20 April 4-10, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | News | letters | coNteNts | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Weekly Planner Always Lunes offers Miami’s most comprehensive guide to underground events. BY JOSE D. DURAN A fter moving to Miami six years ago from Panama, a then- teenage Lunes Oña was look- ing to polish his English while attending high school in Little Havana. Oña quickly became active in extra- curricular activities, particularly TV produc- tion and choir. “I was very much like an art kid,” Oña says. When he began attending Miami Dade College, Oña started exploring activities out- side of school, taking in local rap shows and art exhibitions. Unfortunately, this was around 2019 and 2020, and when the pan- demic struck, Oña, along with the rest of the world, would be stuck at home. Around this time, Oña had also developed a clothing brand called Always Lunes, complete with social media accounts. However, during the pandemic, he rebranded it into an art mag- azine where an artist would be featured every other day, totaling 135 entries. “That was my way during the pandemic of being like, ‘I don’t want to let go of these people,’” he adds. In 2022, as the world slowly opened up, Oña pivoted again, turning Always Lunes into a weekly event guide, focusing primarily on underground art and music shows. “I started going to these shows — I went to a house show that was run by Goon Green, and I went to Omni Fest, which is not a thing anymore — and I realized there were events happening pretty frequently,” he says. At the house shows and underground events, Oña also noticed that the same people turned up repeatedly. He thought something needed to be done to attract new audiences. Still, the idea to start a curated calendar of events came from Oña’s desire to know what was happening around town. “I want to know what options I have, and it’s hard to keep up if I’m just following all these people and scroll- ing on Instagram. I needed to put all of this together somehow for myself, and I figured out a way to also make it public.” He ultimately created the most compre- hensive weekly guide to underground events happening in and around Miami. Every Wednesday on Instagram, Oña drops his selec- tion of events that, as one re- cent post put it perfectly, helps you “avoid the mainstream shit and come down to the under- ground.” “Before I started the calendar when it was just an art magazine, I was stuck at 700 fol- lowers for a year,” he explains. “I wasn’t reaching new people, and people weren’t en- gaging with it. And when the calendar started, the few people that were still there paying attention were like, ‘Oh, wow! This is really cool.’” With the calendar listings, Always Lunes quickly found a new audience as people shared posts, and event organizers reached out to be included. “What really gave me a boost is that I have a friend, Dom, and he did a TikTok that was, ‘POV: You’re in the underground South Flor- ida scene,’ and it got 20,000 views,” he says, adding that the viral post took Always Lunes from around 1,000 followers to more than 4,000 in a single day. Oña is also promoting events in a way that appeals to his generation, Gen Z, a group that has pretty much eschewed traditional media. Instead, they prefer to discover things organi- cally and from their peers. “In the underground scene, which is what I promote, there are a lot of scenes within the scene,” Oña says. He’s noticed an uptick in techno and neoperreo events among young ravers while the hip-hop and hardcore scenes are thriving, particularly in Broward County. “I also promote skate meetups for women and LGBTQ+ individuals and figure-drawing pop-ups,” he adds. In addition to the curated calendar, Al- ways Lunes also hosts events around town. For instance, during Miami Music Week, it held a rave showcasing local talent behind the decks as well as an art exhibition featuring Miami artists. “I threw four shows in 2022, and I did one in January 2023 and then took a hiatus until December because I’m a filmmaker studying at MDC. I was working on my first documen- tary film that I filmed and edited, and I was working on that all last year.” However, since December, Oña has regu- larly hosted events that he describes as “mul- tigenre, live music, live performance shows. When asked if there is a hot spot he partic- ularly likes, Oña points out that he cares less about the venue itself and more about who’s organizing the event. “Omni SoundSpace, Perreo del Futuro, the Gay Agenda — I’ve been mainly going to queer-scene events,” he says. “But if I’m going to live music, Third Space Shows. Also, I like going to OurMarket by Let’s Get Together at Lot 11 — they do it once a month on Sundays. And Casa Crea. I’m one of the cofounders, but we are only doing pop-ups right now. We have live music, and people hang out, paint, and draw.” Follow Always Lunes on Instagram at ins- tagram.com/alwayslunes. [email protected] With Always Lunes, founder Lunes Oña is bringing together the many different scenes that make up Miami’s underground. Photo by Khami Auerbach/@khamiiiii “IN THE UNDERGROUND SCENE, WHICH IS WHAT I PROMOTE, THERE ARE A LOT OF SCENES WITHIN THE SCENE.” | CROSSFADE | t Music
