Short Bio:
I am a young black entrepreneur from Bradford West Yorkshire. At heart I am a creative in every sense of the word. I am a graphic designer, web designer, animation creator, song writer, music engineer and an events manager.
I founded, created and branded my own youth events organisation called Teen Scene Parties in 2018 to bridge the gap between local creatives/young entrepreneurs and to give a digitally native generation a voice when nobody else would. These events consist of emerging musicians performing alongside established musicians in a safe and secure environment. I have platformed a plethora of local and national artists, hired local creatives such as videographers and photographers, hired local stewards who use to be Teen Scene attendees but are now past our age limit so they have joined our team, and worked alongside other small businesses who provided necessary services for our events. I found it hard to establish my organisation in the corporate world due to a constant stigma surrounding my target audience and the lack of understanding surrounding our culture. This was nipped in the but around 2020 when I was introduced to Nick Greenan who is the head of cultural partnerships at the Bradford council. She then went on to introduce me to the new Mayor of West Yorkshire and the director of Bradford 2025. From our very first event we had the backing of our local authorities but now we also have the backing of our local council and the Bradford youth service. The organisation and our audience has continued to grown and we have continued to drive engagement into our city. Due to having guests travel from all surrounding towns/cities and as far as Scarborough and Birmingham we have decided to answer their request to take our organisation on tour and the first stop is Halifax.
My latest creation is Called Scenario – Aporia Euphoria.
This is a sophisticated over 18s event which consist of a delicious brunch or “dupper dish” (dinner/supper), followed by an exclusive afterparty.
In 2021 I also revived a family orientated event called Peoples Day at the Mapa Cultural arts centre in Bradford. This was created by my late mentor Mikey Roots and his band called creation roots. They struggled to find a place to practice and perform their music to an audience so they created their own event called Peoples Day and it helped establish musicians and small business owners from the Black community in Bradford from the late 80s to the early 2000’s. I basically went head on with this challenge with a retrofitted approach and brought and analogue event into a digital age introducing new digital branding, new social interaction, new musicians and new small businesses owners as well as incorporating my own youth organisation to celebrate our culture and heritage. Peoples Day 2021 was a huge success so I was asked to manage the 2022 event which was even better and I am considering taking it even further in 2023.
TONY TOKUNBO ETEKA FERNANDEZ 