Musicians take part in online Upload festival
THOUSANDS of music lovers tuned in for the Channel Islands’ first lockdown music festival.
Upload festival was streamed over Twitch and Facebook on Saturday and Sunday, with about 40 artists performing from their homes.
Music styles ranged from classical and rock to country and electronic.
Co-organiser Mike Meinke said they were really pleased with the response they had received.
‘It went well, really, really well,’ he said.
‘We had close to 10,000 views on Saturday, which is a pretty good result. We had no idea how it would go to be honest.’
There has been lots of feedback, which was overwhelmingly positive.
‘There has been a constant stream of comments,’ Mr Meinke said.
‘People have been really enjoying it. We have had people from New Zealand, Australia, and the States, as well as France. It is well-supported.’
The only slight hiccup was when organisers discovered Facebook had an eight-hour limit on its videos. But fortunately that was quickly fixed.
Mr Meinke played his own set on Saturday night and said it was a strange experience.
‘This is the third live stream I’ve done, so I am getting more comfortable with it,’ he said.
‘But it’s a very different experience to actually playing live.’
Because of his set-up, he could not see what comments people were leaving when he was performing, so he just had to hope that people were enjoying his music.
‘I read through the comments afterwards and it was really nice to be able to do that, as that’s not something you get when performing live,’ he said.
‘It’s a momento.’
The event was organised by Mike Meinke, Paul Wallbridge, Kiya Ashton, Jay Taylor and Nadine Edmundson, who had to set it all up over Facebook and messages.
Mr Meinke said he hoped it would have boosted morale. Musicians have been hard hit by the lockdown, as they cannot perform as they would usually. This is a particular problem for professional musicians, like Mr Meinke. But he said that none of the musicians had asked for any money and that the event was all about making people feel better.
He said they might look at doing another event in the future.
