And over those years we hosted regular weekly Open Mics at Big Daddy’s, Yogi’s, The Grill, La Sicilian, the Falcon and Firkin, London Pub, twice-weekly open mic stage in Starbucks at the Cosmo Music Store, Open Mic and “Saturday Night Live” showcase at Turtle Jack’s Vogell , “Friday Night Live” showcase at Turtle Jack’s Yonge Street, “Dinner and a Show” series at The Aurora Armory, “Dinner and a Show” series at the Aurora Legion, Local Vocals showcase concerts, charity fundraisers, politician’s picnics, the three day “Summer Carnival” at Times Square, multiple summer guest open mics at King Square Mall and The Splendid China Mall, the Jazz Fest in Newmarket, and a YROM stage at Cosmofest featuring local performers drawn from our Open Mic community!

York Region Open Mic has always welcomed anyone and everyone, all ages and any genre, from 6 years old to 6 piece bands. We supplied a full backline at our flagship venues and separate sign-up sheet for drummers. No other Open Mic gave you more stage time. So many folks made their debut performance on one of our stages during the past decade, some going on to make music their career. Many others found their musical soulmates and built a band, myself included.

Treeline will be back into the studio for our second CD as soon as we are able.

So, until the entertainment universe reopens, what do we do? How do we grow? How do we connect with each other in a socially distant world? How do we support live music if we can’t be the live music? How do we play live without an intimate audience to energize our performance?

Have you got any ideas? 

Please submit a comment on the “Contact Us” page so we can start a community discussion (where feedback is a good thing!) and carry on the conversation when the world wakes up again.

In the meantime, join our biweekly Virtual Open Mic – The YROM VOM – on Facebook every Sunday andWednesday from midnight to midnight. Our platform is open to the world – you can join us from anywhere on the planet! We have never had more time to practice, and learning how to make better videos of yourselfplaying will be a valuable skill to develop. Your song will be posted here on this website under the Virtual Open Mic tab. Share it with your friends and family. Watch your peers and maybe make new friends.

York Region Open Mic has always been about providing a friendly platform for people who might not have had the chance to share their music before, and offer our audience the opportunity to experience new talent they might never otherwise see.

The mission statement of York Region Open Mic, our vision and purpose, is to organize as many community opportunities as possible for as many artists as possible to share their talent with as much of the community as possible. Those opportunities are changing as we speak!