It’s crunch time for music festivals. COVID-19 is under threat of taking a backseat to cabin fever with what would have been festival season fast approaching. Many festivals have already admitted defeat and packed it in until 2021, but some are seeking out ways of catering to audiences eager for anything remotely resembling a social atmosphere. Future Forest, already known as the most visually stunning music festival in New Brunswick, are preparing to fill that niche with the first of a series of digital festivals.
Announced earlier this week, Future Forest will be bringing their early-season event, Future Spring, to the world of live-streaming.
“This will be our first live stream,” says festival director Tim Kukula. “It’s kinda neat because we can use blueprints of what we are working on that might not be built for a few years but create it virtually. I haven’t seen any festival do something like this yet so it’s really exciting.”
The festival has announced a two-night event, on May 29 and May 30, with live-streams expected to last eight hours each night and feature 14 to 16 artists.
Anna Morgan (LA), Mat the Alien (BC) Bass Kitty (NY) have already been announced as performers for Saturday night, with more artists being announced over the next few days.
More than a standard simple webcam setup, Future Forest, always keen to flex on the visuals, have been working with visual artist Wasko to design a virtual 3D Prism Stage, replicating its physical counterpart on the festival grounds.
While the current pandemic has delivered a devastating for the music industry in general. Music festivals across the province have been ruled out completely as far out as possibly late 2021. The shift is an innovative one, but not a cure-all for their financial predicament.
“We know it definitely will result in a substantial loss for us,” says Kukula. “The government has provided relief measures which we have applied for and it will help us survive but most of it we need to pay back. We are still not sure how many of the headliners we paid non-refundable deposits on will allow us to postpone until next year. Plus the labour, cost of operating, and marketing, we have already spent for this year.
“We have been really fortunate so far the amount of refunds requested has been less than we predicted. Most participants have chosen to use their ticket for 2021.”
Despite the setbacks, Kukula says that the festival has received a substantial amount of funding in the form of loans, which will be used to continue developing the festival’s infrastructure. They’ll use the extra time they’ve been given before the 2021 iteration of Future Forest to pick away at some of their larger plans. These include electrical, camping, pathway illumination, sanitation (including compostable toilets & hand-washing stations) along with a permaculture instalment of an apple orchard in their parking lots.
If/when circumstances do return to normal in a post-COVID world, Kukula says he can see live-streaming gaining prominence as another component in our cultural tool-box.
“I think that live-streaming could be a new element we continue even if this is not something we do for the actual festival,” says Kukula. “Creating a platform that lets people participate virtually could be something that would allow us to host events from New Brunswick all year round. The pandemic creates an opportunity for us to innovate. It has levelled the playing field. No longer are we an isolated part of the world.”
Future Spring takes place online (of course), streaming to Facebook and Twitch, with a suggested donation of $5 per night.
Kukula says that if things go well with Future Spring that we might expect more digital versions of the festival.
“We are going to work on a Future Summer for the end of June with another stage, then Future Forest with three stages over three days most likely.”