IRL vs Virtual Festivals

By Pippo Khalwa , Planner

For the advertising industry, the post-COVID era brought with it a sense of excitement, confusion and a somewhat distorted perspective on the accelerated pace of change. For many of us, virtual events had become a necessity to attend, having been confined to our homes during the hottest summer we’d seen in years, with our social lives reduced to small talk with our colleagues at the beginning of Zoom calls.

But after lockdown lifted and people rediscovered their freedom, it’s safe to say the excitement around virtual music events, be it live streams or animated versions in the metaverse, began to evaporate somewhat, and the trough of disillusionment (see Gartner’s Hype Cycle) began to set in. What’s the vibe around them now? It feels like a good time to discuss the current sentiment around virtual festivals from the FRUKT team, and what needs to change for virtual events to continue being relevant going forward.

Fran: What’s powerful about online is also a drawback. It’s democratic in that you don’t need a train ticket or accommodation, but have you truly experienced an event watching through a screen? Online can also connect disparate or niche communities and open people’s eyes to what’s going on outside the room they’re in but too often they’re about receiving a feed rather than connecting meaningfully. This is still something that needs to improve to make people connect with virtual events more.

Adam: Festivals are a multi sensory experience. I remember a club called Trouw in Amsterdam that banned mobile phones, recognising that capturing a night detracts from fully experiencing it. It's about embracing the multidimensional nature of live events, as our senses play a crucial role in our memories. In a virtual experience, you miss out on the scent, the touch, the visual splendor of the surroundings - what are you replacing it with, the smell of your mouldy flat?! We’ll see what the next generation of experiences brings us though.

Giles: Virtual events can certainly offer a host of vibrant, otherworldly opportunities to connect, but they currently can’t deliver a truly multi-sensory experience yet in the way that a physical event can.

Elena: For me, festivals with other people are a chance to escape and let go of my worries, focusing only on the music, the dancing, and the time with my mates. They’re a place to express yourself without judgment and provide a unique sense of community that you can’t find elsewhere. You get to meet so many different people with a common love for music.

Fran: The beauty of real life is the unknown. The IRL festival experience is multi-dimensional. It can be as much about the campsite, losing and finding your mates, or meeting new people, as about watching bands/DJ sets. Festivals are about the place they happen in too. Context matters and whether that’s a forest clearing at 1am, an urban park as the sun sets, or by the side of a lake in the daytime - the place and time it happened forms an important part of the memory.

Pippo: The festivals I’ve been to have been memorable for three reasons; the music, the antics and the moshpits. The problem is, you only get one of these in a virtual festival. I dialled in for the virtual Notting Hill Carnival back in lockdown 2020, because I had to experience something. Tried to make a lil vibe for my marjay and I, but she didn’t have the attention span for it. Watching performers on screen in your living room just can’t compare to being in the middle of the madness, sweat dripping, while drinking milk from a coconut. As technology develops and virtual festivals start to involve more of the senses it could be exciting; but right now it just isn’t immersive enough to compare.

Giles: The main issue with virtual events is that they appeal to only two of the five senses: sight and sound. On paper that may seem enough, but the visceral essence of the live experience is completely lost when the other senses are suppressed. Fans want to feel the tactility of being jostled in the crowd, to taste the atmosphere of the occasion, and - for one night only - breathe the same air as their heroes.?

Evie: The festival experience links us to our ancestors. The need to dance with the sun on our faces exchanging smiles and hugs is one that allows us to forge a profound connection with the essence of our humanity. Virtual festivals had their place - they kept that desire for connection going in a difficult time but there’s no comparison to the energy that is exchanged on a dancefloor when we are engulfed by the natural world.?

Simon: We’re in a second phase of virtual music shows - sussing out how they can potentially co-exist with their IRL counterparts, and acts like Blur have tried recently to complement a very limited capacity live show with an online stream. But it will take something special to regularly convince an audience who’ve headed back to live music in their masses since lockdown. However, alongside the much talked-about triumphant live shows of 2023, there have also been festivals canceled last minute or swamped with rain and mud, and arena shows beset with technical and sound issues, demonstrating the live experience can still be an unreliable and expensive experience. With costs rising and climate issues becoming evermore of a concern, I still feel virtual events have a role to play going forward. Creating a sense of community and magic is the challenge however, and it’s a big challenge!