A journey through Lunar Festival
When tasked with reviewing a media artefact relating to events I immediately thought of this video. I didn’t realise it was from 2015 as I only saw it last year on Facebook, but that just goes to show how much of an impression it left and how modern it felt.
What stuck with me is that it felt unique in its approach rather than being a predictable and mainstream advertisement for a music festival. The first 20 seconds lures you into thinking it will be, with a great use of fisheye camera to draw the audience down the long path to the Umberslade Estate.
It then fades into a lovely folk singer with a hint of birdsong in the background and a view across the fields, before taking a bizarre, Mighty Boosh-like turn.
Not your average festival
There is a quick transition from the beautiful scenery to shots of the festival, accompanied by quite a sinister and unexpected tune. Watching without sound you would see some fairly typical shots of a family-friendly, interactive and artsy festival.
The choice of song adds intrigue and makes the viewer question what else the festival is about, as it initially doesn’t seem to fit with the aesthetic. As each frame passes they become quicker and intentionally glitchy, before pausing and transitioning to show the festival’s night life. The music gets eerier and lures the audience in with performance art and fire breathing.
There is a second pause before the viewer is taken on another surreal journey through the eye of a child and concluding with more examples of what the festival has to offer. The song choice is ballsy and although it seems uncharacteristic, it is clear the video has been edited to complement this.
The clever use of editing and sound throughout makes the imagery seem less important, however this is counteracted by the verging on invasive close up shots, making the audience feel completely immersed.
In terms of temporality, anyone watching who has been to a festival before will be able to relate to the video and reminisce about how they felt. In a recent seminar we discussed how there can be a sense of community within a festival, and whilst there is a huge variation out there they all have one thing in common; people.
The use of people or ‘characters’ throughout the video is balanced well to show a mix of performances, the audience and their reaction to them.
Whilst the setting and movement used is obvious, it is imperative to the purpose of the video which is to ultimately get people to the next festival. It needs to transport the audience there and make them have FOMO (fear of missing out) if they don’t go.
Anyone viewing this who has never been to a festival and if this is their introduction, I would hope they aren’t put off by the lack of upbeat and cheery music you would usually find in promotional videos.
Full circle
The video ends typically with the festival’s logo before fading to black. There is then what feels like an outtake clip of two festival-goers walking through the site — no background music has been added, you just hear the natural sounds of what’s going on around them.
There are two ways I interpreted this. I initially thought it was added to make the viewer feel safe after being taken on a slightly obscure journey; the equivalent of needing to watch something funny after a horror film.
The second and probably more likely reason it was put in was to make the whole thing feel like it was all just a dream. It leaves the viewer feeling like they need to experience Lunar Festival for themselves and find out what it’s really about.
