Toronto’s Manifesto Music Festival turned 15 this year.  The iconic festival celebrated with powerful programming curated to inspire artists across the creative industries to follow their dreams, while helping them build the toolkit full of tips and skills needed to succeed.

This educational 2-day summit featured everything from Holistic Healing and Burnout-Combating Yoga to Personal Finance, Business Deals, Influencing, and Storytelling through Marketing. Each day also ended with insightful panels, including Hip Hop’s Role in Raising Consciousness and a fun talk with 3X Grammy Award winning hit-makers, producers and songwriters Cool & Dre.

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Our biggest takeaway from ManifestoTO15: The Summit (Sept 9-10) was the ongoing conversation around authenticity. It seemed to be the common denominator in each of the virtual panels and the dealbreaking quality that will determine the launch of your career. The various panelists highlighted what it means to practice authenticity and self-awareness as an artist.

• • Be organized: have a plan and set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals.
  • Promote yourself: choose social platforms that speak most to who you are and who you are trying to connect with.
  • Communicate YOUR story: it’s all about the journey! Improve your craft by constantly developing your creative skills.
  • Tap into your roots: surround yourself with people who have always believed in your vision.
  • Do not give up: it may take years for you to break out but consistency is key. Your habits today will determine your future.
  • Finally, look after yourself throughout the creative process.

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Jamaican-Canadian Poet, d’bi.young anitafrika expressed the importance of improving holistic health by listening to your body and moving through trauma in joyful motion. The problematic ideas around success and who needs to be celebrated can rob us of our birthright of experiencing joy. These systemic oppressions force themselves into our mind frames causing us to be preoccupied and thus holistic wellness becomes secondary because we are too busy fighting the oppressions that occupy our mind. Consider rupturing oppression through finding your own joy which will point you in the direction of holistic health, wellness, and pure authenticity.

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To commemorate 15 years of coming together to build and support music, art, community & culture, the Manifesto15 Summit led up to an incredible day of music from 20 acts headlined by Savannah Ré and Notifi at Cityview Drive-In in Downtown Toronto (Sept 11). Relive the experience by listening to the #MANIFESTO15 playlist on Spotify.

Kicking yourself for missing out on this festival? Head to Manifesto’s Facebook page to watch each panel.

Manifesto Website: https://www.mnfsto.com/

Manifesto’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ManifestoToronto/

Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/10Yx6Qqzbg0Cl8aRTHuyOK?si=0FaOJP-iTbGL_sx2oCcUKQ