A wide-ranging collection of artists and venues around the globe are teaming up for a new virtual concert experience. UnCancelled Music Festival will provide fans a flow of livestream performances to support MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund, an emergency program set up by the Recording Academy to aid struggling musicians with their livelihoods affected by the global pandemic.
Beginning April 2, music fans around the world can tune in to various livestreams on StageIt, with featured performers including Colbie Caillat, Betty Who, Josh Kelley, Mary Lambert and more. To simulate a live music festival, UnCancelled will simultaneously hold performances run on separate virtual stages, which will be personally curated by participating venues.
“The night the Los Angeles Mayor announced that all music venues in the city were shut down, there was a city-wide gasp. My friends and I put our heads together on how we could support the music venues and musicians who will suffer the most from the shutdowns,” festival co-founder Ari Herstand in a statement provided to Billboard. “Now that the pandemic has closed nearly every music venue in the world for the foreseeable future, it’s time for the global music community to unite as one and pick each other back up. UnCancelled looks to help facilitate that.”
Concert venues around the world will participate in the benefit festival by selecting worthy artists to perform on their virtual stage. Domestic venues taking part in the online event are based in New York, LA, Kansas City, Minneapolis and more, with a handful of international venues throwing their hats into the ring as well. Artists and venues alike can apply to take part in UnCancelled for the duration of its run.
Fans can lend their support by frequently tuning in, as the festival will run daily “until the crisis subsides.” Virtual tickets for each stage’s performances can be bought for an amount of the fan’s choosing, which will go towards MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund. Fans also have the option to tip artists and venues.
In addition to StageIt and the Recording Academy’s MusiCares, UnCancelled has also partnered with Fender, BandZoogle and Ari’s Take to put on the virtual festival.
