Recently I hosted my first virtual festival for Woo Fest. They like many others had to cancel this year’s physical festival but as they do it solely to raise money for a local hospice, they looked at doing it virtually.
You’ll have seen a few attempts at this, using mobile phones and a broadcast system like OBS for example.
Up to now I’d only really hosted Zoom conferences like those for AMROS promotions and Group Futurista.
For this festival however, Woo Fest wanted to do it better, so enlisted the help of DRPg for production. They decided it should take on a ‘Children In Need’ format with live performances, recordings and donation appeals. I was IN!
The result was an incredibly slick production that lasted for almost 8 hours on a Saturday in July which raised almost £14k for St Richard’s Hospice.
Hosting it was an honour and the producers, crew and bands were a joy to work with…I’d missed doing things like this.
Fair to say it was really well supported. Over 900 people logged on to the feed across the day, each with an average of 4 others watching with them. Woo Fest capacity is only around 700 physical people. Plus we all stayed dry!
Until we can physically do festivals again, it has be a viable alternative for anyone considering putting their festival online. Just don’t forget to have a competent host that can bring it all together rather than the guy who does the compering for your local open mic night.