NewmarketToday continues its fifth annual tradition of marking the giving season by celebrating Newmarket's Community Angels — the people whose kindness, compassion and community spirit help make our town one of the best to live in the country.
Having always been passionate about the punk scene in York Region, particularly in Newmarket, Gavin Parkes felt there was a chance to do something special coming out of the pandemic.
He had played a few shows in the area last summer and noticed the scene had died down post-COVID and began to worry about how bleak the turnout had become for a once thriving music community.
Parkes looked at what was going on and knew something had to be done to help build the scene back. At the same time, he looked beyond the punk scene and saw a similar trajectory for adjacent music genres like metal and hardcore.
Given the circumstances, Parkes knew it would make more sense to unite the different heavy music genres under one flag.
“That would give people the opportunity to go see events with multiple genres and give promotion to all the bands with a wider audience,” he said. “That’s what I figured we should do.”
That led to Parkes to create Newmarket Loud at the beginning of 2023 in an effort to amalgamate all the different scenes to build more buzz for local York Region and Simcoe bands while bringing new ears to every show.
“Instead of one group of a certain heavy genre knowing about a show, now every fan of heavy music knows about the local shows,” he said.
It was important to Parkes to try and breathe life back into the heavy music scene in Newmarket, especially after years of it being the hub for that style of music in York Region and Simcoe.
For Parkes, the best way to help do that wasn’t necessarily just about promoting events, but focusing on the local bands.
“Events happen all the time,” he said. “Bands to people on social media are just a name of a flyer.”
Parkes said it always made more sense to him that someone on social media would be more interested in learning about the bands than seeing that there’s just an event happening in the community.
That’s why the focus turned to the bands and ensuring every band playing a Newmarket Loud event had their music posted on the social media page. Along with promoting the bands music, the Newmarket Loud team conducted interviews with the bands to accompany posts about them prior to the shows.
“Getting into that mindset with fans that they’re coming out to see the bands rather than for the event itself was important,” he said. “That’s what makes it a quality show, going to see a band, not just going for a night out.”
The social media page now has links to more than 50 local bands from York Region and Simcoe who have played Newmarket Loud shows in the last year and the page has garnered more than 800 followers.
It’s always been important to Parkes to help open the door for musicians in the community because there’s thousands of them across southern Ontario with nowhere to play.
“Being able to go to a show in your local community to see a band that’s just as good as the ones playing (at the big venues) in Toronto is pretty cool,” he said. “Just because they’re not signed to a larger label doesn’t mean the talent isn’t there. You have to give them the platform.”
Beyond helping grow the local music scene, Newmarket Loud follows the punk ethic of bettering the community and helping others.
Each Newmarket Loud event also has an awareness aspect to it focusing on raising funds for organizations that help with autism, victims of crimes, and other initiatives. On top of the specific initiatives at each show, every Newmarket Loud event raises food and funds for the Newmarket Food Pantry.
“The punk history in Newmarket dates back 20 years,” he said. “With punk shows back in the day, it’s always been a staple of what this scene does. It’s no skin off anybody’s back to put a bin out and ask people who are coming to the shows to bring something to donate.”
Parkes said it’s always fun to go out and play or what a show, but knowing the next day you’ve done something to help your community makes it all worthwhile.
"It's funny, we've had some people come out to support the charity who aren't punk or heavy metal fans," he said. "But they leave as punk and heavy metal fans."
Learn more about Newmarket Loud here.