Overnight, Coronavirus had killed live performance arts in cities across Australia. Shows were cancelled, theatres shuttered and artists sent packing. And yet, despite the lockdown, artists kept creating and online festivals began springing up. People expect this online content to be free but Coronavirus was a time that artists needed financial help the most. So, I teamed up my theatre producer friend to create Sole Sessions, an online festival of Australian performance arts whose sole aim was to get money from fans into the artist’s hands.
Using YouTube’s watch party functionality we drove interest about our online events through the artist’s social channels and also our fledgeling social handles. We generated some buzz and the events themselves were a hit. Our content was pre-recorded in Darlinghurst Theatre to give it high production values and was then streamed at our determined live session time online.
