the same 🙌
And the best part has been the energy at the shows, the excitement around them, the sheer level of happiness and enjoyment from the audience and the artists, the lack of drama or disorderliness, everyone involved bringing their A game every time, the level of quality and expertise and professionalism and positivity.
So this is a big thank you to everyone who has been involved in the Fortress Events journey so far - the performers, the sound and lighting techs, graphic and merch designers, photographers and videographers, the venues who have hosted us, fellow promoters who have supported us and offered their guidance, and most of all our audience for being the best we could ask for ❤
We're also very humbled by the number of people who have expressed interest in performing or helping out in any way - and we truly hope that we'll have the chance to work with all of you as time goes on. It's a big part of what keeps us going, along with people asking us "when's the next show gonna be?" - even when the answer is usually "we're not quite sure yet!"
Also wanna give a big shout-out to all the other promoters who started up around the same time that we did. It's not easy, and you all have been crushing it 👊
And an extra special thanks to Amado Nardocchio for going along with my crazy ideas and building all this with me. It's surreal looking back on all we've done over the last year.
And to Prayer Handz, Aaron Jackson, RUMPUS, Khris O'Neil, Cazztek and Nicky Genesis for being such genuinely awesome headliners to work with and making our first year what it was!
TLDR: Aim high, work hard, turn challenges into opportunities, and enjoy the show 🔊🔊🔊
