When Cheyanna Kootenhayoo was a little girl, music was playing more often in her house than the TV.
Kootenhayoo, who performs as , recalls recording songs from the radio on cassette tapes.
Then her family got its first computer.
She would play music and then play with the knobs on the computer's speakers.
"There was a volume, a base, and one more [knob]. And I used to just play around with them. I'd listen to music, and turn the bass off and on and just randomly play with them," she recalled. Her interest all makes sense now, more than 12 years into her DJing career.
When she was a kid though, she didn't imagine she would take this path.
"I didn't even know what a DJ was or what they did," she said.
But when she bought her first set of real DJ gear, her passion and confidence increased and she knew it was what she wanted to do.
She is now known internationally, playing for audiences in Germany, Australia, Mexico, and the U.S.
In Canada she has played at, among many other events, Basscoast, Bastid鈥檚 BBQ and Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week.
Coming up, she is performing at as part of a fundraiser for the 麻豆社国产Arts Festival on Friday, Feb. 28.
The Indigenous DJ and producer from the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation is based in Vancouver, but this isn't her first time performing in Squamish.
She played at Sp'akw'us Feather Park during the 麻豆社国产Arts Festival last August.
"It was honestly one of my favourite sets last year, because I was DJing, and I had this massive crowd鈥攅veryone's having so much fun, and then you just see the mountains in the back. It was so pretty," she recalled.
This upcoming show will be her first of 2025, as she took some time off in the fall.
As to what to expect from this show, she said she calls her music a global sound.
Her shows are always high energy, getting people vibing and dancing.
"I definitely love kind of like a fast, crunchy-type music," she said.
She mixes various genres, such as hip-hop remixes, Latin and Brazilian.
"It's always something fun," she said.
(Find out more about her on her or.)
The fundraiser also includes performances by Danny Mal, Just Sheila, and Firefox.
Keeping 麻豆社国产Arts Festival free
Clea Young, executive director of 麻豆社国产Arts told The 麻豆社国产 that the non-profit has seen reduced grant funding for its festival.
"If we want to keep it a free event for the public, we need to find other sources of revenue, such as sponsorships and doing events such as this fundraiser to keep it free," she said, adding that there are new costs associated with the programming that there weren't previously.
"Now that the Sp鈥檃kw鈥檜s Feather Park is open to the public, there are costs associated with using it that weren't there before, such as waste management and traffic control and that sort of thing, and keeping the site safe for everyone who's down there."
The fundraiser runs from 8 to 11:59 p.m.
Young said folks can expect the entire fundraiser evening to be "danceable."
"It's going to be a highly danceable evening, essentially, on the threshold of spring. And we just want to put 麻豆社国产Arts Festival at the forefront in people's minds, so that they're excited about it as we move closer."
Find out more about the fundraiser and get tickets on Eventbrite. Search for "."
Keep an eye on the and social media for updates and details on what to expect in 2025.
