This is so punk: Anti-capitalist venue selling bonds to buy its building

  Radstorm, Halifax’s space for do-it-yourself music and all-ages shows, is raising money to buy its building. So far, the campaign has been a success.

Through a bond program called RadBond, the venue at 2177 Gottingen Street is letting people invest in the future of RadStorm. It’s a move the anti-capitalist non-profit says is necessary to avoid being priced out of their north end neighbourhood—where they’ve been located for over 15 years—due to rising rents.

Radstorm is a collectively run space for DIY art of all kinds, from its all-ages music venue and a pay-what-you-can rehearsal and recording space to its zine library and screenprinting studio. In one year, the venue holds approximately 1,000 events featuring around 200 unique bands.

To buy its building, RadStorm will need a total of $500,000. They are hoping to reach $350,000 of this through the bond program, intending to purchase the building in 2025 from their supportive landlords. As of Sept. 16, it has raised $100,000.

“Spaces like RadStorm are essential to sustain a healthy, exciting and relevant arts and culture sector,” says former Bus Stop Theatre director Sébastien Labelle—another venue on Gottingen Street—in a press release circulated on Monday announcing the $100,000 benchmark had been achieved. “Small and affordable venues play a critical role in providing space to explore and take risks, to either start out or to sustain a practice on the margins of the mainstream. They provide the fertile ground out of which sprout new trends and new connections across a wide spectrum of artists and audiences.”

The venue is also looking towards individual donations and government funding to help cover the cost of the 3,300-square-foot building. The bond program is managed by Tapestry Community Capital, which is based out of Ontario.

“Radstorm has helped me practise my craft as a musician that would have been financially inaccessible otherwise,” says drummer Lucas Goudie, who is part of RadStorm’s volunteer fundraising team. “We have an amazing opportunity to buy the building at a great price so that we can ensure Halifax can benefit from RadStorm forever.”

For more information on RadStorm’s efforts to buy its building, or to contribute yourself through either investments or donations, visit their website.

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