From 10 p.m. to midnight, four DJs dance the night owls, surrounded by a mosaic of small, luminous squares. From their kitchen, their bedroom or in front of a background created for the occasion, they wiggle in extravagant outfits and covered with sequins.
This Saturday evening in May, in the midst of deconfinement, Mikaël Kamaji, co-founder of the queer collective Frivole de Nuit, invites participants to a virtual nightclub, on Zoom. Ban on gatherings of more than ten people and physical distancing measures oblige, lovers of the night have invented new ways to party and socialize. "We have to bring the community to life, even virtually," explains Mikaël Kamaji, organizer of Zoom parties that took place during and after the confinement. “We have reinvented the party and gone beyond the limits of the club since we feel much more free at home than in a supervised place. It is between us and our audience, we do what we want. ”
Some DJs have even started their musical career on the platform, such as Rodolfo Goicochea, a young Parisian of 21 who mixed for the first time for the collective Frivole de Nuit, in May. "I didn't have the stress of face-to-face live, it's not bad to start with," he points out. Many evening organizers have also used the American platform to reinvent the party: in April, the peak of connections on Zoom exceeded 300 million.
"We don't have the same relationship with our audience"
The weeks of 27-year-old DJ Kamissa, alias "Cherry B Diamond", are now punctuated by appointments on Zoom or on the Twitch streaming site. Host of the Frivole de Nuit evenings in France but also of the American club Quarantine Club, she learns to rediscover her audience through her virtual experiences.
“What I find crazy is that we don't have the same relationship with our spectators as during a traditional nightclub performance. The atmosphere is more intimate, deeper because we see the reactions of people directly on the screen instead of being in the dark and we communicate with them on group chat, ”she underlines. Kamissa intends to continue using digital technology to communicate with her audience, even after the lifting of sanitary measures. "I want to be present on the Internet to maintain this quality relationship with my audience".
Several platforms are emerging
More than a link with the public, these virtual evenings help support an entire sector affected by the crisis. To deal with the closure of nightclubs and concert cancellations, other platforms have emerged, such as Shotgun Distancing. The Shotgun website, online ticketing for concerts, clubs and festivals, has been offering interactive online evenings since mid-March. Free or paid - at a price varying between two and five euros - they allow artists "to continue to exist by recreating the flavor of a real musical event, improved by digital", explains Romain Dugier, co-founder of the Shotgun Distancing platform.
Night owls can choose from several renowned artists from different countries, and navigate between several rooms, live and without the possibility of retransmission. “We are seeing online events emerge as a more sensory means of communication than face-to-face. It is also an opportunity to thwart the geographic boundaries which is destined to last, ”says Romain Dugier.
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On a larger scale, the association for the defense of electronic music Technopol launched in France the Berlin project United We Stream, which aims to become "the largest virtual club in the world". Since June 4, the greatest DJs from around the world have been mixing in fifteen Parisian clubs and are broadcast live on the Arte concert platform. The opportunity to make calls for donations to support institutions and artists.
VIDEO. United We Stream: live electro to save DJs and clubs from bankruptcy
While 900,000 euros have been collected so far in Berlin, Tommy Vaudecrane, founder of Technopol hopes that the project will meet the same success in France. “The objective is to keep an entire ecosystem alive, pending the reopening of the clubs. But beyond these virtual solutions, it is necessary to rethink events in the longer term, shaken by the crisis, "he continues. This is why the founder of the association launched a series of conferences called "Dance tomorrow", to reflect on the future of evenings organized face-to-face, in the light of the health crisis.
Outdoors and in small groups
Reinventing physical evenings is also the objective of Louis Meunier, DJ and artistic director of the Parisian techno collective Hydropathes. At 25, this Parisian accustomed to organizing evenings on the artistic scene of the Gare des Mines, located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, today favors small events, broadcast on social networks. "We are taking a new approach to the party," he says. We will now avoid evenings where there are crowds and will continue to share our services on social networks. The crisis has led us to act more responsibly than before ”. Next September, he will also organize a private festival at his home in Loir-et-Cher, in a select committee.
Raph Dumas, producer in the Pyrénées-Orientales and creator of the 20/20 Festival, has also reinvented its annual 32-day event, focusing on digital and local. For the 2020 edition of the festival, which will take place from July 20 to August 20, it will travel through the Pyrénées-Orientales department in a caravan and will be broadcast on television as part of a program. “With a small team, I will go every day to a unique place in the department and meet a dozen local personalities and artists. Each time, there will be live musicians and DJs, but also local chefs, winemakers who will present their products ”. And there is no question of going back in the future: “We will continue to highlight local talents in the future. It makes more sense to work this way right now. ”
In Paris, concert halls for a single spectator
Another festive initiative born during the health crisis, concerts for single spectators aim to cope with cancellations of jazz concerts. Since the beginning of June, the Gare, a small room dedicated to jazz, in the north of Paris has been organizing five-minute "solo" concerts - a hundred a night - in three dedicated spaces. Leïla Martial, vocalist and French jazz musician was notably invited to perform two performances this weekend, at a rate of about fifteen per evening.
"I am very fond of unusual performances," she rejoices. It is a unique moment with the spectator because I will improvise according to the energy of the person in front of me. Depending on what the person releases, something will come to me. "Seduced by the concept initiated by the jazz club, the singer also plans to repeat the experience:" I had already performed unique concerts during confinement for my neighbor. I like this proximity to the public. What interests me is to play, whether in front of a crowd of 150 people or in front of just one. Here, with a single spectator, it is only one way of making music among others, ”she concludes.
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