905Fest to bring hip hop and fun to Bayfront Park

The fifth annual festival is bigger than ever and will raise non-perishable donations and money for Living Rock Youth Resources.

The fifth annual version of hip hop festival 905Fest is taking place this Sunday, Aug. 25 at Bayfront Park and creator, organizer and face of the festival Ktriggs, or Kevin Williamson, has been hard at work over the last year planning for it.

“Over the last few years I’ve taken time to make 905Fest more professional,” Williamson told HCM. “I’ve started giving myself a 12-month window over the last two years, so before 905Fest 2023 even ended, I started planning for 2024.”

Hamilton Arts Council board member, community organizer and rapper Ktriggs began 905Fest as a celebration of local hip hop and a fundraising event for local non-profit organization Living Rock Youth Resources, which provides free meals, groceries and other supports to at-risk youth in the city. All proceeds and donations from the festival go straight to Living Rock. Williamson’s 905Fest slogan is “community over competition,” a philosophy that the rapper is dedicated to, as money for the festivities often come from his own pockets.

Williamson is working to make 905Fest an official not-for-profit organization, so until then, the festival receives little funding. The support it does receive mainly comes from generous sponsors and grants. Williamson’s mother also contributes, attending to administrative tasks that her son is unable to make time for.

“The truth is, I’m only one person, and we’re a small team over here at 905Fest. There’s only about five or six of us,” said Williamson. “I created 905Fest because I wanted to give back to the community that I grew up in. Despite the fact that I grew up in a different way than most people did, I didn’t have as many support systems, I feel obligated to do what I do within my community. Not only do I owe it to the youth to show them a better path, but I owe it to the community to keep doing what I’m doing and keep creating a positive impact.”

For 2024’s festival, the team secured a much larger stage for their set-up at Bayfront Park, thanks to the folks at Custom Print Lab.

“Our friends at the print lab always help us out,” said Williamson. “If you’ve ever attended Concrete Canvas Fest, you’ll recognize the stage from that festival, we were connected through them.”

Instead of their regular DJ Grind Abrasion, who has moved into an administrative position helping behind-the-scenes, 905Fest 2024 will be soundtracked by DJ Gigizan. These changes, including building a larger team of organizers and improving their physical environment, are all a part of Williamson’s goal to improve the festival’s professionalism.

“Now that we’re building our name as an official hip hop festival in the city, gaining notoriety, you know, people know 905Fest. People are looking forward to 905Fest,” said Williamson. “Now that we have that it gives us more leverage with the city, other organizations and grants. For me, I just recently became a part of Hamilton Arts Council. I’m on their board of directors, so big thanks to them for including me. That’s a great step for me in terms of credibility. That gives me many more opportunities to connect with like-minded arts community members in Hamilton.”

Besides family-friendly entertainment, hip hop, games, art and food, 905Fest features booths advertising the services of local community organizations. Alongside Living Rock, this year’s festival will also feature The Hamilton Hub.

“The Hub will have a booth there. They’re a little different than Living Rock, they do more intervening type work for kids who are dealing with gangs, drugs. They deal with a different side of youth, but I know exactly what that’s like,” said Williamson. “I really wanted to include them because they’re a great organization and they offer a lot of resources. The ladies there are on-call 24/7 to help in crisis situations. My hope is that maybe someone who’s struggling will have a chance to check out these services and ask for help. I’ve gone to the Living Rock food bank before, I’m a little too old to do that now, but when I was younger I used that program to get food. It goes both ways, they helped me out, and this is my way of returning that.”

Thinking of attending? Williamson wants you to know that you can look forward to lots of good food, great hip hop, and a celebration of community.

“We’ll have some great food trucks, some bakeries,” said WIlliamson. “We’ll also have lots of great art, lots of cool knick knacks to buy, and of course, a lot of hip hop. We try to keep it family-friendly until about four or five-o-clock, then more mature acts will be performing.”

Sunday’s 905Fest runs from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m., and is free to enter, however, attendees are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item to donate for Living Rock. Find out more about 905Fest by visiting Williamson’s brand website Freedom of Speech Ent.