Tips for Planning Online Festivals

Do you miss the sound and feel of a live audience?

Me, too.

There’s something about a crowd. It’s clear that the professional sports industry misses their crowds, too. They pipe in sound and generate clever visuals to make it seem like a live audience is cheering on the players.

Since Covid, live audiences and crowds are fond memories and fill our dreams for the future.

Until things change, we’ve been forced to reinvent our lessons, recitals and also the festivals or competitions sponsored by our local music teachers associations. The events require plenty of planning on the ground, and because of the pandemic, all plans have to be reformatted to host them online.

Here are just a few ideas for your committee to consider as you pivot to holding online events.

Secure a YouTube channel

As an organization, you may want to create your own YouTube channel. Watch the video below to learn how.

Add a channel to an existing channel

If you’d rather not create a channel for your organization, you can also add channels to an existing YouTube account. The video below shows how.

Ask participants to upload directly to your YouTube channel

To save time for the organizers, you could ask all participants to upload their video to your event channel. The video below shows how that is accomplished. I did this for my first virtual recital and it worked like a charm.

Also, it’s wise to offer a list of guidelines to ensure that all participant videos are recorded under the same specifications. Maintaining uniformity of the videos keeps stress levels to a minimum for planners and evaluators. I’ve noticed that MTNA and state competitions have very strict guidelines. Both include things like:

• What to wear.

• Where to place the camera and to keep it static.

• How to record the video with no editing allowed.

• What should be removed from the walls or the setting that may suggest branding of a teacher’s studio.

• Make a separate video and link for each required piece.

• Provide guidelines if and how performers announce their piece prior to playing.

Generate online registration in Google Forms

If you are not familiar with Google Forms, follow this link for more details.

In short, this platform allows you to create questions with various types of answer options like multiple choice, short answer and more.

After a registration form is created, it can be shared with a link which can then be emailed to registrants.

All the information entered by the registrants is housed in one spreadsheet which can be easily accessed by the creator of the form. From this spreadsheet, organizers can begin scheduling and planning.

Create evaluation forms in Google Sheets

When a friend asked me to make evaluation forms for an upcoming online association festival, it brought me back to our local National Federation of Music Clubs festival last March. In a few short days, the organizers had to scramble and move the festival from in person to online. It happened, but understandably, the process was cumbersome and tons of work.

The organizers had to quickly figure out how to virtually deliver to the judges:

• Videos of each performance

• Scores of the music

• Evaluation sheets

• Final results to participants.

Keeping these requirements in mind, here’s my solution for streamlining the process using Google Sheets. If you are not familiar with this free, online spreadsheet platform, follow this link. With Sheets, judges have everything they need at their finger tips and can spend most of their time evaluating performances and avoid wasting valuable time searching for what they need.

Watch how Google Sheets can generate evaluation forms in the video below.

It’s my hope that these tips may spark some ideas for you as you plan your online events.

I haven’t covered every aspect and would appreciate your ideas that have proved invaluable as you or your organization make the shift to online events. Please leave your ideas in the comment section below.

If you watched the video above, you’ll notice I added a little “recital crowd” applause at the beginning and the end.

I just couldn’t resist.

Someday, we will hear live applause in a crowded hall and it will be music to our ears!

PS: In case you’re a podcast fan, please check out my new podcast called Key Ideas available on Apple and now on Spotify.