Jovan Heer is deeply in touch with both his Canadian and South Asian roots.
He grew up in Kamloops, like his father before him, while his mother moved to Canada from Punjab, India in the early 90s.
Sports were always big. His dad was a die-hard sports fan, which he remembers being ingrained in him from as early as four-years-old. Hockey, football, basketball, and soccer where he is a dedicated supporter of Manchester United.
"Sports is everything to me. I grew up a Ronaldo fan, so I've always been a die-hard Man United fan."
When he was 14-years-old he moved to Edmonton, and it was there that he started DJing with friends. 18 years later and DJ Heer has toured around North American cities and as far as India, moving to Vancouver and starting his own company along the way, Lucid Entertainment alongside DJ Diablo, featuring a collection of 15 DJs.
"Primarily we do South Asian music, Bhangra and Bollywood. It's been very cool, I've been touring mostly in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and India as well."
This coming Saturday, DJ Heer will perform at his first Whitecaps FC match at section 227 on the concourse (Gate C), adding to the festivities for Vaisaki Night.
And Vaisakhi is something close his heart.
"It's a very big thing. We hold nagar kirtan, which is like a parade that we do every year with hundreds of thousands of people, walking from temple to temple. We grew up with that every year in the community. I love how the culture is now growing, and how we're able to invest sports in it. We're integrating sports with the culture."
Already he has done a number of sporting events, including the Canucks and BC Lions.
"For me, it was my two favourite things. Bhangra and sports. Combining them together, that is a dream come true."
Recently, he was even flown to Texas to DJ at the Dallas Stars game.
"I DJ'd out on the plaza. It was pretty crazy. I didn't think that they had a big South Asian community, but there were thousands of South Asian people there. Even the non-South Asians were loving it because it came from something different than the usual every day life. I plan to do New Jersey and LA as well next year."
In the past, it wasn't always easy to rally together members of the South Asian community, tells DJ Heer. But today, that is changing, and it's been inspirational for everyone involved.
"There used to be a lot of issues, a lot of competition within our own community. But now we are seeing that people are supporting each other, growing together, and all watching each other succeed."
On Saturday, he's looking forward to once again combining his two passions and helping people enjoy themselves during Vaisakhi Night at BC Place.
"Just allowing all the fans to share in South Asian culture, celebrate with us, and have a good time."
