Defying the challenges of 2020, music festivals move online to stay alive. Now, groove to EDM from your couch while your virtual avatar flits between stages
Last year, a music festival promised the exhilaration of grooving with hundreds of others to genre-bending music blasting from an exorbitantly lit stage. Cut to 2020, we are in front of our laptops, sipping wine from a coffee mug and watching Nucleya play trippy sets from his home studio dressed in a yellow T-shirt and joggers.
But, how does the experience of big on-ground festivals, the biggest takeaway of which is their sense of community, translate digitally? Not close, but 2020 being the year of experimentation, has seen dance and music festivals adapting online.
Virtual avatars, VR walkthroughs, private chat rooms (for groups of friends), multiple online stages, bartenders at home, and options to show off one’s dance moves live to the festival audience, are some of the online addenda, this year. In an attempt to stay relevant, organisers are vying to find innovative ways to get as close to the physical experience as possible, in a world battling fear, loneliness and a bleak economy triggered by COVID-19.
The excitement was palpable when Sunburn, on November 1, announced its popular beach-side festival in Goa’s Vagator beach. When they started ticket sales for the physical festival scheduled for December 27 to 29, the response was overwhelming. But on November 7, upon consultation with the authorities, Sunburn Goa was put on the backburner, fearing a spurt of COVID-19 cases. “We have not cancelled the festival, we have postponed it and plan to have an online festival on the same dates,” says Karan Singh, CEO, Sunburn.
He continues, “We are planning to create an entire 3D experience into which the audience can immerse themselves. Thematic set designs, lighting, AV, sound, SFX and virtual audience interaction will provide for a real-life surround effect. Hi-tech wearables will also ensure that audiences can experience Sunburn,” adds Karan. Meanwhile, EDM festival VH1 Supersonic too called off their physical event which was scheduled for February 2021, even as their live Instagram sessions with artistes continues unabated.
Community is the word
The Bacardi NH7 Weekender concluded a decade on stage last year. “From January-February, we started talking about what it’s going to be like this year. We wanted the next decade to look different, bigger!” says Gunjan Arya, CEO of OML, that organises the festival in venues across the country. The process of reaching out to artistes and international talent started as early as February.
“As a festival, our job is to get the community together; bringing diverse sets of artistes and their fans together,” stresses Gunjan. On deciding to go online from December 4 to 6, they built a platform for the festival on ticket booking portal, PayTM Insider. Spread over multiple stages, NH7 is known for its “buffet of music”, and includes a comedy stage. Online, they offered a ‘switch’ feature so viewers could toggle between stages. For a sense of community, their global chat room came into play encouraging attendees to interact, and providing a space where artistes could hang out with their fans.
To physically reach ticket buyers, the festival sent out cartons that housed NH7 T-shirts, wristbands, mugs and brochures printed out on plantable paper. A drinks station with a bartender, was also set up by Bacardi at homes of selected viewers.
Regulars at the Ziro Music Festival, normally held in November, missed the rolling green valleys of Arunachal Pradesh. This year’s edition, held online from November 21 to 22 , saw a cultural collaboration with the Focus Festival of Wales, facilitated by the British Council of India.
Picture a gamified version of a music festival — at Ziro Focus, your digital avatar could walk across a world brought to life by the artwork of Mikey Jones from Wales and Shisir Basumatari from Assam. The beautiful skyline of Wrexham, with its pine trees met the bamboo trees of Northeastern India, in a visual amalgamation of the two countries. You could meet other avatars — attendees from India, the UK, the US, France, Australia and Sweden — by the stage, in between acts, or during a treasure hunt.
The wide variety of artistes in the lineup included electronic pop musician Ani Saunders from Cardiff, Lo! Peninsula, a shoegaze/dreampop band from Manipur, and Tetseo Sisters, a folk music quartet from Nagaland. Apart from the six live acts, there were also recorded listening areas near (virtual) campfires. A digital festival allowed for more variety and freedom for the audience, says Lubna Shaheen, creative director, Ziro Music. “Suppose one of the record labels was playing hip-hop and that is not what you like to listen to, then you could walk on to the next area where alt rock was playing,” she explains.
“The success of Ziro Focus is heartening. The platform enabled artists and audience to experience something of the forest setting in which Ziro Festival usually takes place and the trekker experience of ardent festival-goers who usually go to Arunachal Pradesh,” says Jonathan Kennedy, Director Arts India, British Council.
Co-existence
Impressive technological efforts aside, this year artistes are taking advantage of this format and its reach by tailoring their visuals and music to make it more relatable to global audiences. For instance, rapper Yung Raja, from Singapore, shot his sets from multiple locations in his city to showcase the places he grew up in.
Actor and singer-songwriter Shruti Haasan who performed with DJ Murthovic and guitarist Karan Parikh at NH7 says that the challenges were nothing when seen against the positivity with which the music industry thrived. Such large-scale festivals going online, is a “necessary, inevitable step,” says Shruthi over phone from Goa, where she is shooting for a film.
“The energy of a live audience is irreplaceable. But, this is the best we can do now. I think the music industry has been a big beacon of hope: moving through, bringing people together, sharing music... it is all beautiful,” says Shruti. As much as she enjoys performing for a responsive crowd, Shruti says she loves to get lost in her music, which is what happened while she filmed her set for NH7 in Hyderabad.
She adds, “It pushes us to understand that music can be consumed in any way.” Moving forward, organisers seem inclined to retain facets of these online festivals. “I foresee a blend of live events and digital events co-existing to cater to multiple audience requirements and partner expectations,” says Karan. “Hybrid events are definitely the way forward.”