The Debut 2026

Why I run this

I started The Debut in October 2025 because I kept meeting artists who were good — genuinely good — and had nowhere to be seen doing it properly. No engineered sound, no real audience, no footage worth keeping afterwards. This is one night a year that fixes that for a handful of them. It's a stage for beginners who stand out in their craft.

Who's on it

RYO and Scartown Koom are back for a second time, both playing new releases that get their first hearing in the room that night.

Peel Baby J Sav and Seth Muyaba are new to the stage this year.

What happened last time

The first edition, October 2025, sold 120 tickets against a target of 100. A couple of weeks before it, MET Radio had me on to talk about what I was building.

Before The Debut, I helped put on The Next Wav with Speaker Rhythms Entertainment — planning the night and running the team behind it. That room drew 100.

Those are the numbers I have, and they're the only ones I'll quote you. This is the second year. It's small, and it's real.

The night

Saturday 17 October 2026 The Rec Room, Square One, Mississauga The room holds 250.

Early bird tickets are $15 for the first week, then $20 until the show.

Partners

I don't ask sponsors for money. I ask for something you already have spare capacity in — product, print, airtime, gear, a service — and in exchange your name goes on the event artwork and the listings, gets mentioned from the stage on the night, and runs through the social content in the build-up.

It's scoped to this one event. Nothing to report, nothing to maintain, nothing owed once the doors close.