Panel 5
The Sonic Underground: Music and Monumentality in the New Calgary
August 06, 2025
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
As Calgary’s urban core transforms, so do the spaces that once held the pulse of its underground. DIY venues shutter, live shows move to sanctioned spaces, and sound ordinances shape the after-hours landscape. What if the most powerful monuments in a city aren’t murals or sculptures, but the stories, sweat, and soundtracks of rave basements, punk shows, and underground sets?
This panel explores how music culture, especially live, unsanctioned, and underground scenes, functions as a form of living public art. These sonic gatherings serve as archives of memory and resistance, preserving the spirit of communities that often operate at the margins. In a city like Calgary, where cultural identity is rapidly evolving, we bring together artists, venue owners, DJs, and organizers, asking them to dive into the role of sound as a monument, the political and spatial precarity of performance spaces, and how we might advocate for new cultural policies that recognize rave and DIY music culture as vital to the fabric of Canadian cities.
This event has completed.
Speakers:
Maud Salvi
Sheena Jardine-Olade AKA Donna Dadda
Rachel Weldon
Simone Chnarakis AKA WURLD2000K
Moderator(s):
Priya AKA. CONTRA