When this COVID-19 pandemic all started, we slowly started to notice the extreme effects it was having on many industries. The pandemic forced many businesses, including event venues to close their doors and artists have had to cancel shows. Like any industry leader, the question is how do you stay connected with your audience if all tours and gigs have been cancelled? The answer is a free online music livestream series!
The festival, is called URGNT, is the brainchild of Lemon Bucket Orkestra’s Mark Marczyk as a way to keep artists and their audiences connected for the duration of the lockdown until we can all be together again. The events have been live-streamed since March 20th but Marczyk wants to take it up a notch.
The series has been live-streamed from inside empty Toronto music venues.
Performing from well known TO venues like The Great Hall, Drom Taberna, Lulu Lounge, and Tonight, to name a few, URGNT has featured artists like Measha Brueggergosman, Alex Cuba, Clear Mortifee, Socalled, alongside many more talented Canadian artists.
What initially was a three-week series brought to you from empty music venues has turned into so much more.
It has transitioned into a series that will last as long as quarantine. Canadian artists whose shows were cancelled due to COVID are bringing you weekly black and white sets from the comfort of home.
URGNT has curated a community and platform to expose the city’s best artists, virtually.
With Marczyk’s livestream initiative, he wanted to assure that both the artists and personnel involved received some sort of compensation. This prompted URGNT to launch a GoFundMe to assist in costs that make this livestream happen. As of May 8, $18,110 of URGNT’s $40K goal has been raised with the goal being to bring together the Toronto arts community.
URGNT wants to raise funds to assist these artists who have lost gigs, therefore wages during the quarantine. It also gives artists the opportunity to document this unforeseen time in history all while creating compelling content to bring to their audiences at a time that they need it the most.
Tonight’s livestream starts at 7 p.m. and will bring you a long list of Canadian talent.
You will experience classical music artists like Gryphon Trio who will be opening the livestream as well as thriving jazz singer and pianist Laila Biali who will grace us with her talents. Britta B who is a Toronto based spoken word poet will express herself with the power of words and nonother than Canadian DJ and Juno nominated record producer Skratch Bastid will end off the night.
These are only a handful of Canadian artists that will be performing on the May 8th livestream and it goes without saying that this is a piece of Canadian history you won’t want to miss.
Music and arts have always brought us together, helping overcome some of life’s biggest obstacles, even this pandemic!
Tune into URGNT live at 7 p.m on May 8 where you’ll see some of Canada’s most talented artists live from the comfort of your living room.
You can watch each live stream, past and present, on the free live stream link on URGNT, Macleans, or iHeartRadio Canada.
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