Locals Fest Supports The Community Through The Arts

In the history of festivals, sustainability has not seemed to be a main concern. As an avid concert goer Erika always wanted to focus on sustainability within festival spaces. With that goal postponed, she decided to lay the groundwork through a virtual event which became Locals Fest. Locals Festival is an online festival that showcases locals while giving back to the community. When she envisioned what her ideal festival could be, working with and supporting the community was the utmost importance. Focusing on local charities that were so harshly impacted during this time are able to gather support financially and through community awareness.

So far Locals Fest has had two events supporting the community in GTA and Halton. Unlike traditional musical or food festivals, each set varies from music, culture, food and art ending each day with a performance. The first festival had locals focusing on topics from physiotherapy to fashion to making boba at home. Viewers are able to take part since some sets will have interactive aspects like yoga or painting instruction.

While the focus is about raising money for the chosen charity each festival, all parties have been able to come out of this experience for the better. After each festival the local businesses received more attention from customers that weren’t even aware they existed. Taking part in giveaways, viewers that donated to the cause were entered to win one of these establishment’s merch/services. In their first festival Locals Fest raised about $1,500 for Assaulted Women's Helpline and Black-CAP.

After being just a concept for so long, seeing real impact has given hope. Reveling in this feat she recognizes that, “I don't think that there was an organization or initiative in place that supports locals the way that we are while fundraising at the same time.” With so much accomplished in this short amount of time, there are many more goals Erika has in mind.

Currently a team of five, this group plans to expand platforms by hosting on YouTube live to make donations easier to manage and grow a much larger audience. They have already begun to plan the last festival of this year in December. In a year’s time, Locals Fest will occur four times each year, one for every season. As they continue to grow they hope to generate income in the future and once live events are allowed again the initial goal of creating a sustainable festival in physical form will be welcomed.

Their next festival, the third since they’ve begun, will support New York locals and donate 100% of the proceeds to Restore NYC. Restore NYC's purpose is to end sex trafficking in New York and restore the well-being and independence of foreign-national survivors.

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