ENTERTAINMENT

Is live streaming events the way to go for performers? Audiences and organisers seem to think so

From Comedy shows like Kiri Pritchard McLeans Covid arms, where all ticket sales go back into the community in the form of charity donations, to Disney+ hosting Hamilton, online shows have kept hundreds and thousands of people entertained from the comfort of their sofas and with months of lockdown looming over our heads, these events are much needed. If you’re in need of a stream to hop on to LGBT+ Cheltenham is hosting an open mic night on the 28th of January.

Seemingly one of the few upsides of the changes we have had to make due to Covid-19, online events have made it easier for fans to see all the shows they have wanted to. Whether that is a comedian, musician or play they had never thought they would see live, or couldn’t see live for any reason.

Speaking to Unmasked News Amie Warner, 19, tells us about her experience with an online concert streamed over YouTube. 

“I enjoyed it – it was nice to watch a band perform live in the comfort of my own home, without being in a sweaty concert hall!” 

However, Amie did find some down sides with the concert being online.

“I missed the atmosphere in terms of being surrounded by fans and singing/dancing together etc. It felt a bit depressing, sat in my room on my own.”

Another online concert goer, Cait May, 20, had this to say about attending concerts online.

“It was weird, being online there was a sense of space between interaction, but at the same time also helpful for other people who may not be able to go see the concert in real life”

Although concert goers have had to adjust to following links instead of queues to see their favourite artists and forgoing the atmosphere of being in a crowd. Organisers and performers have had to figure out how to stream in order to showcase their talents to the world again.

Chloe Jarvis, 22, of Calichlo Events, shares her experience with figuring out how to stream online because of Covid-19 and how she has managed to run her concert as smoothly as she could for artists and viewers alike.

“the challenging bit was trying to, like, figure out how it’s done in the first place because it’s so different for organising and normal event.

“I gave the people performing my Instagram password for the page so that they could go live through there and obviously the live was stop, start. The idea was if people already want to watch someone specific, then they didn’t have to watch everyone to get to that person.”

LGBT+ Cheltenham Open Mic Night

To get some insight on LGBT+ Cheltenham’s Open Mic Night event we spoke to Matt Wester who runs the event that started its online life in July last year and has been continuing ever since. A key point in running the event was making it accessible, being online really helped.

“I think it’s really good to include people that aren’t really able to get out to physical events anyway. It was usually accessible. But again, you won’t always find those people that are able to come out to it on a monthly basis or at all sometimes.

“It’s hosted through Facebook. We recognise not everyone uses Facebook, so we do make it accessible through our website as well. We have a page on the website which is essentially embed video from Facebook, you don’t have to account have an account to use it”

The LGBT+ Partnership Cheltenham’s open mic night is on the 28th January at 8pm.

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