My name is Jaiden; I’m 19 and a young entrepreneur. I’ve grown up in Chelmsford for most of my life and it hasn’t always been an easy living.

In my earlier life, I was living between Chelmsford & London so I was becoming exposed to both living situations and cultures. Whilst I’d stay at my grandma’s in Haggerston (N1), I was in a diverse community, where I’d walk 15 minutes down the road to Ridley Road Market or better still in general locally have access to hair products or Caribbean food shops. Whereas here in Chelmsford, I was back to being a minority. Where I’d be the only kid of colour in school. Or there was 1 Afro-Caribbean barbershop in the area for me to get a trim and buy some proper hair products for my hair.

Even in 2024, there’s only 2 Afro Barbershops; Afro Barber Lounge on Broomfield Road and the other being of course Ossaga. Because of this, rather than complain and feel ‘hard done by’, I started looking into what else is lacking in Chelmsford in which I’ll get to later.

Since I was aged 12, I’ve been involved in many local organisations; from the Young Essex Assembly to the YMCA + Young Carers Organisations, all the way up until now being involved in the NGDA and LCEP (Spark) a local youth forum where I’m able to work with other young people, Liz, Rachana, and other great people.

In 2023, myself and my best friend of 12 years came up with an idea to try change up the nightlife scene. We both have parents who grew up in the scene of Underground raves, Warehouse raves, Techno & House was heavy in clubs, Garage, Jungle, DNB + Dancehall Music became a culture in the 90s. Therefore, we’ve been educated with our music and appreciate music at its best. Myself being British Caribbean I’m a lover of Caribbean Music whether that’s Reggae, Ska, Dancehall, or Soca. We came up with the idea initially to do Boat Parties but we realised quickly, it wouldn’t be as easy to do in comparison to when our parents were DJs and setting up raves back in the day. I joined NGDA (New Generation Development Agency) back in September, where I met Sangita + Wrenay and I have been able to work with my cousins Georgie & Leila as well as all the other kids that come to the youth club.

Over the past few months, I’ve enjoyed every second of working with NGDA, and the respect I have for Sangita, Wren, my cousins, and the other kids is beyond words. Especially with all the support, guidance, long conversations, joint efforts I’ve had with them in order to set up my business, so then I was able to set up Night Til Dawn in November.

Since setting up Night Til Dawn, I’ve had a few setbacks but have had a fair bit of success. In October, I was able to get in touch with Jon at Hotbox through Georgie and trial an event in January. It was meant to be a Bashment Party on Sunday 7th January (earlier this year), but it was postponed due to expected low attendance, we couldn’t sell tickets, mainly because of lack of experience in marketing, the weather, it was just after Christmas & New Year etc.

But in March we were able to get another opportunity. This time in Camden at Kiss The Sky Bar where we hosted ‘BRING THE BASS BACK’ a 90s music night with Rave, Techno, Club, Jungle + Garage. I sold 75 tickets on Eventbrite but the kicker was, only 25 people came throughout the night. It was a learning curve for sure. It was my first time DJ’n, and I had a good reception, people enjoyed and appreciated the wide variety of music I was mixing.

Now we’re in May, I’ve been fortunate to help NGDA and Subliminal Productionz (Georgie) in all the amazing projects they’ve been involved in e.g. Lost For Words at the museum, being a junior co-ordinator at Black History Month last year.

All the way until now, where I’m hosting another event at Hotbox (rescheduled from January) but with a completely different perspective. This is aimed to be my USP (Unique Selling Proposition). I’m calling this event RAGGA, FOOD & VYBZ. Ragga Music, Caribbean Food & Vybz (Good Energy). This event will be Sunday June 2nd and this time will be different to the others because it will be the new start in what we as NTD want to do, and that’s change up the scene in a way that has more diversity & culture in music rather than the generic, same old, same old that music in clubs has become of today. We acknowledge those who have been doing this before us, but we’re trying to do our own thing and add our own twists and get an audience where people from all backgrounds can come and have a good time.

The event itself will have 2 DJs. One DJ will be doing Reggae Music from 2pm-5pm and the other will be myself the @Ragga_Enforcer doing old skool Dancehall + Jungle, Modern Dancehall, Soca + Afrobeats for the rest of the event. From 2pm until when the food sells out, I’ll do a trial of food so then I can sell my food which is another side hustle I plan to do at some point in the not to distant future. The event being at Hotbox means you already know its going to be good, as they have great staff, a great space for community events and it’s at the bus station so it’s easy accessible.

Overall, RAGGA FOOD & VYBZ will hopefully be something I can continue with regularly and I just want to thank Jon + Dave at Hotbox for allowing NTD to have the venue to host the event. It will be a good one, so be sure to get your tickets on DICE for £5 – a bargain if you ask me + hopefully see you all there.