Observations Revitalizing “the scene.” No, not that scene. Or that one.

The Uma Nota music series has been a regular bimonthly happening since 2007, reliably filling the Gladstone Hotel ballroom with swarms of hot young things with a hankering for Afro-Latin dance beats against live drumming acts and fusion DJs. Maybe you’ve heard of it, but it’s likely you haven’t. This is something Uma Nota co-founder Alex Bordokas hoped to change with the establishment of a new, three-day multimedia festival series, the first of which wrapped this weekend.

“A lot of the mainstream media has not been into it, with their indie rock prerogative of only supporting plaid-shirted bands,” says Bordokas, “Not that there’s anything wrong with plaid.” Bordokas heads local Afro-Brazilian drumming group Maracatu Mar Aberto in addition to being a key man-about-town in what he refers to as “the scene.”

When he talks about the media’s neglect, Bordokas means that murky territory usually classified as world music—a blanket definition that, while arguably inclusive, does no one any justice. It’s not an uncommon complaint among members of the scene—yes, “the scene”—that surrounds Uma Nota: a sizeable and vibrant community of Brazilians, Latinophiles, Afrobeat aficionados, and the like. While the parties are reliably packed, they tend to be filled by the same old faces. But, such wasn’t the case this time around.

“This time we got a different crowd for sure,” says Bordokas of the inaugural three-day event. “Maybe because we linked all these different vibes together, we were able to let people in different scenes know about different events.” Film screenings, dance workshops, live bands, and DJ sets were all on offer, a little something for everyone. But there were also strategic partnerships with other like-minded community arts organizations, Clay And Paper Theatre and Manifesto among them, designed to help spread the word.

Now, Bordokas and his Uma Nota organizing partners are thinking ahead, with hopes to expand. The way he sees it, Canada needs to lighten up and get comfortable with itself, and this scene can help.

“I feel like Canadian society is suffering from this fear of self-expression,” he says. “Maybe it’s because of our Protestant heritage in Ontario, whereas in Quebec with their French-Catholic heritage they’re a little more expressive. Maybe it’s because everyone’s an immigrant from somewhere else in Toronto so no one wants to rock the boat. No one wants to cause a scene, attract attention.”

But critics and cultural curators have been diagnosing Toronto’s terminal stick-up-the-assedness since forever. Bordokas and his crew are keenly aiming to create an experience of musical tourism—a re-creation of a displaced backpacker’s open-mindedness. “[People] never feel quite as free in Toronto as [they] do when [they’re] traveling,” he explains.  “So what we do is bring you there. We take you to those places where you feel comfortable to express yourself and have a good time.”