Q&A with Manifesto Executive Director, Dwayne Dixon

Welcoming the new Executive Director, Dwayne Dixon and many new events to the already established festival, it is quite fitting that this year’s Manifesto carried the theme “Evolution”. Not only the festival, but also the urban community has seen a growth and a change this year, having caught the world’s attention. For four days, Toronto belonged to the underground, the urban artists and the hip-hop acts that are usually overlooked by mainstream festivals. As Dixon, prepared for the weekend’s festivities, he spoke about what made this year’s festival unique.
HOW WAS THE TRANSITION INTO THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ROLE BEEN WHILE PREPARING FOR THIS YEAR’S MANIFESTO FESTIVAL? It’s been a really intense transition. Manifesto is one of the biggest festivals that the city produces. When I joined, it was kind of like jumping onto a treadmill that’s already moving. I started during festival season and a lot of moving parts were already going. It has been pretty intense, but great, because I know a lot of the community partners already, I’ve been in this scene for a number of years and I’ve been able to add where needed.
WHAT DID FESTIVALGOERS GET FROM THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL THAT THEY HAVEN’T EXPERIENCED IN PREVIOUS YEARS? Our theme this year was about evolution. This year they experienced a new executive director and in addition to that, I’m really excited about the [Evolution Summit having been at] George Brown Waterfront campus. It’s a brand new campus. It has only been open for a year; it is along the waterfront and we activated that space for the first time for the arts. That is very important.
WHAT WAS THE PROCESS OF PUTTING TOGETHER THIS YEAR’S EVENTS LIKE FOR YOU? A lot of it had started prior to getting here and prior to me taking on this role. It has been a good process. There was a lot of moving parts and a lot of deadlines. One thing affects another. There’s a cause and effect to how we do things here at Manifesto… from print to securing the acts and working with their management and schedules, us getting photo shoots done and holding auditions here for our dance event, or getting artwork from different artists, it’s an intense process, but because we have such a dedicated and well-versed team, it could have been worse. It’s a well-oiled machine thus far.
WHAT WERE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO AT THE FESTIVAL? I’d have to say the Evolution Summit. At that event, you can clearly see the impact we have on future artists. It’s a place where we bring industry professionals, whether local or international in a space where your average artist or emerging artist wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to access some of this knowledge right at their fingertips. And it’s a great way to gage the impact of Manifesto outside of our most popular event at Dundas Square.
WHAT ROLE WOULD YOU SAY MANIFESTO PLAYS ON CANADA’S URBAN AND HIP-HOP COMMUNITY? To me, we’re at the forefront of the industry. I think that we’re in a very good position to help build an infrastructure here for the urban arts and how you actually learn through the urban arts. We cover a lot of different things and some of that is education and some of that is getting people to a point in their career where they are living off of their art. That is why I think Manifesto is very important to Toronto and Canada as a whole.