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Sea Change festival review – a swell of congregation in the new nowhere

Totnes festival’s move online gives glimpses of what might have been but is also its own, triumphant entity

The relationship between the pandemic and the summer festival season has, unsurprisingly, proved far from harmonious. As the lockdown has rolled on, music events have fallen like dominoes – Glastonbury, Primavera, All Points East among them – the months to come now marked by an absence of revelry and also something of an economic void. Last year, more than a quarter of UK adults attended a festival, and the combined concert and festival industry was valued at more than £2.6bn.

Touring musicians have proved remarkably enterprising during quarantine, streaming home performances, guitar tutorials and DJ sets, and launching various charity fundraising initiatives. But as the novelty wanes and a new normality settles, a question arises: is there a way that a real-life music festival can be replicated in the virtual world?

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2VEDq4c

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