Nearly 400 people attended Laurier Hub for Community Solution’s second annual Fusion Beats talent show initiative on Thursday, October 24, 2024.
The free event, which was held in partnership with the Sanderson Centre and supported by Contestoga Students Inc., Laurier’s International Student Support and the City of Brantford, was first held late last September.
Christina Han, Director of the Laurier Hub for Community Solutions, said the idea for the event came from a discussion with Glen Brown, Theatre Manager for the Sanderson Centre.
“Around two years ago, Glen Brown said to me ‘you know, Laurier students aren’t coming to our shows even though we’re right downtown in the middle of campus,’” recollected Han. “I said to him, ‘why don’t you give me a day or two to look into it and maybe we’ll try to put together an event that students would love to go to, but also where we can showcase some student talent.’ We thought it was just a great way to introduce our students and the public to the Sanderson Centre and get them coming back for more.”
Han said that while she didn’t know how many people would show up, she was pleasantly surprised with the turnout for last year’s inaugural event.
“I had no idea what to expect but we had around 600 people show up which was great; about a third of the attendees were from Laurier, a third were from Conestoga, and then the other third were community members,” said Han. “I think what I love most about Fusion Beats is that it’s a great event that really brings the whole community together.”
Although this year’s crowd was slightly smaller than last year, Han said she was happy with the turnout and overall energy of the evening.
“Last year we had the event in late September, but because this year was right after reading week and it was close to Halloween, we had about 400 people come out which to me, was still great,” said Han. “In terms of the show, I found that it was even better than last year because we were no longer putting it on for the first time and so we were able to make some improvements. It’s a lot of work to organize and there’s a lot of moving parts but when the day comes and it’s time to go, everything happens very magically.”
She said that not only is the event a special, once in a lifetime, experience for the student performers, but they also get paid for their work as well.
“When I talk to student performers, they absolutely love the experience because for them, this is a once in a lifetime experience, right? It’s not everyday you get to perform on the Sanderson stage,” she said. “Not only that, but with the help of Laurier’s International Student Support and Conestoga Students Inc., we also pay our student performers because we want to recognize their talents and their hard work.”
With a total of ten performances, including headliner Layla Staats, a musician, filmmaker, and activist based in Six Nations of the Grand River, the evening’s lineup featured a host of singers, dancers and community performers who put their talents on display.
“We held auditions at the Sanderson Centre for both students and community members because we wanted to try and discover some new talent, and that ended up being really great for us,” said Han. “We had a lot of international students this year, including a Hindi rapper, a Punjabi folk singer, a Nigerian singer, and a Central Asian dancer performing with an electric guitarist, and it was just fantastic.”
Overall, Han said her favourite parts of the show were getting to see the different talents and watching the audience show their support.
“It’s the kind of show that you don’t really get to watch in Brantford, and so seeing all the young people having fun, waving their LED flashing glow sticks and just cheering each other on was really special,” she said.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
