This summer I had the opportunity to work as an intern at Suoni Per Il Popolo, an annual arts and culture festival that took place over the course of two weeks in June, from the 6th to the 16th. Founded by local business owners Mauro Pezzente and Kiva Stimac in the year 2000, Suoni Per Il Popolo has brought musical and artistic talent from around the world to Montreal鈥檚 stages. For the past 20 years, Suoni has fulfilled its mandate to introduce international artists to Montreal audiences, champion the city鈥檚 local music scene, and celebrate challenging and political art, time and time again.
Having spent much of my 捆绑SM社区 career reporting on local arts and entertainment initiatives for The 捆绑SM社区 Tribune, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work alongside the people responsible for hosting some of my favourite events from over the years. Though Suoni only happens once a year, Pezzente and Stimac are also the owners of Casa Del Popolo, La Vitrola, and La Sala Rosa, three of Montreal鈥檚 staple music venues and the team works year-round to provide accessible programming and entertainment to their community.
This year鈥檚 festival was Suoni鈥檚 20th anniversary and should have been another successful year of live concerts and events. However, due to COVID-19 and the global lockdown that ensued, the Suoni team had to reimagine the festival entirely. The lineup would now feature exclusively local artists whose performances would be livestreamed for audiences to enjoy from home.
My responsibilities during the pre-festival period included promoting and advertising the upcoming events online. Throughout the festival I served as an extra pair of hands to everyone from the sound technician to the artists themselves. Getting to experience being behind-the-scenes of putting on a show made me realize just how much of a process it is. Switching to an online format only added to the existing challenges of the event.
Ensuring the safety and comfort of the artists we were working with required much planning and organization. Some chose to screen pre-recorded videos of their performances and some streamed their act live from the stage in La Sala Rosa, performing to an audience often comprised of no one but the camera person and the sound technician. In some ways this felt anti-climactic, as I was looking forward to the kind of organized chaos that I was assured came with managing a live show, but the work was stressful and rewarding all the same.
In a matter of weeks, the team had reorganized their plans entirely, reimagining the very concept of the festival and assuming unfamiliar and challenging roles. It was inspiring to watch such a small team work together to pull off something so novel. Monitoring the streams in the evenings felt rewarding and for the rest of my life I will be able to tell the story of when I got to watch Backxwash perform six feet away from me. She is an incredible, Polaris nominated rapper and it was surreal to experience what felt to me like a private concert from her.
All in all, the festival was a success. After it wrapped in mid-June, the team set out to address their next challenge: sustaining three music venues during a world-wide lockdown. Unfortunately, we learned at the end of the month that La Vitrola would be closing. I was saddened, both as an employee and a patron of the business. Venues like La Vitrola are so much more than just concert spaces: they make music and art accessible, connect people to their communities, and provide a safe space for queer, trans, Indigenous, and racialized artists and individuals.
The Suoni team, myself, and concert-goers everywhere are coming to terms with the fact that the foreseeable future of live music is uncertain. Currently, the stage at Casa del Popolo has been replaced by a boutique featuring Stimac鈥檚 own art and goods from local artisans. Pezzente and Stimac were kind enough to hire me to work in the store once my internship ended at the beginning of August. I am endlessly grateful to the staff for taking me under their wing during what was no doubt a very stressful moment. I look forward to continuing to work alongside them, and I have no doubt that I will continue to learn from and be inspired by the team even in my capacity at the store.
Thank you very much to the Arts Internship Office for providing me with this opportunity and for providing funding via the Archie Malloch Undergraduate Internships in Public Learning award. Thank you as well to Professor Eric Lewis for acting as a liaison between 捆绑SM社区 and Suoni. And finally, thank you so much to my supervisor Peter Burton and the rest of the Suoni staff for your patience, enthusiasm, and work!
