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Blog: Virtual Festivals

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Keeping Art Alive in the Bayou City

posted October 9, 2020   category » Virtual Festivals
Keeping Art Alive in the Bayou City
I have seen a variety of virtual festivals come and go since Covid & a few have stood out as works of art themselves; when the creative intention behind the activities and offerings are a true testament to the festival's love of art and community.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” ~ Maya Angelou

Such is the quote on the "Active Imaginations" page on the Bayou City Art Festival's website.  Here young artists can watch and learn very cool art projects. A couple of the videos were taught by an art educator at the The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Kids can download color sheets and score the recipe for colossal bubbles.

Enjoy performances from the festival's musicians and consider giving via their virtual tip jars! Get to know artists on the Happy Hour page while learning new mixology tips. The Art Crawl page gives you artist studio tours and art project clips. Of course you can peruse all the festival artists and click to visit their websites and until October 11, you can participate in the Art Auction! 

Many of the Bayou City Virtual Art Festival's happenings will still be available on their web site the rest of this year.  Take some time to appreciate the hard work and dedication to keeping art alive this trying year!



When and Where

Now! Auction Closes October 11th.
Online:  https://www.artcolonyassociation.org

Festival Season Taking on a New Meaning

posted September 24, 2020   category » Virtual Festivals
Festival Season Taking on a New Meaning
One awesome benefit of our virtual festival "renaissance" in America is that many events are keeping their doors open much longer than their typical in-person festival day or weekend. 

Bloomington, Indiana's annual Fourth Street Arts Festival created a convenient online platform to proudly showcase the musicians, artists, community information, spoken word, and entertainment groups that would have been the pulse of the in-person event.  Since 1977, Fourth Street Arts Fest is typically a 2-day event over Labor day weekend drawing thousands. This year, the popular event is now 'online' until the end of this year!  This will give the artists more chances at sales, exposure, and networking.

In these difficult days, supporting each other is the best thing we can do to keep morale and livelihoods afloat. Art Festivals are the lifeblood for the artists in that community, and supporting those artists by buying their works keeps the artist thriving. A Community's art scene is only as healthy as the individual artist. We hope more art festivals find a way to highlight and support their community's artists so that we can come out of this time strong.



When and Where:

Now until December 31, 2020
https://www.4thstreet.org

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month in Raleigh, NC

posted September 17, 2020   category » Virtual Festivals
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month in Raleigh, NC
El Pueblo is a nonprofit organization based in Raleigh, NC, specializing in leadership development among Wake County’s growing Latinx community. Their annual Fiesta del Pueblo is a colorful and eventful street festival of artists, food vendors, nonprofits and bands, celebrating Latin cultures and heritage.

This year, we applaud El Pueblo with keeping their traditions going with offering many opportunities for people to safely enjoy the festivities while covid continues to limit in-person fun.  This year, La Fiesta del Pueblo has organized 4 events on Sundays during Hispanic Heritage Month.

"La Fiesta de El Pueblo has always been a time to come together as a community to celebrate our culture, our work, and our people. This year we are all seeing the effects of a virus so dangerous that a Fiesta like in years past is simply not possible. But that does not mean that we cannot continue to celebrate and be together in other ways!"

Tune in on Facebook Live to enjoy music and dancing from local talented performers straight to your feed, and if you're in the area, come spend an afternoon driving through a fiesta full of delicious foods to try, artisan crafts to browse, and more!

For a Drive Thru Map and all other event information including performers and artists, visit ElPueblo.org/fiesta.  



When and Where

Follow them on Facebook for happenings!
9/20/2020 and 10/4/2020

2 Drive-Thru events
9/27/2020 and 10/11/2020  1-4 pm

Parking lot of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC
1924 Capital Boulevard
Raleigh, NC





"The Powwow is Coming to You!"

posted September 16, 2020   category » Virtual Festivals
"The Powwow is Coming to You!"
We've seen many virtual festivals this summer make their debut to the world wide web as covid prevented in-person gatherings for most states. While we all know virtual events can never replace the real thing, we celebrated the ingenuity and creativity that so many events have presented to their friends and fans.

Non-profit Organization Indigenous Cultures Institute, who works to preserve the cultures of the Native Americans indigenous to Texas and northern Mexico, is proud to present the first ever virtual Sacred Springs Virtual Powwow. 

You will find labeled tents on the event's website to tour the various event components, including vendors, dances, and raffle. 

"Our physical event typically boasts an attendance of 6,000+ but this year's pandemic made hosting such an event unsafe. But this isn't enough to stop our 10-year celebration! This year's virtual event will feature performances by hundreds of dancers, traditional drums & singers with featured native vendors of arts, crafts & more...." 
source: sspowwow.com

Take some time this fall to enjoy the singing and dancing competitions, raffles, giveaways, and native culture and storytelling, all in a unique centralized experience, featuring tons of ways to get involved from the comfort of your own home!


When and Where:

From Now until a grand finale posted on November 21st, 2020
All Online at sspowwow.com

Gifts Of Heart: One Art Fair’s Response

posted June 12, 2020   category » Virtual Festivals



The Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (TOAF) has been happening every second weekend in July since 1961, rain or shine, in the heart of downtown Toronto. Social Distancing wasn't going to prevent Canada's leading contemporary outdoor art fair from supporting their artists and art lovers that would otherwise flock to Toronto. All over the world, people can virtually attend 10 days of Art, Awards, and other virtual events at TOAF's First Online Art Fair, July 2–12.

But this article isn't about their online art fair alone. TOAF created a dual-initiative response to COVID, a meaningful and impacting gesture to not only realistically support their 300+ participating artists but also spread the joy of art to the healthcare workers in their city.





"In this time of crisis, we felt that a gift of art could bring real joy and excitement to members of our community who are keeping us safe and allowing us to continue doing our work. Gifts of Heart is a way for our many devoted Fair-goers and art lovers to join us in doing something truly special for our artists, while honouring those frontline essential workers to whom we owe so much. So far we have had a wonderful reaction to the Gifts of Heart Program and raised $10,000 in the first week - that’s 40 gift cards for frontline workers already," Anahita Azrahimi, Executive & Creative Director, TOAF.

100% of the money raised goes directly to the artists while frontline healthcare workers will be able enjoy a 'gift card' to spend at the Online Art Fair! It's a beautiful win-win to help artists while showing the endearing love and appreciation we all feel for healthcare workers during this pandemic.

If TOAF reaches their goal to raise $100,000, they will be able to offer gifts to 400 frontline workers. This will also provide an income of $100,000 for their participating artists. The healthcare workers gifted will be able to shop for artwork at the online fair through the TOAF website.

"There will be a wonderful selection of paintings, photography, drawing, jewelery, ceramics, and so much more around the $250 price range for them to choose from," Azrahimi explains.

These days, we look for the helpers, the heroes and the initiatives which bring joy and positivity to those who need it most. We hope when we look back at this era in our lives, these are the stories we remember. To date, there is one month left to help TOAF reach their goal. If you are able, we invite you to donate.

Go to https://torontooutdoor.art/donate/gifts-of-heart & make a tax-deductible donation today.

Virtual Fairs & Festivals? But are They FUN?

posted June 8, 2020   category » Virtual Festivals

Pre-COVID, FestivalNet had always included online gallery and exhibition shows. There were only a handful of such virtual events in the database. They would pop up when members would do a zip code radius search. A couple that have been around for years include the Creative Quarterly & the Black Heritage Art Show.

Online art events are not for everyone but can be a great way to connect, network, make sales, win awards, and otherwise ramp up your business. Competitions and gallery events are one thing to do relatively easily online, but what about fairs and festivals?  How can fairs and festivals allow for artists to make money? How can attendees shop for art and crafts? And, how can it still be... FUN?!

Disclaimer #1: I do think Art and Craft fairs have it much easier than Music Festivals at going virtual.
Disclaimer #2: I really feel for the festival food vendors who can't sell much of anything on the web!

Fairs and festivals are meant to be experienced. The energy you can feel among a crowd of like-minded individuals can not be duplicated in the safety of your home. However, during these times of social distancing, joining together online has become necessary so we don't lose touch with our communities & customers.

I recently "attended" a beloved local festival online (See blog post). It was bitter sweet!  It felt good to watch the Poetry Slam online (they used a combination of Facebook Live and Zoom), it was cool to catch some performances for a few minutes here and there over the weekend, and check out the creative contributions people made, including my daughter's slideshow! (She's been going to LEAF all her life and the festival director, a friend of ours, asked her to contribute!) To see how V-LEAF did their thing, they've archived the festival, have a look at the schedule from one day, it's impressive!

Ultimately, I praise their incredible dedication to make this happen but everyone involved would agree it couldn't possibly get close to replacing the real thing. It's all about people's energy that creates the magic, the festival food and loud music and unique art, the smells, the sounds, the visual stimulation at every turn. That energy can only be felt together. While it wasn't 'fun' per se, it touched my heart.

What I realized is... it's not really about the FUN that we can only manifest when we're in person. It's about banding together. It's about the bitter sweet. It's about doing something to show your audiences that we're all trying our best right now to just keep going.



Virtual Ojai Music Festival

Take what Ojai Music Festival is doing. This coming weekend, their online event will feature insightful conversations with special guests interspersed with video and music excerpts, and other unique virtual offerings.

They are even calling it their 'virtual edition'... in HONOR of their 74th festival. To honor their event in this way is giving their people a taste of the music, the conversation, the connection, and more importantly, a reminder that we will be back. It's an invitation for guests to hold on to the things we love and look forward to getting back one day.

Another event I recently attended online was the Renegade Virtual Fair. 

For this online craft fair, there was a 'portal' on their website, with a grid of all the participating artists. Renegade had a simple but elegant system in place to offer a seamless experience. At one point, I plugged in to the fair on both my laptop and my phone because I didn't want to leave one 'booth' but wanted to check out more of the fair! Something you surely can not do in person.




There's something very human about watching an artist do their thing "live", showing up in their creative vulnerable glory. That feeling of connectedness did shine through when I would comment on their live feed with my positive feedback and emojis & they could reply to me in real-time. ❤️ 

Again, that tender feeling of we are all 'doing our best' really pulled on my heart strings.

I would like to explain this experience a little more in case anyone is curious how it worked! If the above roster was 'live' right now during the weekend's craft fair, there would be an "O" for "online" under each artist, and if you clicked on that, you were taken directly to their LIVESTREAM channel, where they were working in their studio, offering demonstrations, explaining their goods and crafts, or other creative "performances". (There are so many ways to livestream: Instagram, Facebook Live, YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, Google Hangouts, & YouNow. Most artists seemed to prefer Twitch and Instagram). In addition to the "O" for online, there was also a link to their website and social.  Finally, there was a 'featured' artist on rotation livestreaming on the fair's main page giving everyone a chance to shine. I really enjoyed checking out all the online artists in the portal. I encourage you all to attend the Virtual Craft Fair coming up on June 26th.

To discover how fairs and festivals are bringing their events online, take a look around at many listed on FestivalNet coming up soon! 

Online and Virtual Fairs and Festivals

Hang in there, and we're thinking about you all.

fair or festival