Didn’t Miss A Beat

How a large-scale music and arts festival pivoted during quarantine to keep humming along

By Scott Feehan

The Festival International de Lousiane was about a month away from hosting its 34th annual cultural celebration when the world shut down during the 2020 pandemic. Instead of taking over Lafayette’s downtown area and welcoming 300,000 festival goers, the team was suddenly faced with giving up or diving into something brand-new. In the end, the choice to pivot to a virtual festival became an opportunity to strengthen support, acquire new technical skills, and reach a more global audience.

Photo: Cory James Photo

In a typical year, the non-profit that produces the largest international music and arts festival in the U.S welcomes tourists, bands, and artists to experience the city and its customs, while also enjoying other cultures from around the world. But as everything was abruptly cancelled, including this event, the Festival International team knew it had to do something to lift the community and fans during the crisis instead of throwing in the towel. The full production of Virtual Festival came together in only three weeks, but it turned out to be a bright beacon of light that people are still talking about a year later.

Making It Up As They Went

The most valuable lesson learned was that sometimes one has to be bold and take crazy chances. Festival organizers were dealt a situation that nobody had experienced before, so we did something that nobody had ever done. We learned that supporters truly wanted the event to succeed—no matter what. They got excited by seeing us step up to the challenge. They also had no idea what we were going to do because we were making it up as we went along. But they respected our efforts, no matter the outcome. When the product turned out to be something so strong, they loved us that much more.

We learned we have a staff of maniacs who are willing to step up in unique ways. They learned how to edit graphics and videos, and produce a live-stream event, all in-house.

On the technical side, we learned about different software tools and live-streaming production, and expanded our internal toolset greatly. These will benefit us moving forward when we return to a live event. 

A Broader Reach

Soon after this successful event, we contracted our services to another festival in Lafayette. The team was able to easily produce this virtual event because of the previous lessons we learned. Working with this festival helped offset some staffing costs while we waited to see what was happening with the 2021 event.

It’s important to add that Virtual Festival was not a walk in the park, and did pose many difficulties. We experienced technical hiccups galore as we explored new territory. Collecting content from musicians all over the world, varying qualities of recordings, learning/understanding the software and hardware it takes to make this type of production happen, and staff members working from different locations were only a few of the obstacles we faced. We also had to switch servers and completely rebuild the entire program on the Monday before the event. 

Photos: James Billeaudeau

But it was worth the chaos to pull off this monumental event. In fact, we are producing another virtual event for 2021, and will be expanding the production to be larger and, of course, better than last year’s event. In 2022, we plan to incorporate a virtual stream on top of the live event. We look to stream from each of the stages to reach a truly global audience and keep the city on the map. 

Going virtual also expanded our reach. In a typical year during the live event, we tracked patrons from 10 to 15 countries who made the trip. For the virtual event, viewers tuned in from 44 countries. We heard from people who had once lived in Lafayette, visited before, worked here for several years, or made it to the festival at some point and had not been back since. They shared stories/memories from the event and could not wait to come back to Lafayette for the next live festival.  

We made sure to highlight and promote the city during the virtual event. We showed commercial spots that were reproduced by the local tourism/convention center, as well as the Downtown Development Authority. By showcasing the city to the world, we gained a great deal of support in return. We further established ourselves as an incredible tool so the city could be put on the map.

Going Beyond Screens

Virtual Fest 2021 went far beyond viewers’ screens. We integrated as many local support elements as we could think of to connect art vendors, musicians, and local restaurants and bars to festival lovers and supporters. Staff members worked efficiently and creatively to stimulate the economy without an in-person event. We were able to highlight the community for worldwide audiences in a new way, and the week of Virtual Festival also inspired local patrons, while benefiting those businesses that were hurting.

All of these efforts brought the community together during a difficult time in ways we had never seen before. Residents were scared, frustrated, and yearning for any sign of hope. We gave them reason to celebrate. Excitement was in the air during the entire week leading up to the event. We had seven bars/restaurants around the city serving festival punch and several other restaurants serving festival dishes. People liked this familiarity. They decorated their porches, flew festival flags, and ran with the spirit.

One fan of the festival noted:

“In many ways, it was like the Saints’ first game in the Superdome after [Hurricane] Katrina. You believed and you pulled off a miracle performance.”

Anyone from Louisiana understands the true impact of this statement. The fact that we impacted people in this way was a huge accomplishment.

This year, we are striving for a different type of impact, but on a similar level. After the events of the past 12-plus months, from the pandemic to anxiety and even race relations, our overwhelming message is that we will get through this together—it’s about commUNITY. We have learned more than ever that taking chances and working with a common purpose will reveal room to grow and improve in ways we never imagined.

Scott Feehan is the Executive Director of Festival International de Louisiane. Reach him at scott@festivalinternational.org.