For years, Halifax’s music scene has given artists a place to start.
On Oct 3, a group of artists who found their way to Nova Scotia from different parts of the province and the world will perform on one of the city’s best-known stages, showcasing what can happen when those beginnings grow into something bigger.
The Million Experience, curated by Halifax-based music collective Million Vibes, will take over The Marquee, bringing together artists working across Afrofusion, hip-hop, R&B and other global sounds, with performances backed by a live band and additional production elements.
The event is the latest step in a project that founder and producer Stak says began organically in Halifax.
Stak, who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, founded Million Vibes after working as a producer and wanting to create more opportunities for the artists around him. What started with a group of musicians making music together developed into a collective and, eventually, a platform for artists to perform, collaborate and build careers.
“It’s a home for creatives,” Stak says.
The collective’s beginnings were rooted in a simple observation: artists making global and Afro-inspired music did not always have obvious stages or infrastructure for their work in Halifax. Rather than waiting for those opportunities, Stak and the other members began creating their own.
“If we are in here, I think we can find a structure to build this industry,” Stak says.
That idea has continued to grow.
Million Vibes has since become a larger creative community, connecting artists, DJs and producers while helping members find performance and development opportunities. The collective has also become increasingly visible in Halifax’s music ecosystem, including through appearances at major local events. Music Nova Scotia has recognized Million Vibes through its industry and artistic development programs, while the collective has continued creating its own stages.
The Million Experience represents the next stage of that evolution.
The first Million Experience took place as a pop-up performance during Nova Scotia Music Week last year. For Stak, that performance demonstrated that the concept could become something larger and potentially recurring.
“Oct 3 really is just, it’s like, you know, this is everything we’ve been doing,” Stak says. “This is the culture we’ve been building.”
The 2026 event is part of HUFF’s Oct. 3 programming at The Marquee, with doors at 8 p.m. and the show beginning at 9 p.m. The advertised lineup includes BASYL, KAYO, Badi, Ryan Vinent, Yung St4k, HEGATSBE and others.
At the centre of that lineup are artists whose paths to Halifax began in very different places.
Basil Sabri, who performs as BASYL, is a Palestinian artist who was born and raised in Jordan and has lived in Canada for about 12 years. He has been making music professionally for about four years.
For BASYL, hip-hop has always been more than a genre. He describes it as one of the forces that shaped him, alongside stand-up comedy, while his Palestinian background has informed the themes he carries into his work.
“Music has been an outlet for me to express myself, but more importantly for me is to actually discover myself,” he says. “With every song, with every new song I write, I get to know myself a little better.”
His music has already reached audiences well beyond Halifax. His 2022 song “Conversations” landed on Spotify editorial playlists and has accumulated hundreds of thousands of streams, giving him confidence to continue pursuing music professionally.
BASYL says Halifax has also played an important role in developing his craft. He sees the city as a place where emerging artists can learn, perform and build their experience, even as the financial realities of making a living solely through music remain difficult.
“Halifax has given us a lot,” he says.
That support, he says, has created a responsibility for artists to return that energy to the audience through their work.
At The Million Experience, BASYL plans to perform songs with a live band for the first time, after weeks and months of preparation.
“For the Million Vibe Experience, what they’re going to see is elevation,” he says.
Joining him is Nigerian-born Afrofusion artist Demilade Akande, known as Yung St4k. Yung St4k moved from Lagos to Halifax and became involved with Million Vibes in 2022, initially through studio sessions and the friendships that formed around the collective. The Halifax Urban Folk Festival describes him as an Afrofusion artist whose work is influenced by African rhythms and whose music centres on connection and joy.
For Yung St4k, there is no rigid formula to making music. He creates when he feels the urge to make something he considers unique and good, rather than treating music like a chore.
His latest EP, Expensive Music, includes “Retrograde,” a song he describes as being rooted in a push-and-pull relationship and the desire to make something work despite not always receiving the same love in return.
He also sees his music as an opportunity to remind listeners to be themselves.
“Being an artist is just creating, being yourself and self-expression,” he says.
Yung St4k credits Million Vibes with helping him find a community in Halifax and across Nova Scotia.
“It’s a family,” he says.
The collective’s newest member, DJ Madison Rafuse, who performs as Badi, represents another side of that expanding community.
Rafuse describes herself as a DJ who likes to move between genres and read the room rather than stick to one sound. Although she has been DJing privately for several years, her public career has accelerated recently, with a growing number of performances and appearances, including two events hosted by Red Bull. Badi is a full-time teacher and grew up in Annapolis Valley, but now lives in Halifax.
“Growing up, these were not opportunities that were presented, and it feels incredible to be living my dream, making memories with my family.”
Her inclusion in Million Vibes came naturally through friendships and collaborations with members of the collective.
“We are a collective, but I think of us more like a family; we push each other to achieve our dreams,” she says, describing herself as a longtime fan of the Million Vibes artists before officially joining the group.
At The Million Experience, Badi will bring the DJ perspective to a show that is deliberately designed to move beyond a traditional concert format. She says audiences may hear unreleased or new music, while the live band and other performance elements will create a different experience from the collective’s usual shows.
For Rafuse, that steady progression reflects what can happen when artists build their careers through Halifax’s relatively close-knit music community. She says she has watched her own opportunities grow through consistency, relationships and simply continuing to show up, and she sees DJing becoming more than a side pursuit if that momentum continues.
For now, teaching remains her full-time career, but the goal is to eventually make music a more permanent part of her working life. Her experience also mirrors the larger ethos behind Million Vibes: artists do not necessarily have to wait for an established industry structure to give them a stage. They can collaborate, create opportunities for one another and build an audience in the city themselves. As Rafuse put it in discussing The Million Experience, “the group has spent months putting its ‘hearts, sweat and tears’ into the show” and “we want all of Halifax to come watch what we have been cooking up.”
This echoed a sentiment that the artist believes this is them taking another step in creating the kind of music ecosystem they want to see around them.
BASYL sees that progression as part of Halifax’s larger musical development.
He says there is money to be made in the city’s music ecosystem, particularly through grants and development opportunities, but that it remains difficult for many artists to sustain themselves through music alone. Halifax, he says, can be a place for artists to develop their craft before reaching larger markets.
He believes the region’s music scene is continuing to grow.
“I look at Halifax as a perfect place for young artists to start and get their rounds in, learn their crafts,” he says.
The Million Experience is an attempt to take those lessons from smaller stages to a bigger one.
Badi says the show has been in development for roughly six months, with the members putting significant time and effort into rehearsals and planning. Stak sees it as a statement about what Million Vibes has been building since 2022.
For BASYL, that statement is personal as well as collective.
“We have all started in Halifax doing, making music,” he says. “You as the audience, you’ve always supported us since day one and now you guys deserve to get like a world class show.”
The Million Experience takes place Oct. 3 at The Marquee, with doors opening at 8 p.m. and the show beginning at 9 p.m. It is part of the Halifax Urban Folk Festival’s 2026 programming.
And after years of building the community, creating the stages and finding their place in Halifax’s music scene, Stak has one question for the audience.
“What’s the vibe?” he says. “Come and see what’s the vibe on Oct 3.”
