Naperville, Orlando promoters planning online Isolation Music Festival
A two-day live music festival is in the works for Naperville and Orlando - and unlimited other places with internet access - as organizers plan the first online streaming Isolation Music Festival.
Listeners can join through Twitch or IHEARTRADIO on April 18 and 19 to access eight-hour days of up-and-coming DJs, pop artists, acoustic indie or rock performances, hip-hop acts and possibly comedy or motivational speakers, organizers say.
It's free, but concert promoters Chad Addie of Karben Studios in Naperville and Kyle Jung of Dedicated Productions in Orlando, ask listeners to donate what they can through a GoFundMe page. That way, they say, performers who are suddenly without venues for their shows because of the COVID-19 pandemic can earn back some of the income they'd been expecting.
"I've seen the impact firsthand that it's having on the artists that I work with," said Addie, whose Karben Studios is a marketing agency and musician management service. "We're just trying to get these artists something to get through this."
The festival will have a "grass-roots, from-our-living-room-to-yours style," Jung said, with artists performing from wherever they can during a period of social distancing and stay-at-home orders.
It should come as a welcome release to all who choose to get involved, organizers say. Musicians get an audience and a way to connect digitally with the fan bases they've worked hard to build. Viewers watching at home on Twitch get an immersive audiovisual experience with the chance to chat with artists after each show. Listeners tuning in through iHeartRadio get what Jung called "an additional distraction from the craziness," especially if they're commuting to an essential job where work must go on.
"Music brings hope in a way that very few things can," Jung said.
Making a career out of making music isn't easy in the best of times.
"When you get into a field like this, there's a lot of risk involved," Jung said. "There's a lot of sacrifice that comes with that - a lot of sleepless nights and a whole lot of questions from family."
That's why as soon as concert cancellations started piling up, the longtime friends "put our heads together and didn't sleep for about a week and put all of this together" to plan the fest, Addie said.
Performers will include DJ Shawna, the official DJ for the Milwaukee Bucks and a client of Addie's, as well as DJ JaeBea, both of Milwaukee. Also set to play are Milk Majer, a DJ based in Chicago, and Roman State and JC Carter, both based in Florida.
Addie and Jung continue to reach out through colleges and universities, music aggregation services and other industry contacts to seek artists from across the nation and world to stream their shows as part of the fest. They're seeking a lineup of about 20 acts to fill 20 hours across the event's two days.
"Everyone we've reached out to has said yes," Addie said. "It's a pretty obvious decision for most artists."
Although inspired by the loneliness of the stay-at-home orders to help decrease the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Isolation Music Festival could make roots into the in-person world in the future, organizers say. It could become quarterly or monthly online to start.
"The ultimate goal once this craziness is over," Addie said, "is we actually want to have a physical event where we can bring a lot of these artists together."
Isolation Music Festival: How to listen
What: Isolation Music Festival When: April 18 and 19, hours TBA
Where: Watch on Twitch @IsolationMusicFest or listen on IHEARTRADIO at <a href="https://www.a100.radio/">https://www.a100.radio/</a>
Who: 20 artists including DJs and performers in pop, indie, rock and hip-hop
Cost: Free, but donations encouraged to compensate artists. Donate via GoFundMe link posted at https://www.isolationmusicfest.com/
Info: <a href="https://www.isolationmusicfest.com/">https://www.isolationmusicfest.com/</a>