Cloud Clubbing | On- and offline music events
Cloud Clubbing
Due to the Corona Virus the recent months have been a little crazy and strange for everyone. Not being able to see friends and family, no longer being allowed to go to the gym and no longer being able to go to a festival or nightclub to enjoy your favourite music. The latter especially is such a pity during this time in which everyone can use a bit of fun and cheerfulness. For now, it looks like all music venues and night clubs will be closed until at least the 1st of September here in the Netherlands. Also, festivals, of which we have so many in the Netherlands, will not take place until the 1st of September or might not even be allowed at all until there is a vaccine against the virus.
A blog by our colleague Marguerita Vogelsang about examples from the nightlife and festival scene, an industry that has been hit unprecedented hard economically by the corona crisis. Nevertheless, she also spots all kinds of positive initiatives in this sector.
Cloud Clubbing | The Chinese started to organize online sessions a couple of months ago
A while ago I came across an article about a great initiative of nightclub TAXX Shanghai that devised cloud clubbing sessions to give the Chinese a nightlife experience at home (). The manager of this nightclub stated that the purpose of sharing the music this way was to allay fear of people at home. And don’t you think it’s great to sometimes turn the music up loud and forget everything else for a while?
Honking during a drive-thru performance
In Germany, a nightclub, Club Index, created a drive-thru to be able to enjoy a performance out of your car! Going out at an appropriate distance in a car was a great success with a ‘sold out crowd’ of 250 cars. The organizing DJ even got his audience (2 people per car) to the extent that they honked to the music! This solution is probably not feasible for many larger festivals, but it shows that all sorts of fun initiatives are devised worldwide to maintain contact with fans. Check out the video below (text will continue below the video).
Initiatives in the Netherlands
Fortunately, I also hear and see great initiatives around music in the Netherlands lately. In March, NPO radio 2 provided the first online festival in the Netherlands with a great line-up of 13 different artists and 3 DJs. () One of the DJs explained that the reactions were very positive and that some listeners even printed festival bracelets to make the experience even more real. It seems that we have to do with these kinds of festivals the upcoming period.
Also during King’s Day, a day which is one of the highlights of the year for many young people, we could not go crazy at a festival or at other events where music is the main focus. Radio stations and TV stations, including radio 538, therefore devised massive events to provide the Kingsday celebrators with music and a festive atmosphere at home. During the weekends, there are also more and more bars and entertainment venues in the Netherlands that organize live streams. Check out this United We Stream livestream. You can also do this with your own audience, from a music café, which makes the live stream more intimate. Some restaurants provide links to background music playlists with their home delivery meals, everything for the imagination! You can of course also deliver your drinks in packages for the live stream.
Enjoying festivals in your private boat this summer?
I am currently waiting for festivals that can be visited by boat this summer. This is possible as long as there are not too many artists on stage and all visitors come in their own boat, a great solution, right? I definitely would, depending on the artists, rent a boat! Finally, music brings people together, just look at all the videos which appear on the internet in which people from all around the world make music together on balconies. Maybe this will create a whole new music genre. I hope that these cool initiatives will continue the upcoming period. But above all I hope that we can all party again soon in a pub, club or at a festival!
Website: Van Spronsen & Partners Hospitality Consultancy
