![]() ![]() For bands, we’ve found that an action-packed show that lasts half an hour is probably a better idea than a longer event.” And if you're going to show the DJs, show the records and their decks more than the DJs themselves. ![]() Menchetti concurs: “It’s important to have dancers on screen. One group of housemates turned their basement into a pub, with a bar and lights, while others dressed up, got in disco lights, and danced like they were back in the real world…the best club nights run on friendly chaos, and the virtual nights managed to capture this brilliantly.” Zooming to the beat. “The more people got used to being on Zoom, the more they were able to just drop their guard and be themselves. Seeing people on Zoom dancing, chatting and generally messing around like you would at a normal club night was really emotional I had no idea that I’d feel so connected to the people who were there. “We had about 1,000 people tuning in across Mixcloud, Mixlr and Zoom. “That first virtual dance party was incredible,” remembers Watson. The reason for their success? Because they’ve all adapted their usual offer to fit the limitations – and advantages – of an online format. Indietracks as a festival is very focused around the community of bands and fans who come along, so those early experiments gave us confidence that it would work.”Īll of them have had big successes with their events: How Does It Feel to be Loved? regularly pulls in over 1,000 online partygoers, and has had guest DJ sets from the likes of John Dywer from Thee Oh Sees and Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain Menchetti has seen his bands earn thousands of dollars in tips from online concerts, while he himself has DJ’d for big online audiences and Indietracks At Home featured 30+ bands, raising over £5,000 for charity. “I was really struck by how the community aspects of live shows that I love, like bumping into lots of familiar faces, were still there. “In the early days of lockdown I loved the weekly streamed shows from Specialist Subject Records,” says Conway. ![]() We couldn't have done it without them.”Īs for Indietracks, the idea of going online came up as soon as COVID canceled the festival, but it was seeing the success of others that encouraged them to dive into digital. ![]() “Luckily they – the guys from online concert platform SofaKing – are wizards. “None of us at Slovenly had any idea how this streaming stuff worked,” he recalls. He said yes, without entirely understanding what he was getting into. Someone asked if his bands would like to take part in an online festival on Memorial Day. “Then one of our regulars started a How Does It Feel To Be Locked Down? Facebook group and set up a Zoom party for the night – I’d never heard of Zoom at that point.” “But then I found out about a streaming service called Mixlr, which allows everyone to hear the stream at the same time, so I uploaded a stream that could be played at any time on Mixcloud and had a live stream on Mixlr, which also has a chat facility. “In March (2020) all club nights were cancelled, so I thought I’d put together a six-hour mix of songs I might have played and upload it to Mixcloud,” he says. The first thing I wanted to know was this: why did they decide to go online, rather than waiting until venues reopened? For Ian Watson, it was more of a happy accident than a considered strategy. To find out, I spoke with three people who have taken their events online over the past year: Ian Watson, founder of London club night How Does It Feel To Be Loved? Slovenly Records owner Pete Menchetti, who has taken part in two digital festivals and since co-founded online TV channel The Rock & Roll Broadcasting Service and Beck Conway from Indietracks, a UK festival which raises money for conservation causes. Some were a huge, with thousands of revelers, others small and intimate affairs for a few friends on a single Zoom call.īut what makes the perfect virtual party – and can they ever hold an upraised lighter to the real thing? So when lockdown hit last year it only took a few days for virtual festivals, concerts and club nights to spring up all over the internet. Music fans have an inbuilt urge to come together and party. ![]()
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