A virtual summer festival that will take you under water
A virtual summer festival for artists
Everyone is waiting for these months when the world becomes cramped by good music, joy, and communication from different cities and countries. Summer festivals are an extravaganza for a vibrant and festive atmosphere. Unfortunately, Covid-19 wiped out most of the summer festivals during 2020 and even this year’s 2021 summer season.
Under these circumstances, many summer festivals are taking the virtual route for everyone to attend from all around the world. This summer, many people are holding summer festivals using oVice.
Goldfish Summer Festival 🍥
Event: Goldfish Summer Festival
Event management members: mo.ka, LUCALAND, nenco, Megumi Koinuma, Yuko Sekai, Mai, Yano, a total of 7 people
Interviewee: Connected Support Co., Ltd. Yuki Yano
Event period: June 26th to August 22nd
Event Summary: A virtual summer festival is held to collect the works of various artists such as musicians, picture book writers, illustrators, handmade writers, and photographers. Various events such as live talks are also held on the main stage of the virtual venue.
Official site: https://goldfish-smrfes.net/
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/goldfish_smrfes
Interview with Mr. Yano, one of the event managing team from Golfish Smrfes
I want to give artists an opportunity to shine and present their work freely even during the pandemic.
The event managing team is a blend of 6 artist and a certified accountant: Yano, what made you interested in being part of this fun combination?
“In fact, I’ve always wanted to do something together with mo.ka and LUCALAND, which are responsible for most of the planning structure this time. I learned about LUCALAND in the spring of 2018. I saw LUCALAND sharing their passion and perspective on music activities on a certain live distribution tool, and even though it was my first time seeing it, I was incredibly drawn to it. When I was just starting a business, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to provide a great impact, but then again, I thought that if I keep learning and supporting LUCALAND, I can easily speak my mind.
Will I ever be able to do it? That was my main concern.
I also learned about mo.ka, which was hosting a live concert with LUCALAND, and I was greatly impressed by how they were expressing their ideas. Since then, I have been thinking, “Although the fields are completely different, I want to improve the way I express my thoughts and deliver them so that I can do something with these two companies someday!”
Why did you decide to hold a summer festival by an artist in a virtual space, and why is it held for such a long time?
Isn’t that the corona spread worldwide soon?
“That’s right. Even though the corona virus is still spreading, SHIBUYA TAKE OFF 7, which will be rented as a live venue on August 6th at this event, launched crowdfunding to survive the corona disaster. TAKE OFF 7 is a place of memories where mo.ka and LUCALAND performed a live concert together. I also got a lot of courage from the live performance at that time, so I thought “I don’t want this to lose its spark!”
Did mo.ka and LUCALAND know of that too?
“Not for now. I got the right to charter for one day (laughs), but since it’s a live house that is a good memory for both of us, I’m sure they will use it if they express their feelings! Then, it happened that the two of them had the opportunity to open an Instagram account together, so when I put in the right words and told them about it, I got a decent impression.“
Was it difficult to perform live?
“Definitely yes. I made the offer when I couldn’t really see the dark future of COVID-19, so there was certainly some difficulties going on. During these circumstances, I used to work remotely using various online tools, so I thought about gathering up the thoughts of these amazing two people and get them known to many groups of people out there over a long period of time using the virtual world. That’s when I came to the conclusion that this is totally feasible online.”
For a summer festival like a “work” that everyone will complete over two months
Why did you choose oVice?
“First of all, I was already using it and I’m a big fan of oVice (laughs). When I heard about the event and the things they’re planning to do, I knew that oVice would be the perfect virtual medium to make it happen. And I was right.”
Don’t you think that 2 months is a fairly long period of time?
“I had the idea of a one-off live concert at a live house, but I also wanted to create an opportunity for artists who are frustrated by the COVID-19 impact and bring them back to work again. Therefore, I thought that by holding it in the form of a long-term project and having everyone think of it as an event that enables people to grow and flourish together, we would like them to participate in the event even earlier. In addition, I thought that it would be easier for people who support the artist to notice the growth-type of event, so I set the period to 2 months.”
Exhibiting works related to “goldfish” in the hope that the artist will be able to swim again
What’s behind the concept of “Goldfish”?
“When we were having a planning meeting with three people, mo.ka suddenly said, “My childhood dream was to become a goldfish.” The childhood feelings of longing for a beautiful goldfish that swims freely and glitteringly intertwined with my feelings of “I can’t do what I want with everything happening in the world because of Corona, but I want to feel free again someday!” This thought met up with the idea of providing an opportunity for artists with the same feelings to start moving again towards the creative path and that’s how the “Summer Festival of Goldfish” was born. Since it’s all about the famous goldfish, the avatars in oVice have also been set up with goldfish profile images. At the time of the event, you can see many goldfish swimming freely in the summer festival venue.”
What kind of art works are you exhibiting?
“We are looking for artists who can provide art works related to “goldfish” in 5 categories such as music, photography, and illustration. For example, various works such as a knitted goldfish motif, a picture of a goldfish made using colored paper, and a special craft “Goldfish lantern” handed down from the Edo period in Yanai City, Yamaguchi Prefecture are exhibited. If you click on the five signboards on the left side of the virtual summer festival venue of oVice, you can fly to the exhibition booths of each genre and enjoy your work.
In addition, on July 17, a member, Megumi Koinuma, exhibited and read aloud a picture book on the theme of goldfish. It’s a work with wonderful feelings that will touch the hearts of adults, and it has been completed as a story that will lead to the official theme song written and composed by mo.ka and LUCALAND.”
It’s not just an exhibition of art works, but there are also stalls like a summer festival:
“Yes, we have them open at stores that have EC shops which can be ordered, such as roasted sweet potatoes, coffee, and Japanese tea. We have devised ways for our guests to have fun during the virtual summer festival at home while enjoying eating and drinking.”
Live house events, after-night festivals, closing finales
What kind of development are you planning in the future?
“The theme song will be unveiled on July 22nd, and a live performance by TAKE OFF 7 will finally be held on August 6th. Because of this situation, we plan to use TwitCasting as the distribution format and have an audience depending on the situation. On the 8th, we will hold an after-night festival in oVice where you can learn about the back side of the live only for distribution purchasers.
August 22nd will be the day of the finale. As for the content, I want to value the inspiration after the live, so the details are still undecided, but it seems that the hints of the “goldfish” that have been spreaded so far will be collected at once and the hearts of those who see it will be swimming with happiness.
For those of you who learned about the “Goldfish Summer Festival” from this article, it’s an event that you can still enjoy, so you can become a free-swimming goldfish and see the oVice virtual summer festival venue, which is open 24 hours. All the planning members are waiting for you!”
Thank you for this wonderful story!
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